Routine question for early risers.

[annsa]

Hi all just wondering if anyone can tell me how to deal with early morning wakings while on 4 hour easy.

 If she wakes at 5am(which is the norm for her) and just gurgles away in her cot till 6/6.30 then I feed her, do I start 4 hour cycle from 5 or 6. Since she's not eating straight away when she wakes up do I feed her at 6.30 and put her for nap at 7 as she's been awake 2 hours. Then whan she wakes from nap do I feed her again even though it's only 8.30 or 9am or wait the 4 hours and then put her to sleep again after her feed.
Getting a bit confused.

If she takes a feed at 5 and goes straight back to sleep till 7/7.30 do I feed her again or wait till 9 as she'll be due a nap again at this point.
TIA
Ann

[macdee]

How old is your lo? Mine is 4.5mths (also on 4hr easy) and she also stirs/wakes around 5-ish. I usually reswaddle and give her the paci, then she usually settles until wake up around half 6-7am. On rare occasions, she'll just refuse to go back to sleep so I just start the day at 6am (then nap at 8am) and go on the 4hr easy from there. Sometimes, I do stretch her awake times and feed times by 15mins so that I can put her down by 6.30-7pm for the night.

Have you tried the paci instead of feeding at 5am? What you can do if she's not hungry is just pick her up and put her down again and see if she settles to sleep again til wake up time (I don't necessarily mean the pu/pd method). Otherwise, even if you do start the day at 6am, I reckon that extra hr should be ok for her because she's not doing any full on activity... If you feed her at 5am and she goes back to sleep, then usual wake up would be 7-7.30am and you feed her. Eventually, she'll just refuse the 5am feed completely and learn to sleep til the wake up time. This is what happened w/ my lo...

Hope this helps!

[annsa]

Thanks for the reply,
My dd is 5 months 1 week. She won't settle at 5am with the paci most days. She gets a feed between 1.30 and 2.30am and goes back to sleep no problem but she always wakes at 5am. This morn I fed her at 5 and she went back to sleep till 7 but didn't want at 7. She took a feed at 8.30am and a small amount of baby porridge at 9. She showed signs of tiredness then so I brought her to the bedroom and washed and dressed her to put off putting her down for a little bit. Put her for a nap at 9.30. she fussed a bit as I think she was over tired by then but went off after I gave her the paci a couple of times.
Sometimes I haven't a clue what to do for the best, if only they came with instructions.
Thanks again
Ann

[macdee]

I hear you! I'm also groping for answers myself!!

Do you dreamfeed? the book says you have to df anytime between 10-11pm and no later but I do mine at half 11pm- I have been since she was 3mths and it seems to work for us. She'll then sleep thru the night, stir around 5-ish and then settle til half 6-7am, as I said in earlier message. Perhaps if you df at 10 or 11pm, she'll wake earlier than 5am for a feed and then sleep thru til wake up time... Given time, she'll probably stop the wee hr waking eventually...

[annsa]

No don't df as she won't let the bottle into her mouth. Just had quite a day with her.
Took 5oz at 8.30 and a small amount of porridge after 9. She napped from 9.35 till 12.05 and again after  school run from 3.30-4. refused everything to eat till 4.30 at which time she took 4oz. At 6 she's exhausted and took nothing before bed. I just can't seem to get her to feed regularly. That's a total of 9oz and 2 teaspoons of baby porridge for the whole day. Am exhausted now from trying to feed her all afternoon.
Guess I better go to bed soon as I'd say I'm in for a night of it.