Help! My baby won't sleep past 4:30!

[mill12x]

*Help! My baby won't sleep past 4:30!
*
I need some advice!

In the last week my 13 month old little boy is waking up at 4:30am every morning, I've tried blacking out his bedroom and dimming the light before bedtime and reducing like okay time and screen time so he knows it's bedtime soon. I've extended his bedtime till about 8-8:30pm, I've reduced his bedtime about 7-7:30pm and nothing is working to keep him sleeping past 5-5:30am.

I'm also heavily pregnant and he's started want his dad more than me and he's becoming restless for his naps and refusing his afternoon nap as he doesn't want to settle on me. He also suffers from asthma and I'm currently waiting for his asthma medication as he's been coughing a lot recently.

What's everyone sleep/feeding schedule?
How can I get my little boy to sleep past 5-5:30am?

*I need help... desperately!

Any tips/suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thank you!*

I had one like this too. I can’t offer any advice as we never managed to fix it either. All I can say is that they grow out of it eventually. Now he’s 19 it’s a miracle if he’s out of bed before midday on non-work days.

(Edit: I can’t remember when he grew out if it but he was definitely sleeping in later by the time he started Reception.)

I have two early wakers too.

Same here, I was up between 4:30/5am for a veeeery long time. No advice but they do grow out of it, eventually 😅

How many naps is he on, and how long are they? Could he be having too much day sleep?

Does he need to drop a day nap?

My son was doing 8-6 when he needed to drop the second nap. Now he's on 7-7 with one nap.

Look at their total amount of sleep in 24hrs-
might need to trim the nap/ remove a nap etc.

If this is a recent thing, could he be cold? My DD is a similar age and started doing the same thing. I was in her room with her at 4am over the weekend and realised how much colder it was than our room. We’ve tried her with a longer sleeved vest and some socks tonight. Though she’s also on antibiotics and teething so can’t really be certain what’s going on with her. But it’s led to her being up in the night so I’ve been looking at the temperature on the monitor and surprised how much colder it gets through the night

What do you do at the 4.30 wake to try and settle back down? Likelihood is that he is not ready for the day at this point so there should be some way of getting him back to sleep.

I always just gave my DD some milk whenever she woke up before 6 and she would always go back to sleep. I blackout her room completely and tell her that it's the middle of the night and mummy is going back to bed. I appreciate he's young so this may not work! But milk and cuddles and then a swift exit would normally work for us.

Do not start the day at 4.30. Worst case bring him into your bed and do not get up until an acceptable time, even if neither of you are sleeping. Make it clear that he is not going to have playtime when he wakes that early. Do not give him breakfast until the ideal time you'd like him to wake. I'd lean towards an earlier bedtime because it might shift that early wake even earlier which gives you more of a chance at getting him back down. All babies are different but If he's going to bed at 8 and up at 4.30 that really doesn't seem like enough for an 18mo.

Apologies if you've said but is this a new development?

Also when he wakes up is he crying? In pain? It could be teeth if it's only been a few days.

You say naps- is he having more than one a day? You need to drop to one nap if you haven't already, definitely.

We can't help without knowing his nap situation- that's crucial.

I had my baby 5 days ago and my first born sleeping has gone back to normal it's still early between 5-5:30am but it's better than 4-4:30am. At the moment with having a newborn I've been leaving my first born in his cot until about 6ish now gives him time to wake up or go back to sleep if he's tired but luckily he's not waking up at that time anymore