My 5 mo. old ds is now waking earlier than usual--wide awake and wanting to play. He was getting to the point where he'd sleep from 7pm-7am and even until 7:45, but the past 4 days, he has woken up consistently earlier: first it was 6:45, then 6:30, 6:00 and now 5 am this morning!!!
The past 4 days, he's been overtired in the evenings and is wanting to go to sleep at 6pm instead of 7pm. We feed him solids (1 or 2 tsps) at 5:30 but by 5pm he has become really fussy and doesn't want to eat--too fussy. I then switched gears and decided to give him a bath to help him relax. This works and he's usually relaxed, but wants to go to sleep right after which is too early. The first 2 days, I kept him up and by the time it was bedtime, he was way too overtired and wouldn't settle for over an hour. The second 2 days, I let him catnap in DH's arms for about 10-15 min at 6pm, but he still wouldn't settle when he came time for 7pm bedtime and it took 45 min to get him to sleep. He used to go to sleep by the clock between 6:45-7pm--no problems! Now, something is going on and I can't quite figure it out. So, I'm thinking him being overtired by 5pm, taking a late catnap is having something to do with his early waking. what do you think? Also, when he woke at 5am today he wanted to eat. I held him off as long as i could--until 5:30am. Now, I'm hoping he doesn't think he can wake up everymorning at 5:30 to eat!!
This was his old routine which worked quite well:
E Wake 7-7:30am and BF, pears at 9am
S 10:00-10:45
E 11am 8oz formula
S 1:00-1:45
E 3:00 8oz formula
S around 4:00-4:30 (30 min nap)
E solids 5:30
A Bath 6:00pm
E 6:30 8oz formula
S 7pm
E DF (actually, he wakes on his own) 10:30-10:45 (BF)
any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance
