5am - awake and ready to play (12 weeks)

[TSG]

I have my 12 week old son on a 3 hour EASY. We were pretty stict about it but got kind of relaxed. It could be I need to be strict with the schedule again but his night time sleep hasn't seemed to change no matter what. Here's what happens -
Somewhere between 7 and 8pm (usually between 7 and 7;30) he falls alseep. DF at 10 or 11pm (when I was still BF he wouldn't really wake up at this point, now that he's on formula bottles he tends to wake up during this feed) and then right back to sleep. Most nights he sleeps from then until around 5am  but then won't go back to sleep and needs to play after he eats. He falls back to sleep about an hour after he woke up (around 6 or 6:15am and will sleep until around 8 or 8:30am.
During the day he's up for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours and sleeps for about 1 1/2 -2 hours (although his naps have become more difficult - doing a lot of 45 min naps. I am going to try going in at the 35 min mark to be there and try to extend the nap.) Point is, even when he has a great napping day his night is still the same.
Is there any way to work this out or is he just ready to get up at 5 and there's nothing I can really do about it? All I want is another hour or so!
TIA for any suggestions!

[lilmonkey]

Does he cry when he's awake at 5 am after the feed?  If not, then I would let him be.  If he cries then you might can try the pat/shh.  My ds does this on some days as well after his 4/5 am feed.  I just put him back into his crib and he babbles or grunts and then falls back to sleep in about 30 min.  It can be annoying as I can't sleep b/c of his babbles but as long as he is not crying then I let him be.  HTH

[Bryony]

Same question as lil'monkey - what is he doing when he wakes up at 5am?  Sounds a bit early to have had enough sleep to me, but they do have phases of doing this.... 

What do you do on days when he has 45 min naps - do you think he's getting enough daytime sleep?

Bryony

[TSG]

He doesn't cry when he gets up he just is looking all around and making noises. I used to just let him be but I found that he'd get better sleep if I would take him out and let him play on his activity mat or play with him and then put him back to bed when he started getting tired again. I will try again letting him play in his crib and see what happens.

Bryony - the days that he doesn't nap well he is completely overtired and is a wreck by the evening. He is impossible to get to sleep but once I get him to sleep he will still sleep pretty well.
Of course now that I posted this we have another problem - the past 2 nights he woke up at 3 am to eat. The first night I figured it was b/c he barely slept during the day. But, yesterday he had good naps and still woke up at 3 this morning. I guess it could be a growth spurt but then when he woke up at 6:15 today he wasn't really interested in the bottle that much (he drank most of it but usually he downs the entire thing) and then when the babysitter tried to feed him again at a little before 9 (because he was being really fussy and had only taken a 45 min nap) he wasn't really interested in it then either.
I'm not really sure what his deal is...

[TSG]

Oh - and thank you so much for your help!

[Bryony]

If he was being fussy at 9am after a 45 min nap my guess was he was tired rather than hungry...

However if he seems hungry at 3am I would feed him - he's only young still and might well need a feed at that time, esp if he's having a growth spurt.  But perhaps give him less oz so that he's still hungry for his morning feed, and gets used to taking most of his milk during daytime hours.

In terms of the waking to play - I would avoid getting him up and out of his cot, personally, as I'd be concerned that you'll give him the idea that it's playtime at that time!  I would keep him in his cot as much as you can.

Bryony

[lilmonkey]

Everytime ds fusses after a short nap (45 min or less), I give a nap.  7 out 10 he will nap again if not then at least the dark quiet room will relaxes him a bit.  I read this in the nap forum and it does help with the OT.  Cold you get your babysitter to try this instead of feeding him?

[TSG]

Thanks Mimi - I try so hard to get him to go back to sleep but sometimes NOTHING works.

What I started doing when he wakes in the middle of the night is give him a bottle but take it away after a couple oz's and stick his paci in. This has been working for the past couple nights. Hopefully eventually he won't wake up at all.

Yesterday was awful. He didn't sleep well and kept getting more overtired as the day went on. I finally got him to sleep at 5:45pm adn then I didn't know what to do b/c he was out cold and I didn't know if I should wake him or let him keep on sleeping. I ended up taking him out of his crib to feed him when he was moving around a bit. He ate and only really woke up when I changed him. He was up for about 40 min. and then he started fussing and I put him back to sleep. I had my husband feed him before he went to sleep (I think it was about 11:40) and put him right back to sleep. He woke 4 hours later which was 3:45am b/c of the time change. He was sopping wet so I changed him and gave him a couple oz's of formula and put him back to sleep. He slept until 6:40am.