8 Month Old waking at 5 AM!!

[Little Squeakys Mom]

I dont know what has happened at our house, but my 8 month old has started waking at 5 am and starts playing, talking and is ready to get up. I have been leaving him in his crib in his room with the lights out until about 5:45ish at which point he gets a little annoyed that no one has come to get him up. I still dont feed him until almost 7 so it isnt hunger, but I really need some help on what to do? PU/PD is not going to work, he is wide awake.
Should I try to:
Wake to Sleep at 4 am?
Feed him at 5 then put him back down if he will go?

He is a textbook baby and I have been following the BW since he was a few weeks old but I am at a loss. I really need some advice.

Thanks!
Summer

[a_astorga]

WOW.

The exact same thing is happening to me. He is 7.75 months old. and is waking up at 5 am, once even at 4:45 am. He is a textbook baby too. Can you tell me how many hours you keep him up during naps? Maybe post your schedule? I'm really curious to see if they are similar and would like to see how I can improve mine. I already put up a post about the same situation. "Please help me sleep longer".

BTW what is wake to sleep?


thanks so much!

[bheemeryck]

Hi Summer,
I am also experiencing the same thing, my DS will be 8 mths next week, and has been getting up at 5:45 the last few weeks. We were wondering if putting him down earlier at night would help... but we are also having trouble with his daytime naps, he wakes after an hour and no amount of PU/PD helps. I've been leaving him in his crib (as long as he's not super upset) for the 1.5 hour nap time minimum, in hope that it will 'reset his internal clock', but it's not working...

Here's our shedule (approx...)
5:45- wakes, plays in crib, may doze off but is awake promptly at 7:00
7:00 BF
7:30 solids
9:00 nap
10:30-11:00 BF
12:00 solids
2:00 nap
3:30-4:00 BF
5:30 solids
7:45 bottle
8:00 bedtime

He sleeps awesome through the night, if he wakes up 98% of the time he goes back to sleep himself. He may be teething (lots of drooling, chewing on EVERYTHING, runny nose) and he has recently discovered standing is so much more exciting than sitting, so I'm thinking either of these may be disprupting his sleep. But the waking early has been going on for awhile, and he is such a cranky boy- and he's not making up for it during the day!! Any advice from parents who have been here? Should we try moving his bedtime back 1/2 an hour or so? I miss my happy smily baby....

[Little Squeakys Mom]

Thanks for the replies.. glad it isn't just us!

Here is our schedule up until two days ago.
6:30- 7:00  wake up-talks and plays in crib until 7
7:00 bottle
8:30 solids (2-4 oz)
9-10 ish sleep for approx 1 hr
11:00 bottle
12:30 solids (2-4 oz)
1 or 1:30 sleep for 1 1/2  or 2 hrs
4:00 bottle
5:30 solids (2-4 oz)
7 ish bath & bedtime by 7:30 with 4-6 oz
dreamfeed (which I am eliminating, I am doing 3 oz at 9)

 At 6 he starts rubbing his eyes but I have been pushing it and keeping him up and dont give him a bath until at least 6:45. Tonite I figured I had nothing to lose so as soon as he rubbed his eyes at 6:07, it was straight to bath and in bed by 6:30. I have been working on eliminating the dream feed and have been giving it at 9:30 for over a week now but the early waking only started two days ago. I have added in the extra calories during the day to eliminate the dream feed and I am not feeding him when he wakes up and he isnt crying for food.
I know Matthew is teething, he has the bottom two completely in and he has been chewing on everything in sight. He naps much better if I give him Tylenol when I give a bottle, so maybe there is pressure because of the top two?
I get him up from his nap when he starts playing in his crib. I dont rush in, but when he starts blowing raspberries, I know naptime is over.

Wake to sleep is where you rustle them 1 hr before their usual waketime to break the sleep cycle. If Matthew were waking at say 2 am, I would set my alarm for 1 am and go in and rustle him then leave the room and let him go back to sleep. The goal is to disrupt the sleep cycle and prevent the usual waking. I am not sure if this would work with our current problem, I dont want a completely awake baby at 4 am who is ready to play!
He is also starting to really try to crawl. He has been rolling, lurching forward, inchworming, etc for a few weeks. Now he stays up on his hands and knees and really tries to move them. I sneak into his room and watch him and he isnt practicing this when he wakes up so early so I figured that couldnt be it. He also isnt trying to pull himself up either, he is just laying there, flapping his arms and legs like he is a bird, trying to get off the ground and fly!

Maybe some BTDT parents can help us or maybe this is just another phase that will pass?

Summer

[a_astorga]

Thanks to both of you for putting up your schedule. So you guys don't feed your baby in the middle of the night? Cause I feed him at 1 am and then at 6:30 am with his old routine. But lately he wants to eat twice after bedtime. Sometimes at 11ish and then at 3ish or at 1ish and then at 4ish? The thing is that he drinks all his bottle, so he is actually hungry!!!
Is this how it's supposed to be at 8 months?

Thanks

[KathyM]

I've been there, done that, still sometimes doing it.  My ds is almost 13 months.  From 8 months to probably 10 months, he was getting up super early...as early as 4:45 am, which in my book, is still the middle of the night.  :wink:
He was never a good napper, so if it was a bad nap day, I'd put him to bed early...6 or 6:30pm with the hopes that he'd feel rested enough to sleep longer in the morning. That helped with him being better rested, and sometimes he'd sleep past 5:30am (maybe 6 once in awhile), but it was hit or miss.  As he got closer to 10 months and started learning to walk, he was taking better naps because he was so tired and then he started going to bed closer to 7pm.  He started sleeping in a little bit more, much better than 4:45, but his internal clock is set at 6am. Rarely as he ever slept later.
I've tried putting him to bed earlier and I've tried putting him to bed later, but I think that is just the way he is wired. It's such a delicate balancing act between not too tired and tired enough. And in the end I just want him to get enough sleep, KWIM?
I'm not sure if any of that is helpful, but I think a lot of babies go through that stage.

[a_astorga]

Well, what I'm not sure about is how many naps he should have during the day and what should be his max. awake time. He can't go past 3 hours, usually 2-2.5 until his next nap. So he has a 45 min-1 hour catnap at 4ish and then wants to go to bed 1.5-2 hours later. I read somewhere they should stay up the most before bedtime. Does this cause him to wake up later in the am? 
And what about the 2 night feeds? Should they still feed this much at 8 months? When do they sleep thru the night?

He has 4 5oz. bottles a day plus 3 solid meals of 5-6 oz. Then the 2 nite bottles or 1 if it's a good nite.

[Gigismom]

i was coming here to post the same problem, but i guess i'll just add to this thread.  my dd is 9.5 months now.  at about 6 months, she started waking at 5 am, sometimes as early as 4:30 am!!  there was nothing unusual going on in her life, so i don't know what started it.  i have tried the following to solve this:

*wake to sleep.  tried this 5 times. didn't work.
*feeding and putting back down.  doesn't work.
*leaving in crib to let her fall abck to sleep.  doesn't work.
*putting to bed earlier. doesn't work.
*putting to bed later.  had some initial success with this one.  she started sleeping til 6 am.  but now we have gone back to 5 or 5:30 am.

here is our schedule:

5:30 wake (leave in crib until at least 6 am even if she is fussing)
7:00 breakfast
9:00 nap of 1.5 hours (i do not put her down before 9am no matter when she woke up because then her naps will be too early, necessitating a third nap later in the day)
12:00 lunch
2:00 nap of 1.5 hours
5:00 dinner
7:30 bedtime

we have gone back and forth between 5 am and 6:30 am for wake ups.  i don't know what is causing the inconsistency as i am a sahm so everyday is the same in terms of routine and naps.  i am awake from 5 am on because she starts tossing and turning about then.  i am ok with anything after 6 am, but with the impending time change, her 6 am wake ups will then be 5 am wakeups so i would really like to extend her as long as possible.

anyone who has solved this, PLEASE can you help??  i am suffering permanent brain damage from lack of sleep!  i really thought the sleep issues would have been sorted by now. 

and by the way, my dd is not crawling, standing, etc so mobility isn't the cause.

[bheemeryck]

We stopped giving Alex his night feed at about 6 months... I just read the new 'Baby whisperer Solves All Your Problems' book, and I think somewhere in there she suggested phasing out night feedings around that time, by increasing the calories they consume during the day. I came across a link on this site to an article that may help you, I'll try and paste it in here...
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/download.php?id=34&sid=4d91de44b71b2a9e7497e8a9941edcae

Maybe you're not feeing him enough during he day? What about giving him a solid snack before bed, maybe 2-3 Tbsp of cereal? I know the book had suggestions about phasing out night feedings and the dream feed, perhaps your local library would have it?

My DS can only stay up a max of 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning, I find his day naps go much smoother if I put him down for that first nap as soon as he gets fussy. I read somewhere on this site that the first nap after waking up is a continuation of the REM sleep... so it's important to get them to bed as soon as they seem sleepy. True in our case!

The other wake periods of the day he's up about 3 hours, and I try to push him to 4 before bed, on the odd day we're still doing the 1/2-3/4 hour capnap before 6:00pm to get him to bedtime. We too are trying to get rid of the catnap, but somedays he just needs it, especially if he only sleeps 1 hour for naps.

I'm starting to get the impression that the waking at 5-6:00 am may just be a phase we have to ride out, and the important thing in the meantime is not try to not encourage it to be a habit by accidental parenting.

I love how I spend so much time worrying about the newest 'problem of the week', and then next week it'll be something different... who ever says parenting is a boring job must have a real textbook/angel child. It's true, just when you think you've got it, everything changes!!

[a_astorga]

Well here is his schedule:

5-5:30 am wake (on a good day 5:50)
6-6:30 bottle (4oz. then the extra 1oz. mixed with solids)
7-7:30 solids ( 5-6 oz of fruit with cereal)  then bath
8-8:30 nap used to be 2-3 hours now it's 1.5-2 hours (mostly 1.5)
11-11:30 bottle (4oz. then the extra 1oz. mixed with solids)
12:00 solids ( 5-6 oz of veggies)
12:30-1:00  nap used to be 2 hours now 1-1.5 hours
3-3:30 bottle (4oz.)
4-4:30 nap used to be 30 min. now 45 min- 1 hour (usually 45min.)
5:30 bottle  (4oz. then the extra 1oz. mixed with solids)
6-6:30 solids ( 5-6 oz of veggiesor fruit with cereal)  then dry bath
6:30-7:00 bedtime

12:30-1:00 5oz bottle on a good day or 2 5oz bottles a nite. one at 11ish and another at 3ish.

Then wakes up at 5, before used to wake up at 6ish am.
Sometimes he has a crappy diaper, so the crappy diaper wakes him up. And he yells 1-3 times a night for about 30 sec. then goes back to sleep. Sometimes I have to go in and hold him for a couple of mins. and then I put him down again. Why does this happens? Separation anxiety?He yells like he is so scared or in agony. So no good sleep at all.

We hear him cry at least twice a night and then at 5 am.
So the crying like he's scared started about 1.5 months ago, then cooled down a bit and then again these past couple of weeks.

So is this enough food for him? The thing is he won't eat anymore. he doesn't really like his bottle so he will eat at the most 4 oz. and then he is just waiting for his solids. i give him solids right before bedtime but still hungry at night?

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

So, I thought about any changes for the last 2-3 weeks and I just realized that I had a nanny helping me for about 1 month and she stopped helping me about 2-3 weeks ago.