Moving first wake up to a little later?

[AbbG]

My DS is nearly 7 months old.
He has around 2.5 hours awake time in the morning and around 3 in the afternoon. His easy looks like
7 wake an feed (generally tiny feed)
9.30 bed
10.30/11wake
11 feed
12.30 ish lunch
1.30/2 bed
3.30/4 wake
5pm dinner
Feed when wakes
Feed around 6.30
Bed around 7

He then wakes around 11.30 and 5am for feeds (this does change heaps). If the wake up is closer to 2am he'll sleep thru to 7am.

Any thoughts how I can move this first wake up out? I'd love just 1 wake up

[lily_layne]

Your routine looks really good so I don't think there's anything you need to change there. If you think that he doesn't need two night feeds, you could try some sleep training for the first feed. With my DD, I just did sh/pat for the wakings when I wasn't going to feed her. She cried, but I just rubbed and patted to let her know someone was there. It only took a few nights and then the earlier NW was gone.

[AbbG]

Hi.

He def doesn't need both feeds, and by bumping that first feed a little I can cut 1 out, if not, he has little interest in feeding when getting up so he's kinda replacing a day feed with a night one.

Can you explain to me a little further re removing that first wake? I find that when I go into his room he gets more upset, arches his back etc to make shh patt really difficult. Same when hubby goes in.

[lily_layne]

With DD, I just rubbed and patted her in the crib even though she was really angry. I stayed there until she settled down. There was a lot of back arching at first so that's why it was easier to just leave her in the crib. Tracy always said "Never fight a crying baby" (and they sure know how to fight . At 7 months you could also try PU/PD - basically you pick him up and hold him until he stops crying and then set him down. Pick him back up if he cries again and keep going until he settles. I can post some links if you think this would work better. You could also rock him until drowsy and then put him down if you don't think that will become a habit.

Is he giving an "I need you cry" at that first waking or just loud fussing?

[AbbG]

He really just grizzles at that first wake up. There is the occasional 'cry' but then it quickly changes back into a grizzle. It's really hard cause it's generally not enough to go to him but he can't quite resettle himself.
Then, when I do go to try to help him he actually gets more upset. He eventually settles (maybe after a couple of minutes) but as soon as I (or hubby) stop patting and leave the room he starts grizzling again.

[lily_layne]

If he's just grizzling, I would leave him until its an out and out cry. It may take him a long time but it's his way of trying to get back to sleep.

[AbbG]

I managed to get him to 1 feed, however, now he is waking at 5.15/5.30 (has for past few days).

We've ended up with sleeps like this..

Wake 5.15

Sleep 1 8 (ish) to 9 (ish)

Sleep 2 12 to 1.45 (roughly again)

Sleep 3 4.30 to 5 (roughly)

Any suggestions. This early waking sucks!

[lily_layne]

Early waking really does suck. Is he waking out of hunger? If you fed him and put him down would he eventually go back to sleep? My DS sometimes woke that early but I treated it as a NW. He sometimes took 1h-1h15 to get back to sleep but then I'd let him sleep until 7:30/8 and adjust the day from there.

If he's waking that early and still giving you a short morning nap, I would push that nap a bit later so maybe you can get to BT without a third nap. I always tried to get my LOs to as close to 9 as I could when they had an EW. I also left them in their beds as long as I could so it was a bit more restful than being up and about.

[AbbG]

Hi.

Thanks for the response.

I'm sure he wasn't waking that early out of hunger - rap the days that he fed 1 or 2 the night before!

Also, he's not crying when he wakes, he's simply making noises like he's playing - he thinks it's time to start the day!

It's actually weird about the short first nap and he naps, he generally has 2.5 hours awake time before first sleep and he naps for 1-1.5 hours, and early waking he'd have around 3 hours and he'll only ever sleep for 1 hour. Also that second nap is shorter than if he woke a little later... I think he doesn't sleep as well when tired.

Also, we always leave him in bed as long as possible, this is generally till 6 on the very early days and till 7ish the other days.

Thankfully, today and yesterday were more respectable wake times - closer to 6.30 /6.45

[lily_layne]

I think he doesn't sleep as well when tired.

That's very common with babies. Good sleep gets more good sleep! I think that's why I found really pushing that first A on EW days worked - they were so tired they just crashed and took a longer nap.

I'm glad you got better wake times! DH still dreams of our LOs not getting up until 8 (he'll be dreaming for a while yet ) but I'm happy with anything after 6.