Do all babies wake at 5am...?

[bibiboo]

Or is mine particularly cruel to her Mummy? No matter what time she goes down, or what time she has her last meal/milk, or how dark her room is, she's up, bright as a button at 5am, rattling the cot bars to get my attention. If she sleeps until 20 past, I consider that a lovely lie-in.
Is there a scientific reason for their clockwork precision in time telling or am I just blessed with an early riser? She's 7mo btw and I am ageing rapidly.

[Nemo1977]

my ds wakes at 6am despite going to bed earlier/later/on time. He has blackout curtains and sleeps great which of course makes him ready for action at 6am. He is 19mths but has always been a early riser although when younger i used to be able to coax him back to bed. He doesnt even have a nap now so no help im afraid just empathy.

[HappyMumof2]

Message withdrawn

[Lizzylou]

My Ds is exactly the same.........5/5.30am without fail, just occasionally we get to 6am....I am saving for botox and an eye lift!!

[bibiboo]

Short of giving her Calopl every night, is there nothing I can do to encourage her to sleep longer? She will be on top of the world until 9 ish, then needs a nap.
Might have to start an eye-lift fund myself...

[Lizzylou]

Ds (14mths) is up at the crack fo dawn, then has 2 hours at about 9/10am, it's got later it used to be he went back to bed at 8am!! I have tried everything but his body clock just tells him to wake his longsuffering MOm at 5!!

[weesaidie]

I am the middle of training my wee one to sleep later (from 6 to 7.30) and so far it is going okay! Won't bore u with the details as have already posted twice on this v recently already!

Anyway, I just couldn't get up at that time so I am always trying something new just in case!

[pinotgrigio]

I really feel for you. My DD was exactly the same. I spent the first 18 months chronically sleep-deprived, especially as I went back to work when she was 10 months and DP hasn't once got up in the night. We went through a long time of 4:30 and 5:30 starts.

Now DD is 2.6. She always wakes up early, no matter what time she goes to bed, at the moment its 7am (but we're in Germany for a few months, so thats 6am UK).

There were no magic cures for us I'm afraid, I just went to bed at 9.30 for a year and a half. None of the other mums understood why I was finding it all so exhausting!!

The things I did, which may or may not have helped were:

Not feeding her as soon as she woke up in the morning (once I was sure that it wasn't hunger waking her up) to stop her waking up for an early breakfast out of habit.

Giving a dream feed at 10 or 11pm (can't remember though how old she was when I was still doing this).

Keeping the room extra super really dark and following the same routine religiously.

Being careful about room temperature and using a grobag to make sure she stayed at the right temperature overnight.

Not rushing in as soon as I heard her first peep in the morning, to see if she would either go back to sleep (yeah, fat chance!) or amuse herself for 10 minutes.

Now as a toddler I find the more secure she is the better - nice dark room, familiar things, cosy, small bed.

I really hope she starts sleeping a bit for you. Good Luck!

[FrumpyGrumpy]

Totally sympathise on this one. My dd was same (now she's 4 and grown out of it) and my dt's too (they're 10 months). I bought the book Solve Your Childs Sleep Problem, Dr Richard Ferber I think. It was great for suggesting all sorts of reasons. My DTs kept waking at 5am and in the book it mentions an early morning nap (i.e. 9am or 9.30am) acutally being part of the nights sleep that has been interrupted. I stretched my DT's out til 10am or bit later and it worked a treat (albeit took a few days). Good luck.

[FrumpyGrumpy]

Ye, it solved one problem but my dd still gets up for a wee (and sometimes still early) and one of my dts teethes really badly so still up lots!! I still read it alot, desperately scanning for more help!

[spots]

My DD (1 yr) wakes at 5 and I think it's likely to be hunger as much as anything, as she's awful at eating enough in the evenings. So I have started offering her a bottle of milk which she gulps down and for the past 2 nights has gone back to sleep for an hour and a half. It was someone on another thread who suggested this... someone whose mum was a HV... whoever you are, thanks and fingers crossed! But that just contradicts what you said about waking for an early breakfast, pinotgrigio. no easy answers to this one!

[littlerach]

DD2 does this, occasionally she'll go until 6am.
We have stopped going in unless she is very upset, and quite a few times she has gone back to sleep on her own. If you can leave her to it, then try it.

She is 9 months BTW>

[kirra]

AHA!!Im not the only one up at that time then!!!!! He's been getting up at this time for weeks and hes now 10 months regarless of when i put him 2 bed!

[trix]

Used to have this problem but I dont now. My 18mo used to go to bed at 7.30 and have around 12 hours, however started to waking earlier and earlier. I dropped his morning nap at around 10 months and gave him cereal as well as milk at bedtime and it seemed to do the trick. Some days I have to wake him at around 9am.

[bibiboo]

9am Trix! Wow! Am impressed. I'd love dd to sleep until 7:30 even. I'll try to cut out her morning nap, but as she's with MIL and DG during the week, I don't know how much they'll enforce it.

[trix]

V v v lucky I know, long may it last! Fortunately I dont have to be up and out the house for work or whatever. Thinking of going back to work soon though so will be most upset if I have to make a habit of waking him up. It doesnt seem quite right!

I know what you mean with someone else having to carry on with something your trying to do. He goes to MILS one daya week and she still will not give him his spoon to use himself and then I have 3 days to get back to where we were with the feeding himself thing. Still I suppose I cant have it all ways. MUST do something about that Grrr!

[bibiboo]

Okay, so it gets worse...
DD (7.5m) has, for the last 3 days, woken at 4:30am! Today she didn't go to sleep again until 10:40 and I am exhausted.
When she woke, we tried to ignore her playing and yappity yapping away in her cot for an hour hoping she'd go to sleep again...she didn't and neither did we. I then got her in bed with us hoping our sleepy vibes would rub off on her. They didn't. Instead we had an hour of our noses being bashed, hair pulled, ears screeched in and boobies kicked (well, I did).
I'm loathe to get up with her as she won't take a feed until about 7ish anyway and I don't want her thinking that 4:30am is "up for the day" time.
Like I said, it makes no difference what time she goes down, or how much or little sleep she has during the day. If this carries on, by the time she's a year, she won't be sleeping at all!

HELP US PLEASE!!!!!!!

[bibiboo]

PS. Dh and me both work full time so just going with the flow isn't a very realsitic option at the moment, unless I go to bed as soon as I get in from work of an evening to allow me to get up at 4:30am. I am desperate now. And oh, so tired....

[Bozza]

My DS used to go to bed at 7.45pm and wake at 5-5.30 am every day at this age. He is now 4.3 and for upwards of 3 years he has been going to bed at 7.30 and getting up at 7. Hope this gives you a bit of hope.

DD is just one and now she has dropped down to one nap I have noticed she is waking up between 6.30 and 7. But if she has 20 mins in the car late afternoon although she still goes to bed OK she will be up at 6.

[bibiboo]

Thanks Bozza, it does give me hope. I'd best get to bed, rather than sit here moaning away, no wonder I'm tired!

[Bozza]

I remember feeling better with DD because I'd got through it with DS IYSWIM.

[FrumpyGrumpy]

Get the book bibiboo!!! Solve Your Childs Sleep Problems, Dr Richard Ferber. Tons of stuff to try and be aware of and its quite easy to follow (which is great when you're so sleep deprived you can only think in short bursts).

I have one good sleeper out of three which drives me demented but I did solve my oldests issues which was great. Now I know she will start getting up in the night when the habit of good sleeping is broken (say illness) and I just have to work to get the good habit back again. My middle child is only 10 months so I'm still working at her!! Good luck babe!

[suzywong]

In answer to the original question; Yes the do
but it is always a phase no matter what cruel and spiteful from of parent torture it seems at the time, they are duty bound to have a go at it

Deepest sympathies, your baby will stop as suddenly as she started.

[bibiboo]

6AM!!!!
She didn't wake until 6am today! I am rested and relaxed this morning. W din't let dd nap yesterday morning until lunchtime. She didn't nap in the afternoon either, went down at 7 and slept through! Total success! Keep your fingers crossed for me for tonight!

[FrumpyGrumpy]

Yahoo!! May this set a pattern!

[Twiglett]

yours is particularly cruel

DD never normally wakes before 7.30 at the moment and has been known to sleep till 8.30 (she's just gone 1) and DS (aged 4) slept till 9.55 yesterday [smug grin]