Help! 3M old waking too early :(

[SC007]

Hi there,
I have a 12 week old who is waking by 5:30/6am and it is far too early for this mama. He used to wake between 7 and 7:30 which was awesome! Obviously, I think I'm to blame for this and I don't know how to fix it. He used to wake between 4-5 for a feeding and this was like clockwork... a friend of mine who is also doing the BW technique mentioned that I should offer the paci at those times instead so that my LO would go back to sleep. So now, he wakes around 5, I offer him a paci and he does go back to sleep but only for a little bit. So...I now offer him the breast but he is WIDE awake afterwards. I put him back in his bed, swaddled, and he is wide awake... cooing, grunting, and talking. I offered him the paci, did the shush pat... everything.. he would not go back to sleep so after an hour of fighting it, I just get up with him.
I think my mistake was trying to wean him off of the 4-5 feed to early?? My initial hope was that he would sleep past 7.
We are on a pretty predictable 2.5/3 hour routine. Yesterday went like this:
6am feed/activity
7:30 nap
10am feed
11:30 nap
1pm feed
2:30 nap
4pm feed
5:30 nap
6:30 feed
7:00 cat nap
7:45 feed, bath swaddle, feed again
8:30 bed
11:30 dream feed (too late?)

What do you think? I'm tired.
Thanks so much

[katie80]

Hi and welcome to BW!

I think your main problem is that your day is too long and he's getting too much day sleep, so is not needing to go back to sleep when he wakes so early in the morning.  That being said, he is quite young to drop that early morning feed, so I'd just keep offering it at this point.  Getting him back to sleep only to have him wake again and feed a little while later isn't really helping all that much and does often indicate hunger.

The routine for the most part looks pretty good.  Does he sleep the full 2.5hr in the morning from 7:30-10am?  At this age, I wouldn't let him sleep over 2hr for any one of his naps unless he has missed one or one was short, as that is likely affecting the early morning wake too (i.e. he's using that long nap to tack onto his night sleep). Then, I would actually make the 5:30pm nap your CN, wake him after 45min, do bath/bedtime routine, feed at 6:45ish and put him down for the night at 7:15/30pm.  This is a more appropriate day length for him and doesn't make for too much day time sleep, encouraging that EW.

Finally, I do think the DF is happening too late.  Tracy recommended it happen between 10-11pm, as after 11pm can interrupt their night time sleep cycles and cause more disruption.  Getting him down for a better bedtime should help you also move the DF earlier and hopefully help the night on the whole.

Worth a try?