5am and wide awake

[MackMum]

Hi,
My nearly 8wk old DS is on a 3hr easy and has always been a good sleeper at night - he wakes for feeds but usually goes right back to sleep. He has often been more lively at feeds that happen after 4am, but would usually settle after perhaps half an hour of chatting to himself. But the past week or two he seems to not go back to sleep (unless for 30-45mins) after about 5-5:30am. I leave him to chatter, but usually around 6am  he's starting to wind up towards a cry and I have to start the day.

His bedtime is 7:30-8pm and he was waking after about 4-5hrs (we gave up on dreamfeeds since he virtually never took more than 20-30ml) and then again every 2.5-3hrs. THe past 3 nights he has suddenly done a great long stretch of 7.5hrs, waking at 3am, and last night he didn't wake till 4:30am!!!  but after he was back in bed at 5am following a feed, he was very wide awake and not keen to return to sleep. He chatted to himself for about half an hour and then started to cry - my DH went in and gave him a pat and reassured him- and he stopped crying but continued to gurgle and chatter, he may have grabbed 30or 45mins at one point but was crying by 6:15 at which point I gave up and got him up for the day. I'd be happy if the day started at 6:30am, but with all the noise he makes and on/off grizzling between 5-6am it makes for a tiring start to the day.

I'm certainly VERY grateful for the big long stretch of sleep he's having earlier in the night, but I wish we could get him to go back to sleep properly after 5am instead of this awake/short napping thing that makes both of us tired. Is there anything I can do? Even when we tried the dreamfeed he never woke any later than 3am and would then be up every 3hrs, and be wide awake by 5amish.

he naps quite well during the day, although we struggle to get him to go back to sleep after each 45min cycle, but a couple of weeks ago he was transitioning well but still did this early morning waking thing.

Any thoughts??

[Kimberly®]

Do you feed him when he wakes? you didn't say.

If not feed him, he may be hungry.

If not can you send me an outline of your routine, naps, feeds, and what you do when he wakes at night.

[MackMum]

Yes, I feed him when he wakes if he's making hungry noises - and he certainly was after 9hrs! but after that he doesn't go back to sleep - just goos and squalks to himself for a while and then gets fussy to get our attention. When he's been awake for long enough he starts to do his tired grizzling which sometimes results in him going off for a nap. But then he starts to want to see us and isn't happy with a simple pat/shh - he wants to get up and about I think cos he's happy enough once we go through to the lounge and put him in his bouncer. I'll usually feed him again if it's been about 2hrs since his last feed

[MackMum]

Sorry - got interrupted. Here's the rest of the info you wanted:

I feed him every 2.5-3hrs during the day, aiming to arrange it so he has a feed at 5:30pm, then again at 7:30 after his bath - he then goes straight to bed for the night. He generally gets 6 feeds during the day (including his bedtime one after bath), and 1-2 at night whenever he wakes between midnight and 6am.

During the day it's feed, change, awake for the rest of about 1 hourm (including feed/change) but I watch his tired signs. His activity time is generally in his bouncinnette or on my lap for a chat - we keep things pretty low key so he doesn't get overstimulated. From what I can see I think he's textbook/angel temperament. He generally settles well for naps although he's taken a little longer than usual for the past week. We are also having issues with 45min naps, he always wakes but sometimes can resettle himself. He has a hard time resettlingfor his afternoon naps so I have started cheating and putting him on his front - he sleeps much sounder and can usually get back to sleep if he wakes, or even sleep through a transition (I hover by the door listening for him breathing!). I don't let him sleep more than 2-2.5hrs at a time during the day, though of course that's very rare! He can take a while to settle at bedtime - needs a lot longer to do his mantra crying, but once asleep he generally doesn't wake before midnight - although last night he proved me wrong!  more on that in a minute.

When he wakes at night - right up until 6-6:30am (which I'll call the start of the day if he wakes then) - I don't turn on any lights except for a nightlight to change or feed him by. ANd I don't rush in, I wait to make sure he's properly awake and starting to cry for attention/food. I only change him if he's poopy or has soaked through his nappy, and I generally try and do it before his feed so that he's relaxed again after his feed. I don't talk to him and keep eyecontact and interaction very minimal.

after those 3 long nights, lastnight he decided to wake at 11:30pm for a feed and then again at 4am. He had a big feed both times so was genuinely hungry (at the midnight one we gave him the pacifier to start with in case he was just sucky, but after half an hour he spat it out and started getting impatient! He's a very fast efficient feeder so was back in bed by 4:30am. He fussed a bit but went back to sleep.... until 5-5:15am when he woke as he seems to every day - and started fussing straight away, no chatter this time, building towards a cry so I went in (no lights) and turned him over onto his belly. He fussed a few minutes more and then slept solidly - right through until 7:15 when I started to wake him cos we were up. BTW it's not daylight that wakes him cos here in New Zealand it's early winter - doesn't get light until about 7am. Oh, and he sleeps in the dark - no lights or background noise. We live in the country so it's pretty quiet and no streetlights to shine through the curtains.

[MackMum]

Bumping this up a bit

5am wakings still happening - not hunger, wondering if perhaps we should try wake to sleep. What time should I do this?

[Kimberly®]

Do wake to sleep about 1 hour before he usually wakes up. It can't hurt to give that a try. Keep us posted on how that goes.