Early Wakening

[CRHMOM]

Hi,

My son is 5 months and has been sleeping through the night for the past three months. He goes to bed at 7 o'clock but he almost always wakes up anywhere between 5:30-6:15 and lays in his cribs, plays bit, talks to himself and usually falls back to sleep till 7:30. Sometimes he can lie awake in his crib for up to 40 minutes before he falls back to sleep. Most days he doesn't make a peep, so I just leave him till 7:30-7:45.  On the rare days he will start to fuss in which case we just start our day alittle earlier around 6;30. I wish he would just sleep till 7:00 am but I guess I shouldn't complain because he is not crying for me to come get him and normally falls back to sleep. Is this normal behaviour?

Thanks so much

[jana224]

hmmm... if you can post your daytime EASY routine, it might be helpful to see how his daytime sleep is going and if it's affecting nighttime sleep...

I think the behaviour you are seeing is not exactly "normal" -- better than!  Many moms would love to have a baby sleeping 10 hour stretches like that and then waking peacefully while self-entertaining!

When does he eat in the morning?  Does he seem hungry at 5:30am?  (I'm guessing it's hard to tell if he doesn't even cry!)
Maybe a quick feeding at that time and he'd go back to sleep for another 2 hours? 

[CRHMOM]

Thanks,

I know I shouldn't complain that he lays their quietly or eventually drifts off back to sleep. I have tried putting him to bed later but that just results in less sleep as I think his internal alarm clock is always around 6ish. With the early wakenings, somedays he only get 11 hours of sleep at night but I guess I shouldn't stress about it, as he either enterains himself for a long period of time in his crib or he eventually falls back to sleep. He gets 5 bottles a day about 35 oz in total and he doesn't seem starving first thing in the morning.  This is a typical day.

7:30 Get up and Feed

9:30 1st Nap (1.5-2hrs)

11:30 Feed

1:30  2nd Nap (1.5 hrs)

3:00 Feed

5:00 3rd Catnap Nap for 30-40 minutes (this occurs about 50% of the time)

5:45 Feed

7:00 Top off with bottle and bed

Does this look okay? He will be 5 months in 3 days and can handle 2.5-3 hours of awake time pretty good which seems like alot for his age, but it results in longer naps for him.

Thanks

[jana224]

Everything looks pretty ideal.  Some babies can handle more A time at earlier stages -- my DD was the same as your LO.  The only thing I can think is that if your start of day time is 7:30am then maybe a 7:30pm bedtime would keep him sleeping a tiny bit longer?