Restless sleep between 5am and 6am

[Jaqi]

Hi

We've been on EASY for about 4 weeks now, and we're not completely at the 3hr EASY (yet). We're slowly extending it from 2 to 3 hours by adding 5 minutes to the cycles every day. (Currently on 2hr 25 minutes).

Though our LO has a lot of 30-45 minute naps, we have been lucky to sometimes get an hour and a half during the day.

At night though, he still wakes up every 2 to 3 hours, but the funny thing is that he gets very restless before waking up at 6am. He fusses in his sleep, tosses and turns (even though he started of being swaddled he will kick himself open during the night .. but it doesn't affect his earlier sleep).

Any reason why he would be doing this or what I can do to help. I've been trying different things (from ssh/pat to changing his diaper - which will sometimes wake him up completely .. but I wasn't sure whether the big diaper was the source of the discomfort.) But even though he had a clean diaper he would still toss and turn.

Thanks

[Aarismom]

My thought is this:

Morning sleep between 3 and 6 am is usually mostly REM sleep. They spend more time in REM than adults do, and it usually looks pretty restless. If I had to watch my lo sleep through REM in the morning, I'm sure I'd be a nervous wreck!

I would let him sleep through it. If he cries out for you, go to him, but if you try to help him through it and he wakes regularly, that might turn into a habit that you don't want. By cry out I mean the cry escalates into a steady whaaaa sound, obviously awake with tears. Fussing is different than crying out.

Hope this gives you a bit of rest!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[Maddy's Mum]

Hi there,

I am with Sonya on this one - leave him be unless he cries for you, he may well just get used to settling himself off to sleep and that is a cracking skill for him to have!

Dee
x

[Jaqi]

Thanks.

I actually found out why he's so restless. According to BW, if the dream feed is too late or if he wakes up too much during the evening, he will be restless.

Generally I've been leaving him until he cries, but I couldn't understand why some days he would be fine and others he would be so restless.

Thanks for your replies though