I've read SO many internet posts about babies waking at 4-5am, is this just something that they eventually grow out of?
My son is 11 weeks old and consistently wakes around 4.30 (approx) each morning no matter what. This is regardless of what his bedtime is or whether his night feed is 1am or 3am (it's usually between 2 and 3). He's BF apart from last feed which is formula around 8pm.
He naps well during the day and isnt over or under tired.
We've tried an earlier bedtime and a later bedtime, earlier just means he wakes for two night feeds around 11 and 2 and still wakes at 4.30/5.
Later and he's way overtired and doesn't want to wake from his last nap.
We've tried cluster feeding more in the evening, letting him have a longer evening nap, a shorter evening nap, putting him to bed at 7pm etc etc etc.
He's definitely not too cold (may well be a bit too hot in this weather but he still wakes on cooler days).
He doesn't want to feed, if I offer him food he may take it for a few mins but will fall asleep disinterested and wake up 10 minutes after I put him down again.
We have very good blackout blinds, nothing gets through.
He's not wide awake, is still tired, a lot of the time he's just fussing (which rapidly turns into crying) with eyes shut so I don't believe he's had his sleep for the night.
He'll settle for between 5 and 20 minutes per time with dummy/shhing.
The few times I've picked him up he will sleep on me for another few hours, sometimes as late as 7.30, but fussily and squirming the whole time and has to have the dummy in. I don't do this often!!!
Am I missing anything to try?
One of the things I was thinking is, he tends to fart quite a bit in the morning, I wonder if he has wind but it's not bad enough to keep him awake all night and just keeps him awake in the early hours when his sleep is naturally lighter? If so I'm not sure what I can do about this? I spend ages massaging his tummy in circular motion and lifting his knees to his tummy, he does loads of little farts but it doesn't stop the continued fussing. I thought about picking him up at 4.30 as soon as he fusses and taking clothes off (which would of course wake him) and doing proper massage and then put him back down??
Avg day looks like this (very changeable, he's still young)
E 7.30/8am
A 8.30 - 9.15
S 9.15 - 11 (Long sleep)
E 11am
A 11.30 - 12.15
S 12.15 - 2 (Usually good sleep)
E 2pm
A 2.30 - 3.15
S 3.15 - 4.30 (Shorter nap)
A 4.30 - 5
E 5pm
A 5.30 - 6.30
S 6.30 - 7.30 (Often fussy by this time and doesn't do full nap, also we tend to wake him for bedtime if necessary)
7.30 bedtime routine & bottle
8.30 Usually asleep by 8.30 ish
2am feed
4.30am fussy
6.30am up for the day (if I can get him to this point!!) Usually not hungry at all until 7.30/8am.
Any other random suggestions or have people noticed this resolves itself naturally in time??
