5.5 mo waking for dream feed earlier and earlier

[Caitlyns Mum]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice regarding my LO's DF. He's 5.5 months old, is EBF, is an angel baby, doesn't have a dummy (anymore!), has been on EASY since birth and is currently on a 3.5 (just) routine. He was born a month early, so I'm treating him like a 4.5 month old, rather than 5.5. Give or take, our days look like this:

Wake and BF 6am
Sleep 8am for usually only 40mins. We're often out for this nap, so I don't get the opportunity to extend. Sometimes he will sleep 1.5hrs here, but its the exception rather than the rule.

E 9.30ish
S @ approx 2hrs after he woke from nap#1. This nap will be somewhere from 40mins to 2 hrs long.

E 1ish
S @ approx 2 hrs after he woke from nap #2. If the first two naps have been short, this naps will be 2 hrs or so. I have found that as long as he takes one long nap during the day, he seems ok with 2 other short naps.

E 4.30ish
Bath
E 6ish
Bed 6.15

DF 9.30 -10
NF somewhere between 2 and 4. However, in the last week or 10 days, he has just started to sleep through (10-6) a few nights. They're not consecutive, but all of a sudden, he's just done it, without moving the NF too close to wake up.

So back to my original issue - the DF. I've always given him a DF around 10pm. I can't stay up much longer than that, so typically it's been 9.45-10ish. For the past few weeks, he's been waking for it (rather than me feeding him in his sleep). He feeds and goes back to sleep without a problem. However, he's now started to wake earlier and earlier for it. Each night it has been getting 5-10mins earlier and tonight he woke just before 9. If I try to resettle, he screams and just gets worked up and I figure its about 3 hours since his BT feed, so I just feed and he goes straight back to sleep. But what's going on here? Is this connected to his short naps? As noted above, he's just started to STTN every few days and I don't want to drop the DF and end up keeping the NF. He's 4.5months (corrected age) and Tracey recommends that you don't phase out the DF til about 7-9 months right?

Any thoughts would be appreciated :-)

[Ima shel Alon]

He's 4.5months (corrected age) and Tracey recommends that you don't phase out the DF til about 7-9 months right?

Every baby is different and would need the DF dropped at different times.
TBH, if he goes down easily after the DF and it doesn't change anything with his night then I don't see a problem. My LO went through many phases (weeks long) of waking up for his DF or even earlier and then went back to sleep through it.
I do think that it's normal to have NF at this age, especially as he is EBF, so if he starts to have another mid night NF there is not much you can do about it.
The only thing you can try and stretch his A time by 10min or so, but I'd be careful with that, as he is already on the high side of A times for his adjusted age.
HTH

[Caitlyns Mum]

Hi Ima shel Alon, thanks for your reply! I guess i was just getting hopeful that regularly STTN was getting closer and when the DF started going wonky, I didn't want to jeopardise that. Now i know he can STTN, it would be nice if he would  But they're not little robots 

Yes, even if DS wakes for his DF he goes back to sleep during it and goes back down no worries. An early DF just means that STTN is a lot less likely. I agree though, I don't mind an early bedtime (for me!) and if it means that there's only one NF, I can live with that.