He wakes so early

[Missy Lou]

i understand the stressing about being so off routine.  it's never-ending it seems sometimes.

i know we've already done this but can you do another short and sweet of his routine.  my lo and i went through about a two weeks or maybe a little longer period where she was up every day about 5 and took forever to settle.  the mods here helped me figure out a better routine and although it took a while, she's not waking anymore at 5.  nothing's ever final with babies from what i'm learning so i'm waiting for early wakings again at some point and will adjust again then.
so i'd like to revisit lo's routine and see if there's something we can figure out if you don't mind repeating the process for me.
melissa

[bennybean]

Here is the routine that he seems to be following this week, it's actually the exact schedule he followed today:

5ish  Wake, sometimes cries.  Usually I'll feed him a bottle around 5:15 and lay him back in his crib.
6am  Get up for day
6:30 Cereal
7:45-8:15 short nap (usually falls asleep in car on the way to sitters)
8:45  the babysitter usually feeds him a bottle around this time
9:45-11:15  Nap (I pick him up between 11:15-11:30 to go home from sitter)
12:45  Bottle
2:30-3:45  Nap
4:15 Bottle
5:30 Cereal
6:15 begin bedtime routine
6:45/7ish asleep

When I put him down to sleep at home I can do a 2-5 minute wind down routine and he goes right to sleep with no fuss.  The babysitter has not had any luck with this for his 9:45 nap.  He usually screams before she even lays him down.  I told her to start getting him ready 10 minutes earlier and that seemed to work today, but she has begun to have him fall asleep in her arms, because as soon as she lays him down he wakes and screams (i'm hoping this will pass).  Ben (my baby) just seems to go from awake and happy to fussy and miserable in seconds.  If you miss his window it is so hard to get him down.  Today I kept waiting for him to get fussy for his afternoon nap and he never did.  Finally at 2:30 I took him up to his room and he went right to sleep.  Is this too long to keep him up?  Also, I don't see where I can fit in a late catnap so I'm trying to cut it out.  I'm hoping that now that he is almost 6 months old 3 hours of awake time is okay.
Tonight he went to bed with no fuss, and I don't expect to hear from him until EARLY tomorrow morning!

[Katet]

Just to throw something else into the mix... from about 6mo the digestive metabolism goes to sleep when we do, but it wakes up about 1/2 hour before a meal in many people & so they wake up... you feeding him in the early am is probably adding to the habit of waking... I know after reading that I delayed the first feed for my then 1yo from when he woke to 1/2 hour later & gradually later & you know he went over the course of 2 months from a 6am waking to now close to 7.30am... so for us I have to say the timing of the first food made a huge difference... his bedtime was the same & actually occasionally earlier  with no impact. I told this to a friend of mine & she found the same thing... but I warn you it wasn't easy holding out on the feed the first few days ... I always kept him in the quiet & dark of his room too.

[bennybean]

I'm going to try and hold off his feedings until later - I have only been giving him an early bottle for the past 2-3 weeks because I thought maybe he was waking because he was hungry.  Now he seems to expect the early bottle so I know he won't like to wait tomorrow morning.  I'll give it a try though.

I'm pretty sure his sitter isn't feeding him to sleep, because she usually feeds him an hour before he goes down for his nap.  I think the babysitter might be waiting too long to get him ready for his nap.  As soon as he fusses as home I know I better get him to sleep because its just a few minutes until it turns into a full blown cry.  When she tells me about his day she always says  that he starts getting fussy and she plays something else with him until he gets fussy again.  I'm trying to get her to get him to sleep right at the first signs of fussiness or before.

I am really liking the routine he is falling into for the day.  Now that he only takes one long afternoon nap we get so much more time to play together!  I know we have fallen off the EASY schedule, but is that normal for an older baby?
By the way, Ben slept until 5:30am today!!