hello out there - we've gotten into a bit of a pickle lately. my son is just over 7 months old and is waking up between 4 and 5 in the morning. originally, he woke between 6:30 and 7:00am. That was before the time change. Then it was steady at 5:40am for a while. At first, I tried to get him to extend his sleep, but then thought because he was still napping well and sleeping through the night 'til 5:40am that I should follow his rhythm and get myself to bed earlier. I thought I would draw the line and not feed before 5:30am. However, he's now waking consistently before 5:00am. One morning it's 4:10, another it's 4:23, or 4:35, and our best morning lately is 4:50. Do I try wake-to-sleep? Because he's inconsistent within that hour, when would I set my alarm to wake him? Should I also use pu/pd until 5:30 if wake-to-sleep doesn't take? I've done that before and it's heart-wrenching because he's crawling down to my chest when I pick him up, wanting to nurse. I've thought of having husband go in, but I think he may be going through some separation anxiety and may cry even worse, which is also heart-wrenching.
I'm trying to gradually move his bedtime later, having realized he can stay awake between naps a little longer. My thought is if I give him a catnap between 5:00 and 5:30pm, I'll feed him solids when he wakes and then breast feed around 6:30 and then to bed around 7:00 or 7:30pm. he's not getting alot of calories from solids yet. we started them about a month ago and he doesn't eat as much in the evening as he does in the afternoon. We've also been slowly shifting his dream feed which is now at 9:00pm. Sometimes he nurses well, but usually only a little. Last night hardly any at all. I want to keep tweeking things just enough without making things worse. currently, he's getting 2 1/2-3 hours of naps during day and about 10 hours of sleep at night.
Having said all that, we leave for Christmas Holiday in four days, where everything may get pretty botched up. My main concern is not waking the other guests in the house. If things don't change before we go and he wakes at 4:30 I need a plan. Should I feed him then or get him up and try to distract him until 5:30am?
Even though I'm in bed by 9:30pm, starting my day 1 or 2 hours before the sun comes up is just miserable. Any advice or encouragement? I could sure use a boost. :cry: We've been struggling with this for a while, so much that I'm not sure I could be missing something so obvious.