what to do at 5am??

[nina]

DS is 3 months old and has been sleeping 10-11 hours at night since he was 7 weeks old. He used to sleep around 9pm and wake about 6am. For the past 3 days, he has not been taking good afternoon naps , and thus ends up going to bed around 7:30pm. He wakes about 4:45am-5am and I'm not sure what to do. I've been just waiting until 6am to go to him as I've read that you should not go in before this time for fear that the baby will learn to wake up earlier. DS doesn't really CRY but makes a lot of noise. I've also read some books that suggest that I should feed at this 5am awakening, and put him back down.....but I'm afraid that DS will not return to sleep at that point.

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!
Mom to Justin (5/28/02)

[twins r fun]

All babies are different, but I put my boys back to bed if they wake before 6:00. They either go right back to sleep or play in their cribs for a little while and then fall asleep for 2-3 hours. Their normal bed and waking time is 7:30PM - 6:30AM. Sometimes I even like it when they wake up at 5:00 because I know after I feed them I'm going to get 3 more hours of sleep! You could give it a try with Justin for a few days and if he doesn't go back to sleep, go back to your other method.

Nicole

[cara1]

I'm not sure, because we are in a similar situation. DS used to sleep like a champ until he was 4 mos old (he's now almost 7mos), and then he was having frequent night wakings, and I could only nurse him to go back to sleep. We eventually let him cry them out (that wasn't easy), and it stopped after about a week (with a few breakthroughs now and then), but he still usually wakes around 5 or 6am. He often goes back to sleep after that. I don't mind much, because I get up for work at 5 anyway. And he does seem like he really is hungry then, so I don't see the point in ignoring it. My concern is that after he goes back to sleep, I actually have to wake him up to dress him and take him to Grandma's house (she watches him while we're at work). I feel like I keep sleep depriving him by waking him up before he's ready to wake up. I thought about just putting him to sleep earlier, so that the total hours are the same, but that doesn't work, either. He doesn't seem to be any worse for it, but to see that poor little face when I yank him from his peaceful slumber at 7am... Any suggestions?

[brubeck]

I actually put my baby to bed at 10 pm every night because that's when I go to bed. That way we sleep together and I am not so tired.

This took some training on my part. She would fall asleep around 7 pm or so, but I found that the trick was to wake her up at about 9 pm. I would diaper change her (naked bodeis seem to wake up better because of the temperature change) and then feed and play with her for the rest of the hour.

You know that your baby can last for 10 or 11 hours without food, so even if baby continues to wake up at 5 am, if you fed him at 9 pm then you shouldn't feel too badly leaving him in the crib for an hour or so to 'train' him that just because he's up doesn't mean you're up. Of course if he has nasty poopy diapers in the mornings you may have to re-think that approach. But other than that you should only have to live with a few days of morning cries before he gets the picture.

The other thing you want to do is have the baby associate darkness with sleep. If baby wakes up and it is still dark, that's an obvious sign that 'it's not time yet'. Now granted the sunrise and sunset change with the time of year, but it is an obvious thing that even a 3 month old can understand. Perhaps if you go with that kind of pattern things could improve?

[Elaine]

He could be going through a growth spurt. 3 mos. is one of the milestones for that, I think. I think you would be wise to go ahead and feed him then put him back down. I did that with my daughter about that age and never had a problem. Just be aware that his sleep pattern might still be erratic for a while yet.

Good luck! :-)

[laura_winckler]

I suspect that this is related to the 3 month growth spurt. A couple of thoughts . . . if he's not crying for you, I'd just leave him alone. My son will sometimes wake in the morning and hang out by himself in his bed for a little while before he calls for us. Granted, he's much older, but maybe your little guy is happy in there by himself for a bit or maybe he'll drop off to sleep again. The sleep book I like (by Dr. Weissbluth) recommends putting them to bed even earlier if they wake up early, but he doesn't really talk about doing that until they are 4 months old.

You're very lucky, actually. We were still feeding at 5 am at this point, and we weren't going to bed until 10-11pm.

Laura
SAHM to Eric (9/5/00) and Robin (coming soon)

[nina]

Laura

I actually read and try to follow that Weissbluth book. The one thing I'm stuck at is I'm trying to follow that rule of no more than 2 hours awake. Well, DS is done with his last nap around 3pm, so he takes yet another one around 5pm (making a total of 4)...wakes around 6pm, and then hangs out until I put him to sleep for good around 8pm. This is why I can't put him to be earlier.....
Any suggestions? Should I try to just wait until 4 months?

[laura_winckler]

Nina

We didn't buy this book until DS was 4 months old, so we skipped straight to that section of the book. I know that at 4 months we were taking 3 naps a day: one very shortly after he woke up, one in the afternoon, and one in the late afternoon. Then I think that he went to bed around 9:00 (we moved that time earlier gradually). Eric was also boderline colicky in the evenings, so that changes things a lot. I've read the months 1-4 section now in preparation for baby #2, and the way I interpret it would say that you are right on track. I would just be watchful for when DS looks tired (rather than what time the clock says) and put him down for the night whenever that is. I noticed that Weissbluth also says not to go to the baby before 6 am because he will train himself to wake up earlier for the pleasure of your company. So if your DS is not crying for you, I would leave him in bed until 6.

I think that you will find that things will change a lot at around 4 months. His nap schedule will change, he'll be able to stay awake longer, and he might sleep longer in the morning. We were up by 6 am for a long time, though. Weissbluth also believes that you can't change their wake up time very dramatically, although we have found that DS sleeps later and later as he gets older. He wakes up at about 8 am now.

HTH. Like I said, sounds to me like you are on the right track. This is most likely a temporary problem. Stick with Weissbluth's suggestions. We have the best little sleeper of any of our friends now and I credit the fact that we followed the advice of this book from an early age.

Laura