Hi there. My 6 month old boy has started to wake up really early. He normally goes to bed around 7:30 pm with two 1.5 hour naps during the day. Starting at around 3 months he would wake up around 6-6:30 and just be content to hang out in his crib until someone went and got him which wasn't until 7:30 or so. Now he is starting to fuss as early as 4:00 am. I guess it is mostly my fault because although I try to let him fuss for a while because sometimes he falls back asleep, I usually can't handle it so I go get him, bring him to our bed, feed him and then he falls asleep until his dad brings him to grandma's about 7 or so. He never starts to really cry but does his really loud, "hey, I am hungry" noise. He started doing this about a month ago. I think he started it after I went back to work and when he started flipping over to his tummy in his crib. Perhaps now that I am back at work he is used to getting food as soon as he is picked up because I have to leave the house by 6:30 in the morning? (I am still breast feeding him with solids at lunch and dinner) He is also still sleeping in our room. Do you think I am just picking him up to soon because he is in the same room as us? Maybe if I move him to his own room he will start to sleep in again because I won't pick him up as soon? Until I move him to his own room should I feed him when he wakes up and then put him back in his crib so he doesn't think that, "hey if I wake up and fuss I will get to sleep with mom and dad?" We have been very lucky because he has been such a good sleeper but now I don't know what to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I am still a little stumped because it doesn't matter when I put him down to sleep he always wakes up at the same time - 4:00am (it is getting earlier.) I have started to feed him when he wakes up and then put him back in his crib where he falls asleep until 6:30. I looked at his gums and I don't see any changes. Perhaps they are just taking their time. However, he just started learning how to crawl - I can't believe it because he doesn't really sit on his own, but is crawling - Ugg! Anyway, perhaps this milestone is messing up his sleeping too? We shall see. Thanks for all of your input. I will let you know if anything changes.
I agree with the teething thing. My son is 7 months and his sleeping pattern has changed abruptly over the past month or so. He wakes up crying at least once per night. Have you noticed his gums looking slightly inflamed or even a little white? My son has 2 bottom teeth, but is now teething 2 top and 2 more bottom and he's having a very rough time. His sleep patters were the first hint.
I know exactly how you feel! I had the same problem with my son when he turned 6 mos. I know this is going to sound like crazy advice, but I swear by it. Put him to bed earlier. It was the best advice I ever got. We started putting my son down for the night at 6:30pm, and he started sleeping until 6:30am. To this day, the later my son stays up, the earlier he rises. It doesn't make sense, but it works. Good Luck!
Hi, I had kinda the same thing when my son was a baby, except he woke up a bout four times a night. I found out from his doctor that he was just always hungry, kinda like the feeling of not being satisfied or not getting enough to eat at one time. Anyway, I was told after he ate dinner if he was still hungry to make him a bottle and put about two teaspoons of baby cereal in the bottle with the milk. He then in about a week or two started sleeping through the night. I dont know how other moms feel about this, but it worked for me. He is a very healthy 11 year old now.
He could be teething as well. Is he overall a little more cranky?
what you may want to try is keeping him up a little later and feeding him before he goes to bed.. that way he will wake up because hes hungry a little later then 4 30am lol.. i kept my son sleeping in the bed with me until he was about 9 months old. for the first few months he would wake me up in the middle of the night several times to eat, but around 6 months he was sleeping through the night.. of course he wouldnt go to bed until about 10 or 11pm though.. another thing u could do is just keep a bottle ready at night and when he wakes up at 430am dont take him out of the crib but just give him a bottle let him eat and then go back to sleep..
R.,
I would check if your son is not teething. It is that age when they might start teething. And when they do, and there is a new tooth coming out (slowly), that's when they start waking up during the night (once or even miltiple times) and be grumpy. If that is the case, and if you feed him, that might comfort him and he will go back to sleep after the feeding.
My daughter did that when she was teething. She would normally sleep 7 PM to 7 AM - 12 hours. And every time there was a new tooth coming out, should would start waking up during the night. We would feed her when she wakes up during the night, and after the tooth is out, she would start sleeping through the night again.
If your son is currently teething, his temperature might be slightly up during the night, and it might be painful for him, so you can try giving him some Tylenol before he goes to bed, and that may help him sleep through the night (or at least it did help my daughter).
I agree with Laura. We used to let our little one stay up to 10:00, but realized she wasn't sleeping very late. Now, she goes to bed about 8:00, after a good snack of oatmeal, veggies/fruit and some formula. She's a good 10 hour sleeper at the least! You could also try putting him down earlier and then waking him before you go to bed to feed him. That worked for ours, too. Good luck!
R.,
It is very possible that your boy is going through a growth spurt and is hungry at 4:00 a.m. It is also equally possible that he knows he gets your attention if he fusses. I know that "they" say that babies should be able to go all night without nursing/eating after a certain age, but I think that every baby is different, and if nursing your baby for 10 minutes at 4:00 in the morning allows him to sleep till 7:00 (and you to sleep too), I say go for it.
I had a not so good sleeper who woke up every few hours to nurse until he was 15 months when I weaned him.
My suggestion, feed him when he wakes up, but put him back in his crib. If it is the case he is hungry, he probably won't go back to sleep on his own, and he isn't rewarded by getting to sleep in your bed. I used to sometimes bring our son into our bed to nurse around 4:00 - he often woke at that time, and he continued to wake for it. Once I stopped bringing him into our bed, the wake up time got later and later until he was waking around 6:00 to nurse, still falling back asleep, and allowing me to get up and shower etc. while he slept in.
Best of luck!
J. - Mom to 19 month old Charlie and boy #2 due in a few weeks.
It sounds like he's growing! :) My son did this same thing. I would go in his room and change his diaper, feed him and then pop him right back to bed. Once he was dry and full he'd usually sleep another 2-3 hours. If he's waking up in the middle of the night...if it is a growth spurt he might be hungry. With my kids, it usually lasted a week or two and then things got back to normal.
I just read Laura's post and absolutely had the same results. Putting my kids to bed earlier always resulted in better sleep. Letting them stay up late had the opposite effect one would think - they just got up earlier! :)
It sounds like your little guy may well be hungry. If he were mine I'd feed him and put him back to bed and enjoy the next couple of hours of sleep! Putting him down a few minutes later each evening may make his wake up time a little later too. Good luck!
My daughter started this at about the same age. She, too, was sleeping in our room. We finally just moved her over to the nursery.
Is he teething? This has always made my daughter wake at night, even if the tooth wasn't visibly pushing through yet. She'd usually settle back down in 15 minutes or so and fall back to sleep, but sometimes we'd end up feeding her a bottle. She got so used to this it interupted her daily eating schedule, so we started waiting longer and longer from when she woke to when we gave her the bottle, and finally she just stopped wanting it.
It took a few sleepless weeks, but we all finally got back to our normal schedule. Hope things go smoothly for you! :)
