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Post edited 7:38 pm – April 19, 2011 by koneko
Post edited 7:39 pm – April 19, 2011 by koneko

My 7-and-a-half month old has always been an early riser, usually getting up between 5am and 5.30am. Fortunately, he began sleeping through the night from about 3.5 months (bedtime at 7pm, up at 5am), so that was more than manageable.

However, now at 7.5 months, his wake-up time has become even earlier – this morning was 4.20am!! If he was happy to be awake at this time then great – we would deal with that. But he wakes up still tired – he keeps his eyes closed and gives every indication of wanting to go back to sleep. But no matter what I do I cant get him to fall into anything other than a listless, fidgety half-sleep for a few minutes (if he goes back to sleep at all!).

I’ve tried:

-  nursing back to sleep

-  bringing him into my bed to nurse and fall back asleep for another hour or so

-  warming his room so he doesn’t get too cold

-  blocking out the morning light (not that there is any at 4am!)

-  white noise to drown out morning birds

-  popping the dummy in

-  ignoring his whimpers and noises for up to an hour to see if he’ll self-settle (but not to the point of crying as I don’t believe in CC)

-  a slightly earlier bedtime (6.30pm, 6.45pm)

-  a slightly later bedtime (7.15, 7.30pm)

Some methods have had minor success but none have worked consistently or solved the problem. He will remain half awake, squirming and making tired moaning noises for an indefinite period of time without going back to sleep.

My husband has taken to going for a jog with him in his pram at around 6am, at which point he falls back asleep within 5 minutes and naps for anywhere up to 45 minutes. Cleary he is not done with his night sleep – but how do I consolidate this sneaky nap with his bigger night sleep?

This new phase has thrown out what was a great daytime schedule for him and unfortunately coincides with my starting to work-from-home. The new wake-up time, early mini nap, and longer wake times during the day in general leave me struggling to figure out what he’ll want to do during the day, plus I’m tired from the early rise.

My instinct is that he’s waking for a feed or now out of habit, but this coincides with a naturally lighter sleep cycle and he simply cant fall back asleep.  

Has anyone experienced this? Or had any success with consolidating the early cat-nap with their baby’s night sleep?