Early Waking - 5AM! :(

[libbyseliger]

My son is 6 months old. We have been doing EASY since he was 4 months.
He is now eating solids three times a day and has 2-3 naps a day (depending on the day - sometimes we skip the catnap).
I have slowly been moving up his dreamfeed and am now feeding him at 10PM instead of 11 where we started.
He goes to sleep at around 7/7:30, has the dreamfeed at 10 and sleeps until 5, sometimes 6AM. We have tried doing PU/PD since this has started (approx. 2 weeks ago), and not only does it take 1-2 hours until he settles again, but there has not been any improvement! When he finally settles, he could sleep until 8/9, but I wake him at 7:30 to feed him and then try and stretch him until his nap 9:45/10.

Please help...! This 5AM story is SO hard - especially with 2 other children waking up at 7....

[PaulsMom]

Hi There,

hugs on the ew's.  I'm wondering if there is something with his routine that is causing the ew's so it would be helpful if you could write out his routine.

e.g.
wake up
E
A
S

WRT to settling him, how do you normally settle him for naps or bt?  Have you tried using shh-pat as a settling technique? 

[libbyseliger]

Thank you so much for replying....

His schedule has changed recently due to the fact that he is waking so early. I usually manage to resettle him 1.5 hours later and then wake him at 7:30...

7:30 - Breastfeed
8:15 - Breakfast - Cereal, Fruit
9:45 - Nap (he is exhausted by then because of being woken at 7:30...)
11:45/12 - Breastfeed
1:00/1:15 - Lunch - Avocado/Butternut Squash
3:00 - Nap
4:00/4:30 - Breastfeed
5:30/6 - Supper - Cereal, Fruit
6:30/7 - Bath, Book, Bedtime

At the moment I am giving him a very short dreamfeed just before 10.
He settle for naps and bedtime beautifully on his own. No shush-pat or anything. The only time I've had to try is for the EWs...

This morning:

5:30 - Wake up, cry on and off until -
6:30 - Breastfeed
8:00 - Breakfast
9:00 - Nap

This is where I'm up to now...

[libbyseliger]

Sorry, in answer to your question -
When I try shush-pat for EW, he gets very angry and rolls around so it's quite impossible to do. Even when it does help to calm him down, he will calm down for 10 minutes or so, and then start crying again.

[PaulsMom]

Thanks for posting your routine.  The second A is long. I'm wondering if he should have his 2nd nap sooner, may be after 2.5 hrs rather than 3 hrs.  Also, I've noticed only 3 milk feeds during the day.  Most babies this age are still on 4 milk feeds.   He may still need a but of tanking up before bt so help him get through the night.  Would you consider adding a bf into the bt routine?

[libbyseliger]

Whoops, I forgot to add the BF when I listed the routine! He definitely has one then !
I will try and decrease the A time today before his second nap. How early can I put him to bed for the night to reasonably expect him to sleep until 6:30/7AM?

Also, could the dream feed be distrupting his sleep and as a result be causing the EWs?

Thanks again!

[PaulsMom]

I would keep your BT as is so his night would be roughly 12 hrs.  by pushing his 2nd nap forward he may be ready for a longer night.

for the DF, is he waking up completely for the feed?  if yes, then, it could actually be disrupting his sleep.  Usually babies will drop the DF around 7 to 8 months so if he's waking up, then you might want to try skipping it as long as you tank him up before BT.

[libbyseliger]

Thanks,

I will definitely try that and keep you posted.

He does open his eyes briefly during the DF so I will try skipping that too.

Would you suggest doing 'wake to sleep' at about 4 in the morning?

[PaulsMom]

you could try W2S at 4 am.  Some moms have had a lot of success with the technique for habitual waking.  FX!

[libbyseliger]

Thank you so much!
The first night, I skipped the dream feed and LO woke up after 11 and took a while to settle, but by the next night he slept through. We have been doing wake to sleep (for 3 nights) between 4 and 5AM and thankfully he has been sleeping until 7ish....thanks for the support - it meant so much!! Hope this lasts!

[PaulsMom]

wow! that's a great update!  FX for more STTN!