5 month old waking too early for dream sleep

[sarahsoda23]

Hi there, I put my 5 month old down at 7 for the night and she goes to sleep nicely. Lately she has been waking between 9 and 9:30pm for a dream feed. She goes back to sleep until about 1-2am for another feed then asleep until 4-5 for another feed and we wake her up at 7am and start EASY. Her nap times are 9am for 45-75 minutes, 12:45pm 45-75 minutes and catnap at about 4:30-5, going to sleep at 7. I am not sure how to keep her down for longer at night to wait for her dream feed? And perhaps make her wake less at night too?

[newkidontheblock]

Hi honey. Welcome to the forums. Could you post your routine in EASY format for us to take a look at?
So,
E- 7
A - 2 hours
S - 9-10.30
and so on..
Just FYI, wakings soon after bedtime are generally indicative of overtiredness, so perhaps a routine tweak is needed:)

[sarahsoda23]

Hi thank you for responding so quickly!
So here is my schedule
E-7am
A-7:30-9am
S-9am-10:30am
Trying to draw out sleep so I do not feed until 11
E-11am
A-11:30
S-12:45
E-2:30 or whenever she awakes
A-3
S-catnap around 4:30-5
E-6:15pm
A-Bath, story, no swaddling as she does not like it
E-breast milk and 2oz bottle of expressed milk
S-7pm
Wakes crying 9 or 9:30 try to shh pat which she usually responds well to but this time end up dream feeding both sides and 2oz bottle of expressed milk
Sleeps until 1:30am or 2 at the latest. Breastfeed both sides
Wakes 4:30-5am Breastfeed both sides
Wakes 7 am to start EASY
I also should mention her naps have just recently become longer
She wakes after 30 minutes then we shh pat hopefully drawing it out for longer
She is a very happy baby while she is awake even with a small amount of sleep.

[newkidontheblock]

Your routine seems fine to me. One possibility is that she is ready for some more A time. I found A jumping quite a bit between months 5 & 6, as this is a period where some babies are ready to drop the catnap and move to a 2 nap routine. Especially if she needs help in order to nap longer, you could try adding 5-10 minutes to her morning A and she if that helps. We had something similar happening and quite quickly moved to an A of 2.30
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[sarahsoda23]

Thank you! I will give it a try. She has responded so well to this method!!

[newkidontheblock]

I hope it does work. Keep me posted. Good luck