Any smart thinkers who might know why??

[benandmichelle]

Hi,

I just can't put my finger on why Ben is waking up at 4am every day. I know it is a typical scenario and no one has a crystal ball but I would like to find some logical answers if possible.
He is not hungry. I  offer the breast just because it is easy  but he doesn't want to eat. He is just awake wriggleing and looking around. He stopped night eating about a week ago.- Before he would eat then go back to sleeep till around 7am.
He strats by talking to himself and after a while it wakes me. If left...it just develops into crying which is when I go in and soothe him or give him a dummy. He might sleep for another half an hour and then it happens again. This continues on and off till I get him up at 7am.

I think it just must be developmental. Perhaps he is moving around and waking himself up. What I don't get is that he goes to bed at 7pm and usually sleeps solidly till this happens (4ish or even 3.30) with a df in sleep at 10.30. My point is: he MUST wake at some stage during thids time but get himself back to sleep so whay does he not manage this at 5am?

Routine wise things are going better than ever, although still not optimal. He has had one 2 hour nap every days for the last 4 days either in thze nmorning or afternoon. I put him  down at 9am and 1pm and he has a catnap in the late afternoon.
He eats at 7am, 11am,3pm and 6.45pm and a df. Our days have been getting slowly better and he is less overtired but this night waking is new.
Could it be that he only needs 13 or 14 hours sleep in a 24 hour period?
How do you find this out? Trial and error?
A girlfriend of mine thinks it is just a maturity thing and that at his age (almost 5 months), babies have not yet learned that they need to sleep longer to get their 12 hours. Could that be why.....just waking and thinking it is time to get up?

Hmmmm...confused. Can anyone help me speculate why???

Thanks

Michelle

[Samuel's mum]

I don't have an answer for you but I would have thought that at his age he's really unlikely to need only 13-14 hours sleep in 24 hours.
I think it's probably just a body clock thing and he's in a habit (as you say he's not hungry). Have you tried wake-to-sleep? i.e. going in just before he usually wakes and rousing him slightly but not waking him. Just enough to disturb his sleep cycle a little. There's probably something about wake 2 sleep somewhere in the FAQs.

Other obvious thoughts - it's dark presumably. No traffic noise or boiler switching on or milk float outside? Could it be related to temperature?
The fact it's so precisely 4am makes me thing it's just a body clock/ habit thing.

[Bryony]

Hi there

I agree with Emma - it sounds like habitual if he's waking at exactly the same time every day. 

What I would also say is that waking up around 4am is quite common at this age - I remember we want through a thing when Katie would wake up around 4am and shuffle around, happily awake for an hour or so, and then get bored and cry for me...  Babies (and probably adults!) come into a light sleep around that time so are more likely to wake up. They then (hopefully) go back into a deep sleep for a final hour before waking up for the day.  For us, and for others, the problem is solved by changing to 4 hourly EASY (but I note you are already there  ) or extending A times a bit.  So maybe a tweak to your routine will sort it out. What is his current A time?  You say that you have 1 x 2hr nap a day - what is the other one?  Can you post a typical day for us?

Bryony

[benandmichelle]

Hi and thank you for replying.
The last week or so one nap has been 2 hours and the other only 45-1 hour. This is still happeneing but he has swapped them round in that I really don't know wether he will nap longer in the morning or afternoon now.

Our day looks like this:
E 7am regardless of how long he has been awake of fussing in the crib etc..
A
S 9am (8.30 if I know for sure he has been awake since 6.30 or longer )
sleeps 45 - 1 hour here but the last few days has swapped this short nap for 2 hours and the adfternoon one is now shorter
E 11am
A
1pm S (was 2 hours the last week but changed 2 days ago now this one is the hour long nap)
E 3pm
A
Around 4pm we go for a walk and he usually sleeps in the pram 30 mins - 1 hour.

6pm bath and windown
E 6.40

In bed by 7pm

df at 10.30.

Another issue that might be worth mentioning is that about a 2 weeks agao just before these night wakings started, he woke at 5-5-30am for the first time. I did not feed him as I had done this on the odd occassion that he had slept this long before as he would not eat then at 7am. He did not cry and I managed to resettle so I thought 'great that is it...the night feeds are a thing of the past) Pluus the fact that I have been giving him a bottle so I know he is getting enough to eat. But then after this 4am waking thing started I just decided to try to feed him to make it easier for him to settle down ehich it walways had but he would not even eat when I offered him the breast.
Could it be that he: is still getting used to not needing to feed at night or/and confused at being offered the breast once a day at night and a bottle the rest of the time. It is not nipple confusion with him as he has happily been drinking from a bottle and breast mixed from the beggining but maybe it is just weird for him that it is all bottle now and when I go to bf him he protest. But it is as though he is really not hungry. He just lies there awake looking around and at me.
I really don't think this is a food issue.
My neighbor insists that it is because he is getting too much sleep during the day :/ She obviously has not read bw. If anything it would be not enough right??

Thank you for any ideas and help

Michelle

 

[Bryony]

Hmmm     Your routine looks pretty good to me. What happens if you wake him at 1.5hrs in the morning -do you think he would take another 1.5hrs in the afternoon?   What time does he fall asleep for his catnap?  I wouldn't let this go more than 45 mins....  I think he's getting daytime sleep withing the right range - but maybe he as an individual needs slighly more or slightly less.  Do you think he could extend his A times slightly?

Sorry I don't really have a good answer - but I do think they go through this at this kind of age, and I think juggling A times might be the answer.  If you don't think he's hungry I would try and cut down and then eliminate that 4am feed though.

Finally do you think he pings awake at exactly the same time each morning? In which case W2S might help...

bryony