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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

Anyone cracked 5am starts?

61 replies

angelp · 19/04/2005 06:55

DD 20 months wakes at 5am for the day. No use trying to give milk and put back down she's just ready for the day. Trouble is she's ready for her nap by 10-10.30am which means any morning activities are scuppered. Has 1-2 hours sleep in the morning but if she has less she still wakes early the next day. Haven't tried this consistently though I must admit. Friends babies sleep til 7.30-8am. Am I doing something wrong or is she just always going to be an early riser?

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suzywong · 19/04/2005 07:04

sympathies

my 19 mo old ds2 has just stopped this and the answer was....... putting him to bed an hour later. We didn't suss it, couldn't see the wood for the trees IYKWIM, it happened that way when we were visiting friends and got home late. He sometimes stirs at 5 but we haul him in to bed with us and he's good till 6.30. Luxury!

HTH

angelp · 19/04/2005 07:12

Did this just happen after 1 late night? We have tried late nights on occasion but no difference to the morning. I did wonder if it was something we needed to do for a week or so before we noticed a change.

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happymerryberries · 19/04/2005 07:14

Mine used to do this. It made no difference when we put them to bed. The good news is that it just went away. Now mine will usualy sleep in till 6.30, sometimes even 7 in the holidays. Still and early start but we have to do that for work/school anyways.
But sympathies 5 is horrid!

angelp · 19/04/2005 07:23

Hoorah! Nice to hear a success story, maybe it will eventually get later then. Was thinking about shutting the doors and setting alarm for 6am and leaving her til then but I know I could never really do it! She wakes up so happy its not fair to just leave her for an hour. Need to train her to play by herself when she wakes up but her room is so dark I don't think it would be much fun. Keep thinking that maybe when she goes into a bed it might be better.......

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FairyMum · 19/04/2005 07:35

Mine have all been early risers as babies and around the age of 24 months, they gradually started to sleep later and now they easily to sleep to 9-10 at the weekend (except for the baby who still wakes early). I don't think it's anything you can do except for hoping it's short-term. I believe in putting to bed quite early rather than late as I think know for my children the't sleep is more disturbed and they wake earlier if they are tired. I also try to keep the room really dark. I also find that sometimes a warm botle of milk around 5 gets them back to sleep for a few hours. Good luck. Remember when they are teenagers, we won't be able to wake them at all

WideWebWitch · 19/04/2005 07:39

We've got 5.30am starts atm and it's horrible isn't it? Sympathy. We're on a strict one hour sleep at lunchtime, which I try to make as late as possible, so usually 12.30 - 1.30 and I try to let her walk about as much as pos during the day. The only thing left to try is black out curtains. We go to bed at 10 at the latest to be able to cope. In your position I'd try to hold on and have the nap later, at lunctime and cut it to an hour. No guarantee it'll work though!

angelp · 19/04/2005 08:20

I think its worth a try to cut nap down to one hour WWW you are right. Trouble is I'm so knackered all the time I can't wait to get her into bed and have a break! Also have trouble keeping her awake til lunchtime. If we go out anywhere in the car she's asleep in 5 minutes, at home she's beside herself with tiredness by 10.30am. But maybe I should limit it to one hour even then? Its kind of a viscious circle because sometimes I go back to bed too for a sleep so I love it if she sleeps for a long time!

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sooooooooexhausted · 19/04/2005 08:31

angelp
why dont you give her one nap am for an hr and one at 3pm for an hr, you know sometimes when they have an afternoon nap, late, they dont fall into that deep deep sleep so quickly at 7/8pm and thus dont wake all bushy tailed and bright eyed at 5am.

sometimes my ds , he is inearly nine months, does sleep well at lunch so i let him have a quick anp at 4, he still is in bed at 7.30 and doesnt get up til 7 or so.

flamesparrow · 19/04/2005 08:35

Probably one you have already thought of, but how dark are the curtains? The sun is normally coming in by about 5 lately...

florenceuk · 19/04/2005 08:55

Well, I'm another who solved her early wakings by putting them to bed an hour later. Realistically, they have to adjust sometime, as long as you are consistent - otherwise they'd never adjust to BST. What did you do when the clocks went forward? Did you adjust her bedtime then? There is also an argument that the more they sleep in the day the better they sleep at night, so restricting naps may not be the answer.

Light rooms do make a difference - DS definitely wakes earlier in the summer. Also as they get older they will tend to sleep for longer at night and a bit less during the day. However DS never did 12hours at night until he dropped his nap completely, at 3yrs old, which is a long time to wait!

suzywong · 19/04/2005 08:57

hello Florence UK
how's it going?

florenceuk · 19/04/2005 09:10

Hi Suzy! Me, I'm exhausted, DD still not sleeping well (up every 2hrs at night actually) - and back to work next week, yawn.

WideWebWitch · 19/04/2005 13:54

Gosh, is it light at 5am atm? Maybe that explains it for us. OK, Ikea beckons this afternoon then!

dinosaur · 19/04/2005 13:57

lots of sympathy angelp - my DS3 (aged 8.5 months) has been waking up at this sort of time too and I hate it!! No answers, just sympathy I['m afraid...and pass the matchsticks!

ambrosia · 19/04/2005 14:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lilybird · 19/04/2005 15:26

my dd who is 2yo has never been a good sleeper,
but last summer she started to wake at 5-5.30am, we tried everything putting to bed later/earlier, black out blinds,you name it it we tried!
she wnet into a big girls bed just afte christmas but that also made no difference to her sleeping.
so a few weeks ago i was so tired with my day starting at 5am and then going to do a full days work, that i gave her a drink of milk (in her bed)
and climbed in beside her, we woke up at 7.30am!
i've been doing this ever since, i know it's not ideal but it two hours extra sleep for gods sake!!!!

elsmommy · 19/04/2005 15:33

My dd (19mths) wakes at 5 or 5:30, she goes to bed at 8:45 and doesn't have a daytime nap very often!! I think some babies just don't need much sleep, even if their moms do

lilybird · 19/04/2005 15:38

My dd is such a different person when she's had a longer sleep, much more pleasant (and so am i!!)

angelp · 20/04/2005 07:07

elsmommy I think you are right. She is such a jolly person at 5am - and all day. I genuinley think she has had enough sleep. Would prefer her to tg the daytime sleep onto the night but I think thats just not possible yet. She'd never last the full day. Lilybird - we try that every morning but there is no way she is going back to sleep! She's not even cuddly and sleepy, just bright eyed and extremely chatty. Maybe will just try leaving her til 6am and see how she gets on. Surely she will eventually learn that she has to play quietly in her cot til we come and get her. Or maybe she'll just cry for an hour??

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angelp · 20/04/2005 08:16

Is it better to have really dark room to encourage them to sleep longer -or, if they wake early anyway is it better to be a bit lighter so they can at least see to play in the mornings??

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elsmommy · 20/04/2005 09:41

I got some of that black out lining for dds curtains but now when she wakes she just cries cos its pitch black!!!

LOLLY32 · 20/04/2005 09:45

My dd is 26mths and has always woken early. It doesn't matter whether she has had a sleep in the day gone to bed early or late. Do you think it is too early to introduce a clock and tell her not to get until the clock reaches 7am for example?

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lilybird · 20/04/2005 10:00

lolly32,my dd is the same age as yours, i've also thought of a clock,but i don't think my dd would understand, would yours?

mummylonglegs · 20/04/2005 10:15

angelp, I think some kids are just early risers for a while and that's it. But you could try Richard Ferber's only suggestion for early risers that might be persuaded to sleep a bit later, especially as your dd is having such a long nap early-ish in the morning. He says that you should gradually move that nap later and later by 15 minutes a day so that it turns into more of an after-lunch nap. His idea is that when a child wakes too early, the early nap is really the end of their night's sleep rather than a separate nap and you have to find a way to attach that nap back onto night sleep. If she naps later in the day you'll also find that when she goes to bed in the evening she doesn't fall into a very deep sleep and thus get all her rest in early in the evening but it spreads out through the night. Well,it's worth a try isn't it? And gradually making her daytime nap later wouldn't leave her so tired before it.

LOLLY32 · 20/04/2005 11:15

Lilybird, I don't know whether she would understand but if she got up early I could perhaps take her back to bed and tell her not to get up until the clock says 7 or even put an alarm on it. I don't know what to do really maybe I'm just clutching at straws!

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