WHY IS SHE WAKING AT 5AM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Schmauskin]

Help needed - my 7 month daughter goes to bed like a angel at 7.00pm, I give her a dream feed at 10-10.30pm (around 4oz) and she sleeps through (occasionally stirring and groaning at 3 or 4) and then wakes at 5.00-5.30 EVERY morning. She never cries, just moans/talks. She DOES fall back to sleepafter about 40 mins until around 6-6.20. then moans again until I go in at 7.00am and get her up. Consequently I am knackered, having been awake since 5.00am listening to the bloody monitor. She is eating 3 meals a day, getting enough milk and having a 45 min nap in the morning, an hour and a half after lunch then another 30 min nap in the afternoon. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??!!!! I know it's not hunger, because she's very casual about taking her milk at 7.00am. It's not poo, because she doesn't always wake with a dirty nappy. Please help as my tiredness is making me so miserable. Can't go to bed earlier as husband not in from work at night, early enough to do last feed....HELP!

oops
I mean

SaSa - soooooo pleased for you hope he keeps it up!
I am ALMOST happy to be a mum now i'm getting my sleep.

fantastic news sassa15, give yourself some credit, it has everything to do with you. You have been strong and guided your little one through this blip, in the best possible way.

finger crossed its cracked, and remember when these little blips cross your path, just do the same again

Wow, I feel like I've been reading a diary of my own life in some of these messages! DS is 19 months now and has always had a problem with waking at 5am (sometimes 4:45, sometimes 5:30 but too early to start t he day anyway). It seems to go in phases. We go through a bad patch, I somehow coax him back to a 6:30 wake-up (that's when the rest of us get up anyway) which lasts for a while - sometimes for several weeks - and then something breaks his routine again (travel, a cold, an overnight guest, a new tooth) adn we're back to square one again.

This morning (and the last couple of weeks actually since my parents were here visiting) have been particularly bad again. But reading Catbert's advice (via weightwatchingwaterwitch) has reminded me what I need to do. That is basically what's worked for us in the past but it's hard to remember what you should be doing at 5am. I'll check back in a couple of days and let you know how it goes.

By the way, I'm a little disheartened to hear that this can go on for years! I keep hoping that we'll hit a milestone like 1 year (nope), 18 months (nope), 2 years (maybe..?) and he'll suddenly start sleeping like an angel. My first did so this is still a bit of a shock to my system. Luckily I've got my boy and my girl now so definitely no more! I need to sleep.