9 month old waking now at 4am... help?

klc31883

my LO used to sleep much better, from 7pm - 5:30am.  But the past week or 2, she is waking at 4am.  I noticed she is on her tummy, and she doesn't roll back over even though she knows how to.  So she gets more and more upset.  Normally I feed her at 5:30am, so I don't want to start feeding her earlier, however nothing works to settle her back down but this.  We did ferber 2 months ago and had success but I don't know if we should do ferber at this hour?  We usually let her fuss for 15 minutes but if she isn't settling down we try the paci and sometimes i've just been feeding her early.  Just looking for advice for anyone whose LO did something similar.  thanks!

qdp86

We are pretty much in the same position.  I m not sure what to do either.  We let her fuss for alittle but then end up feeding her around 4:30.  She will then go back to sleep until about 6.  My husband wants to do ferber again at that time but I feel bad because I feel like she is hungry by that time and I know once we feed her she will go back to sleep right away.  At the same time, I dont want to form a habit of her waking at that time.  Im also interested in hearing what others have to say.

carig63

We have been dealing with this recently as well. We've found it helpful to make sure he's getting completely full at "supper," then offering another bottle right before bed. It's done wonders. I don't know if they're due for a growth spurt at this time, but if he gets a full tummy and supper and right before bed, he sleeps much better and longer (that is, unitil 5:15AM wake up call). I'd give that a shot--it worked for us! GL!

urbanflowerpot

Crazy! This has been happening with us, too! I feel slightly less confused that 4 a.m. seems to be a 'thing' but...what's up with it? (DS is preemie so around the same age as your LOs) I don't know what to do - he will eat and go back down but several nights he's thrown a fit!

LnR70707

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but our pedi said 9 months is a common point for major sleep regression.  We did ferber successfully and still dealt with this for 2 months, sometimes with 4-5 wakings a night.  We did the standard ferber waiting for most wakings, but sometimes we just had to give up and rock to sleep.  We did find that if we gave in and got him up at 5:30 (when normal wake up was 6:30) he would progressively wake and not settle earlier and earlier, so even if he fussed for 30 minutes at 5:30, in the end it was better because he still needed that extra half hour to an hour of sleep.  Right at 11 months he went back to his normal STTN.

natgerber

The same thing happened with us. I would just get up at 4/4:30 and feed him. This lasted for a week or so and then he went back to waking up at 6.

Good luck! 

krisim

I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to hear, but we had the same problem with DD1-and she continued to wake up between 4 and 5 am every day until she was 2 years old despite us trying everything under the sun to get her to sleep longer!   Hopefully it's just a stage for you!

Beckypooh09

My guess would just be teething. DS2 does this every once in a while and he's been doing a lot of teething lately. When it happens I  go and give him his pacifier right away and that usually works. I try to avoid giving him a bottle earlier then usual at this point since I know he doesn't need one and giving him one might just make him get used to it and start waking up expecting it. I started putting two pacifiers in his crib so he can easily find one if he needs to.

Teresa1896

natgerber:

The same thing happened with us. I would just get up at 4/4:30 and feed him. This lasted for a week or so and then he went back to waking up at 6.

Good luck! 

This exactly, although ours lasted for about 2 weeks.  Back to normal now.