Hi, any advice with this would be greatly appreciated. My son has created a habit of getting up at 5 am every morning, at times i can get him to go back to sleep for 40-60 mins or so but i am really struggling to get him to 7 - which is ideally where i would like him to be waking. The only reason i really would like the 7 am waking is that i have 2 other daughters that need to be walked to school so by the time we do that and i return home to put his down for his nap its 930 am he has been awake for 3 hours, which i assume is too long for a 5 month old (he also doesn't nap in the stroller, too much going on to do that)
A little about him and our day - we follow EASY throughout the day usually doing the 4 hr EASY:
He is 5 months old, 17 lbs (big boy!). He has been strictly formula fed since 1 month, we had a rough start with feeding for both me and him. We follow the same sleep routine for bed, cereal, bath, bottle, swaddle and I rock him to sleep. My husband dream feeds him around 10-11pm and he sleeps quietly until around 3am (usually without his soother, as it falls out 30 mins after he is asleep). From 3-5 am he wakes a few times for a soother or to be reswaddled (he still gets swaddled at night and for naps), but goes right back to sleep. He usually goes to bed between 7-745, so hes getting about 9-10 hrs when he wakes up at 5.
Around 5 am – like clockwork – he wakes and starts “talking” to himself, if we leave him it turns into a cry – we try to limit that as we don’t need the other 2 girls awake as well. Ill go into his room, reswaddle him if needed, change his wet bum, tell him night night, and rock him back to sleep - i keep it dark and don't talk too much. This is where my frustration starts to grow. Some times he sleeps for 50mins wakes, we repeat until 7am when I finally get him up and feed him. Some times he's up every 20-25 mins, sometimes he’ll sleep 60 mins, I have no idea what helps or doesn’t help with this. My husband has suggested feeding him at 5 am, but I am not sure if I want him getting into that habit at 5 am, I want to teach him to sleep thru not wake up for food – but maybe I'm wrong here?
Food – he gets about 28-30 oz of formula per day, usually 4-6oz bottles and 4 oz at dream feed (he has recently decreased this amount (dropping about 4-5 oz) because he is napping a bit longer and staying awake more. He also gets a few tablespoons of cereal before bed. Should I be increasing the amount of formula during the day? Is he waking at 5 am
because he is hungry?
Naps – he usually has 3 naps a day (morning, afternoon and evening) I will usually get 1 good nap / day where he will sleep 90mins-2 hr on his own straight. The other naps he will wake around 30-40 mins mark, I will go back rock him back to sleep and he will sleep another 40-60mins chunk. He is getting about 3-3.5 hrs in naps / day.
When rocking him to sleep he generally is good, and quick. I am usually good at catching his sleep cues, in the past month he has increased his awake times to 2 hrs.
Any suggestions on how to help him sleep longer in the morning so we don't start an OT cycle would be so helpful. If anyone needs any additional info id be happy to provide it.
