My DD used to be a fantastic sleeper, she still isnt all that bad I guess I shouldnt really complain. However lately she wakes between 4/5am every morning without fail and will not go back to sleep, unless I feed her back. Now because I am tired I have been giving in and giving her a bottle, now I think I've kind of made it into a habit. I've tried just putting the dummy in, patting back to sleep etc, but she wakes 5 mins later. I must mention I dont think she is hungry, and she has a big dinner & bottle before bed. What else can I try? Is this just a stage?
Hey hun,
Since introducing solids, my DS wakes up at about 5 am every day as well. He is very hungry and will have a big feed, but then will wake up at 8 am not hungry at all. TBH I have learned to live with it for the moment, but I guess soon I will try and stretch it out to at least 7 am. I was given the advice that if you want to get them to sleep through, offer them only water at this time, instead of milk, or only half a feed so when 7 am comes around, they can be satisfied with a big feed, the logic being that they eventually wont bother waking at 5 cos they know they will be fully satisfied at 7.
It is up to you though, as to how you want to deal with it, whether you "fight it out" now, or simply see if she matures enough and is happy to sleep through.
Good luck! I will check to see what other advice there is on this, as like I said, I have a similar issue,
Thanks dragonbub for your reply! Nice to know I aint the only one up this early hehe. The water is a good idea, I will try it. I have been doing the same as you, just giving in & hoping this phase will pass. DD is exactly the same as your son, she has her very early morning feed & then wont have another bottle until closer to 11/12 (solids in between).
Is it possible she's getting cold? As far as I know the coldest part of the day/night is between about 3am-5am just before the sun comes up. Maybe the snuggling up to mummy & having a warm drink warms her up enough to go back to sleep? When she wakes, check the temperature of the back of her neck as it's a good indicator of her overall warmth, hands & feet can be cold without the rest of the body being cold so they are good for checking.
DD did this for about 1-2 weeks jsut recently.. i dont feed her in the night though (havent since 4months) as i dont want her getting used to it.
She has stopped now.. i figured out she was getting her back molars (which i couldnt see she was getting). and hence the wake up
My DD did that too when she was about 7-8 months old for about four weeks from memory (bit of a blur now). Then she got gradually later again but it happened very gradually. Now she normally wakes between 7-7.30am and has sometimes been waking after 8am - just when I want her to start waking earlier as I'll be going back to work soon.
TBH, I didn't even think of giving her water, I just continued giving her a bottle on waking but she would always stay up for a couple of hours before going back to bed. I kind of just went with the flow.
My bub is doing the same thing, one of the women in my mothers group thought it was the cold - 4 am being the coldest time, so she rugged her bub up, and she sleeps through now. I'm haviung trouble keeping the temperature in her room warm enough though, the heater either gets it too hot or too cold - argh!
Ahh better not be her new waking time. Before this she has always been 7.30 - 8am which is perfect. I dont think its cold, as she seems warm enough. I have her well rugged up lol. Thanks for the suggestions girls, I might just go with the flow for awhile.
9 month old waking at 4am every morning
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