Waking at 4am

[sbonn001]

My lo is 7 1/2 months old. For about the last month has been waking early - usually between 4 and 430 in the morning. I go in after a few minutes of fussing/crying and make sure she is rewrapped in her blanket and give her her pacifier and stand there with my hands on her for a few minutes. She generally seems to go back to sleep, but then awakes within a few minutes or a half hour and this happens several times until i finally give up and get her up sometime after 6. She eats solids well during the day and is on about a 4 hour schedule for bottles. She generally naps 2 sometimes 3 times but generally for not more than an hour. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm. Any suggestions to help her sleep better in the mornings? 4am is not a reasonable time to get up.   

[Colin Macs Mom]

Is she just fussing, talking, or is she crying-crying?

[sbonn001]

She is usually fussing or sometimes she sits up in the bed and fusses or talks. If i leave her she will sometimes go back to a fitful sleep or sometimes turn into a full cry. I usually go in if she turns to a full cry for a coupe of minutes.

[Colin Macs Mom]

I would leave her be unless she gets to the full blown cry. As annoying as it may be to listen to the fussing, that will aid independent sleep and self-soothing. As for the early waking.... many people swear by putting LO to bed earlier to solve that. Sounds strange I know, but it seems to work!

[sbonn001]

Thanks for the advise. Several people have said to leave her alone. I will try and stick to it. It is difficult to listen to her fuss for long. I did try this last night for 15 minutes but as she is fully awake i guess i should wait longer. My husband can of course fall right to sleep. Maybe I should read a book to keep my mind off of it. As for going to bed early - she usually goes down about 7:30. That seems pretty early to me. Do others go to bed earlier? Though she does nap poorly, so maybe earlier to bed would be good.   

[Colin Macs Mom]

I know it's hard to listen to, but stick it out and the time will go down and down until it's nothing.    7:30 isn't painfully early, but you might try 7:15 or 7:00 to see if it makes a difference. I wouldn't go any earlier though!

[jennyb133]

HELP!  I'm in the same situation!  DS (9 mos.) is waking at 3-4am every morning!  This has been going on for a couple weeks now. In the beginning, I was having a hard time getting him back down & seemed he was hunrgy so I BF him.  Now I'm sure that I've made a mistake & I'm kicking myself now.  Now, this has become something he expects & enjoys as part of routine now.  I am so tired all the time, b/c after that he's up for the day between 6:30-7am.  I have tried to refuse him the BF & just get him back to sleep, but he cries & screams & has a full blown tantrum, unless I BF.

I need some advice.  I can't just wait it out like someone suggested before, b/c he doesn't wake just fussing. He wakes crying & the cries get stronger till it's out of control.

He's my current routine, so this can help with replies:

6:30/7am Wake & BF (long feed)
7:30am Breakfast
9am- 10:30am Morning nap (sometimes it's 8:30-10, sometimes just an hour 9a-10a- we've been having nap issues too)
10:30/11am BF (very short & seems disinterested, I may be dropping this one soon)
12pm Lunch
1:30/2p- 3pm Afternoon nap (again, anywhere from 45min to 1 1/2 hrs)
3pm BF (short feed)
4:30/5pm Dinner
6pm Bath
6:30pm BF (decent feed)
7pm Bedtime

I was also having issues with him waking up at 6am & falling asleep at 6pm.  I just got him back to a 7pm bedtime over a week by extending 15mins. each night.

I appreciate any help with this 3/4am wake up. It's exhausting & don't know how to break the BF habit he's got now.

[Colin Macs Mom]

There's a sticky in the FAQ section on how to eliminate night feeds. Give that a look and see how you feel about it. It can be adapted for BF as you will see - many folks have had great success with it, myself included!