4AM wakeup call! :(

For the past couple of weeks Sam has been waking between 4 and 5AM and refusing to go back to sleep. I am not a morning person at ALL and I find this very hard. He doesn't cry, he just stands up and bangs the sides of the cot and yells MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA.   

My mum has been staying with us for a while and sharing a room with him, so when he wakes at that time, she just gets him up and gives him breakfast and plays with him. I usually have to get up soon after because he's full of beans and his high pitched squeals of laughter and his fun new trick of knocking on doors wakes me up.    

Mum has gone now, but every morning without fail, Sam is up and awake at 4AM wanting to get up. He knows that nana used to get him up at that time and can't understand why I wont. I believe that it's still nighttime between 4-5AM and I refuse to get him up and do everything I can do get him to go back down. But it's not working.

I've tried giving him a bottle, he drinks it and throws it on the floor. I've tried going in there, not speaking and just tucking him back in, but 10 seconds later he is yelling at me to come back.

He goes down between 7:30-8PM at night and settles within 20 minutes or so and sleeps right through till 4.

During the day he has one sleep, usually just before lunch or just after and sleeps for about 2 hours.

Any suggestions?! Mummy is TIRED, and as I find it hard to go to bed early, even if I do I lay awake till at least midnight.    

nzpiper wrote: ear plugs?

I could try! But I feel so mean leaving him in there for even 30 mins yelling, like I did this morning.    

I also feel bad for him that nana isn't here anymore. He runs out to the kitchen and pokes his head around the corner and says NANA!! But she's not here.

But on the other hand, she undermines all my discipline by letting Sam do whatever he likes!   re. lipstick incident.

We had this trouble for a while as well, we used to give him a bottle tell him it was still night time give him his muslin then leave. Eventually he would go back to sleep, 4am isn't morning :)

He will quickly learn to go back to sleep once he realises that he isn't getting any attention. I felt mean to but then I figured, he wasn't hungry because he had just drunk 150mls of formula/milk, he wasn't cold, he wasn't unhappy, he was just awake and wanting someone to play. I mus admit I didn't go back to sleep until ds did, so I would lie in bed listening to him chatting. After about a week of leaving him too it ds decided it wasn't worth it and now sleeps through.