getting my 5month old to sleep past 5am

My son is now 5 months old and i wondering how i go about getting him to sleep past 5am. He goes to bed at 6 pm everynight and sleeps through to 5am, than wakes for a bottle and goes back to sleep untill 730am. If i feed him when i go to bed around 11pm he still wakes at 5am for a bottle, if i feed him at 2am he still wakes at 5am for a bottle, so no matter what time i feed him he always wakes at 5am for a bottle. I dont usually feed him after he goes to bed at 6pm, but i tried feeding him late in the night to see if he would just sleep through to 730am but he always wakes. Ive tried to settle him when he wakes at 5am with no feed but nothing seems to be working, any ideas would be great...thanks.

This is probably not what you want to hear hun but it sounds like that's just his routine and there's not a lot you're going to be able to do about it. Sleeping 11 hours straight at 5 months old is truly awesome!! My 17 month old is lucky to sleep half that time without waking and hardly ever even goes that long asleep. Not to minimise your situation hun cause I hate getting up at 5am too, but it might help you to realise that it could be way way worse!! At least you can predict when you'll be woken and go to bed yourself accordingly.

To be honest, I would be stoked if my 4.5 month old slept nearly 12 hours straight through, your son is a fantastic sleeper! I know the 5am wake ups aren't all that inspiring, but 11 hours is a long time for his little tummy without a top up, and it seems that is the magical time when his tummy gets hungry. I don't really have any advice other than to say that perhaps when he starts solids and they start filling him up he'll eventually end up sleeping in a little more? I'm not saying you should start solids either if you haven't, just maybe that it's something that will come about by itself when he's ready. Prob not what you wanted to hear sorry.

11 hours is a long time to go without milk for a 5-month old, so sounds like you're doing really well actually! It may be that his system just needs milk again at that time, regardless of whether you try to feed him earlier.

With time you may find that your DS will push his bed time back a bit later and maybe even stretch that sleep out so you get a more reasonable wake-up time. I wouldn't necessarily expect solids to do that. If you want to try pushing back the bed time just be careful, because you can stuff things up if you mess with their system. (we tried it at one point as DS was waking around 5am and he actually started waking up even earlier :doh:)

My DS is over 2 and still can't sleep longer than 11 hours total (sometimes that's all at once) and he's starving come morning (and he even has midnight snacks sometimes too!).

Give it a little time

I think this is something that will sort itself out over time. My wee man has always been an early riser regardless of bedtimes and feedtimes. Mind you, I definitely don't get the 11 hour stretch!!

Lately he's been doing 30 mins to 1 hour over (so waking between 6 and 6.30).

If I were in your shoes I'd just roll with it. 11 hours straight is something I'd pay a million bucks for even if it was coupled with a 5 am short wake and a 7.30 am start to the day.

That sounds really, really good to me! He even goes back to sleep so you can stay in bed longer!! Wow.

As the others have said I think that's a pretty good sleep through! 5am is a crap time to be awake, but at least he goes back to sleep for a bit longer :)

Isn't funny how their body clocks work and they can wake up at the exact same time every day even though they have no idea about time :lol:

I wish my DD would sleep until 5am...she usually wakes between 1am and 3am, and then will wake up again (before it's time to get up!) if she isn't in bed with me :rolleyes: I guess just try and enjoy the long sleep while you can, cause you never know he might decide to surprise you and change his routine..they usually do once you think you have them figured out! Lol

My second daughter used to sleep 5.30pm till 3.30am feed and back to sleep until 7.30am. I tried the same as you dream feeds etc, but it didn't change anything. Just keep doing what you are doing and eventually he will cut out that feed and sleep 12-14hours. Both of my daughter did 5.30pm-7.30am but the eldest one never woke up for a feed.

My little one wakes at 5am too, no matter what time she went to bed. I don't mind it actually, it means she gets to have a cuddle with daddy before he leaves for work at 6am and then we head off back to bed!

Sounds quite normal for a baby of that age. I think that even some of the strictest routines (you know the ones I mean) have a 5am feed!

Sue x

thanks everyone for your replys.
maybe i should be thankful considering the other stories ive been hearing hahahahaha.
ill just keep going the way i am and hopefully he will start sleeping longer... thanks again all you great mums

I think 11hrs is great! you could try putting him to bed later (DD doesn't go down til 11pm most nights, sleeps till 7ish then naps in the gym creche till 1130) but only do it by 10-15mins each night.
block out curtains might help too, in case its the sun waking him up.

my 27 month old STILL wakes up at 5am, always has, and im sure she will for a long time, this morning was 4am but only cause she went to bed early casue she had a short arvo sleep. It used to kill me getting up at 5am but im so used to it now that if on the occation she sleeps for an extra 15 mins, im awake waiting for her to get up!
Good luck