Getting Him to Sleep In....

Another vote for putting him to bed earlier :)
I had the same issues with my daughter around the same age. It sounded counterintuitive, but we finally took the advice of putting her down earlier. She ended up going to bed at 6:30pm and getting up at 6:30am. It seemed really early for bedtime, but it worked great for her.
She's 13 months now and we've pushed back bedtime very gradually to 7:30 and she manages to sleep until about 7:00am now...which is PERFECT for me.

My 7 1/2 month old also has started waking at 5 am, usually not wanting to go back to sleep and we co sleep. With him it seems the earlier he goes to bed the earlier he gets up. The last two nights he has gone to bed at 7 pm and woken up at 5ish. He also takes a 1 hour morning nap, a 2 hour afternoon nap and maybe a 30 minute early evening snooze.
I just crack it up to baby transitions. He is starting to work on crawling and is also working on cutting his first tooth. I don't think there is always a cut and dry answer other than they are babies and always changing.
Good Luck-K.

Hi D.
Same as the other poster, try putting him to bed earlier. And if that does not work, then try putting him down for his nap earlier on the days he wakes up at 5AM.
Good luck!

Try putting him to bed a little earlier, by starting in 10-15 minute increments (as in, put him to bed at 7:45 for a week straight). It might take a few days to for him to catch on, but he will. I rely on "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, and he addresses "the 5 am riser" in his book with that suggestion.

I agree - put him to bed earlier. Also, if he can't seem to get himself back to sleep at 5 AM then go in and settle him - remind him that it's still time for sleeping - and then leave again. My son went through this for a while and it was always clear to me (as it appears to be for you) that he was NOT ready to be up at that time!