How do I break the habit of 7 month old baby waking at 4:20 am?

[Mellybee]

My 7 month old wakes from around 4:20 - 4:40 am every single morning. She used to feed around this time right from the early days, and in the last 2 or so months i have dropped this feed but she still is waking. She resettles immediately when i give her the dummy (but often re-awakens at 5am for the dummy, and sometimes every half hour after that). I don't think it is hunger anymore, because when i do feed her at 6-6:30 am , she never really does a very eager or long feed. I am giving her a dreamfeed at 10pm, as i have always done. She is on 3 pretty good sized solid meals during the daytime plus 3-4 hrly breastfeeds.

Does anyone have any ideas on how i can get her to break this cycle of waking, or has your baby done this, and eventually broken the cycle themselves? (We do not wish to do controlled crying.)

[Jender]

I used to keep heaps of dummies in DD's cot so she learned to grab one herself and resettle. The first few goes took a few minutes but if I kept myself from going in she learned to grab one, put it in and go back to sleep

[Duchessa]

Have you tried feeding her? She might sleep better for the last couple of hours of the night then as she may well be hungry or thirsty (having not eaten/drank for more than 6 hours).

[Jender]

I also used to try a quick feed then as well sometimes (if she seemed more awake) , and she would sleep longer. It was worth it!

[Phyllis Stein]

Hmm, maybe she's waking because of the cold?

Even if she's not really hungry, a quick feed will actually help her to sleep longer and deeper. Maybe it's a worthwhile tradeoff?

[Mellybee]

Thanks everyone for your answers!!

Two things i should add:

Feeding her at this time USED to work, but I dropped the feed because the feed started actually waking her up so that there was absolutely NO chance of her resettling, and she wanted to play! Having gone for 2 months without feeding her, i'm reluctant to introduce it again....i did try it again for 1 night, but it didn't really help - infact, AFTER that feed, she cried loudly on and off from 5am-6am! So that put me off trying again!

When she calls out for her dummy, she is sort of half asleep - occasionally she can resettle herself, but most often, if I don't get up to give it to her, she starts crying really loudly, and then wakes herself completely and needs help resettling big time, so I have figured jumping in there straight away is the better option.

[UmmInayah]

Mellybee, do you think she could be waking because it is light out? Have you tried block out curtains? I know if my DD wakes and the sun is up, there is no way she is going to go back to sleep, no matter how tired she is.

[Cordelia]

I agree that she's cold - that's the coldest time of the morning. DD did the same before we started dressing her more.

At this tiem fo the year Ngala told me they should be wearing 4 layers:

a singlet, a vest, pyjamas and then their sleeping bag.

[OJandMe]

OOh... I've just been through this myself!!

What I did was change the atmosphere.

I put a nightlight in, and started using the music box again.

It took a little while, but I would feed him at bedtime in his room, in the dark with the nightlight on, so he'd recognise that that meant 'sleep time'.

Then when he woke up at 3:30am I'd go in and turn the music box on.. and then not say anything to him... just 'sshhhhh' and pat him till he resettled.

The first night he woke a few more times, and I just "sshhhh" and patted him.

The next night he took a little longer to settle, but only woke the once, then went back to sleep till 6:30 :smiliedance:

The next night he woke and resettled very easily... back asleep and again woke at 6:30.

Now he doesn't wake at all, and consistently wakes between 5:30-6:30 am.. which works well in our house as that's when our day starts.

You can read about my journey HERE (http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?t=189008)

Oh and G was definitely cold too. Once I put another blanket on his bed and started tucking him in firmer, so he didn't keep kicking his blankets off, he slept much better.

[lizzymcfizzy]

My 7 month old wakes from around 4:20 - 4:40 am every single morning. She used to feed around this time right from the early days, and in the last 2 or so months i have dropped this feed but she still is waking. She resettles immediately when i give her the dummy (but often re-awakens at 5am for the dummy, and sometimes every half hour after that). I don't think it is hunger anymore, because when i do feed her at 6-6:30 am , she never really does a very eager or long feed. I am giving her a dreamfeed at 10pm, as i have always done. She is on 3 pretty good sized solid meals during the daytime plus 3-4 hrly breastfeeds.

Does anyone have any ideas on how i can get her to break this cycle of waking, or has your baby done this, and eventually broken the cycle themselves? (We do not wish to do controlled crying.)


do you mind me asking how you dropped the feed? I'm trying to stop my 14 month old from night feeds at around the same time without screaming

[samken]

My little DD wakes early wanting attention. Not hungry just open for entertainment. We actually moved her cot out of room into a spare room because her early morning toy entertainment was distracting us. If she wants to play give her some toys and leave her in her bed. This morning DH and I woke and 7:30 to silence it freaked me out because we are used to hearing her arguing with her toys. He went in to see her and she was happily, quietly, playing with them. She isn't a quiet baby so we were a little shocked. Go with the flow...she wakes at 4:30 give her something to do.