Non-morning person with baby?

[BlanketBaby]

Newborn is 9 weeks and at the moment we tend to get up at about 9/9.30 am. Alarm goes off at 7.30, snooze till 8, then gradually wake up, do a feed, DH showers and makes coffee etc. So I end up getting up about 9.30, getting myself ready and then usually I'm getting baby dressed for the day at around 10am! I have always been a night owl rather than a lark, and DH is exactly the same, and obviously we don't have a really strict baby routine just yet, (plus wfh so not commute) but all my Mum friends seem to get up with the birds! At 6/7am latest!

So, am I making a rod for my own back?

They won't be getting up that early for fun 😂 babies often sleep late when tiny then get earlier. My toddler wakes at 5am! It's crap but you just have to do it so you do.

Who knows though maybe your baby will always sleep late - one can always hope!

Nope, enjoy it while you can, newborns are constantly resetting themselves. You may well end up with a 5 am riser in the few months time.

My son was the worlds worst sleeper until Atleast 2 and I wasn’t a morning person we just eventually got up even though most of the night we where awake anyway but we got out of bed about 10ish he’s 6 now and during lockdown he was sleeping 9-9.30 so I don’t think he’s really a morning person either nothing wrong with what your doing I wish I’d spent more time in bed cuddling my baby rather then feeling like I should be up and dressed that’s my only regret enjoy it

@Drowninginwashing snap! (although mine are all at school now and often have to forced out of bed.)

I remember those days well. They were lovely. Now we're lucky if it's later than 6am. We are not morning people either.

Definitely enjoy it while you can!

But, FWIW, I am a total night owl and hated getting up early, and you do actually get used to it. And there is nothing as blissful as the hour of sleep you get at 8am, when you've got up at 4 with the baby and it's your partner's turn to let you have a nap.

Sleep deprivation is definitely a form of torture. I had a non sleeper til he dropped his nap and I worked nearly full time at the time. Just about finished me off!

But he was part of our family routine of getting up quite early for work/school run. If you're trying to establish a gentle routine with a later weakening time, you might strike lucky. And make the most of that until early starts are necessary for nursery/school/work.

If it suits you now, enjoy it while you can. If you had a 5am riser you'd do it because you had to.

Oh that's good to know! To be clear, baby does wake at 5am, and today was still awake at 6.30am but then I put baby back to bed! The 8.30/9am feed seems to work best in bed!

Just go with whatever works for you and your baby. We've a 12 month old, and he'd happily sleep past 7am. However, we let him stay up later than the 7pm or 7.30pm that everyone else seems to do and he naturally has never been a huge napper. That's just our routine and it suits us fine.

Of course, things may change but it's just not worth worrying about until it happens!

So I'm an absolute night owl and wouldn't countenance getting up at 5.30-6. I just treated wakings then like any other night waking, stayed quiet, fed them back to sleep, did what I needed to - and then like you, got up at 10am.

DD2 went through a phase of waking up at 5.30 when she was a little older (about 18mo and we did similar then, and during lockdown our DC were getting up between 8-9 most mornings. I know anecdote does not equal data but we found that having a consistent message about wakings which were (IMO) far too early did set their body clock to being a bit later than a lot of my friends' kids.

Sounds like our old schedule. We even did afternoon preschool. Alas when school started we had to change

@LBOCS2 great that that worked for you but it doesn't for many babies!

I know anecdote does not equal data

I think there should be an unspoken rule that if you have a child that sleeps - any amount, whatever - then you get to preface every statement with 'I'm so lucky'.

(I'm not really serious; I know sometimes it's useful to share tips on what might work. But.)

I have a 10 week old who sleeps in. I’m enjoying it whilst I can. He usually wakes at 6am but I feed him and then he’ll go back to sleep for 2hrs. He’s super happy and chatty when he wakes so I lie him on the bed and we talk until he’s ready for a feed (which I do in bed). DH is also wfh and sometimes joins us. It’s my favourite part of the day!

We have one baby group a week that is early and I have to wake him. I hate having to do it!

I think there should be an unspoken rule that if you have a child that sleeps - any amount, whatever - then you get to preface every statement with 'I'm so lucky'.

😂 I said they slept in. I didn't say they slept. DD1 was still waking in the night after she'd started school; it got to the point where we put her in a double bed so that when (not if) she came to get us in the night, one of us could go and get in with her rather than laying on the bedroom floor while she settled and then waking up an hour later with a sore back, freezing cold!

My LO is now 2.5 years old and still sleeps in until 9:30. So we don’t get up early, but he does go to bed when we do. So we don’t have that precious baby-free time. Pick your poison I guess.

Enjoy the lie ins whilst they last. My newborn was like that. Then wake-ups got earlier and earlier. Now at 18m he wakes for the day at between 630 and 730.

I am not a morning person.

Except I am now 😂

Oh, ouch, that sounds painful @LBOCS2. Ok, you have my sympathy.

It's a good thing they're cute, right?

Me and dp are night owls, thankfully so is dd
As a baby her earliest ever was about 5.00 for a few weeks, then back to 9.30ish which was the norm since a week or so old.
Great while she a baby, toddler too even

Then kindy and school starts, the mornings kill us. I do everything in short cut form or prep at night so we can sleep as late as possible and just stumble out door.

If school started at 10am, we would love it, nothing has changed it, like me and dp, she tosses and turns if she in bed to early and then lies awake longer. We just night people.

Not at all! I am exactly the same and wake up of an evening but struggle in the morning. My DD slept until 11am when she was 3months right up to 2 years old. After that she did start waking at 7-8am but we just had a lazy hour or 2 in morning with pj’s. Then at 4 I taught her to make her own breakfast for the weekends. She would go downstairs, pour her cereal and milk and eat it. Then watch TV. She always had to have breakfast literally within 5 mins of waking up. Worked great for us and we had 2 more children and they all did the same! We dozed / slept until 8 or 9am at weekends. My DH would have to be up for work earlier in the week so would make breakfast etc then.

My baby is the same age and wakes up around 10am at the weekend but is woken up during the week for the school run. I think that my lack of an early bedtime routine is causing this. DD was bathed at 6pm and in bed shortly after at this age (out of necessity - she didn't sleep enough during the day) and the day started around 7am.

I'm pretty sure DSs wake up time would shift earlier if bedtime shifted earlier. As it is, he's napping on me now but will have some awake time before 'proper' bedtime after DD is in bed.

I find this works better as DS has his longest stretch of sleep after I go to bed.

Ds didn't sleep well as a baby, it took until he was at least 18 months old before he slept through, my now exh & I used to take it in shifts, I went to bed around 8.00pm, he stayed up & did feeds up to midnight, I got up at 4.00am & did early morning, had a cup of tea & toast snoozing on sofa between feeds until ds woke up properly around 7.00am, by the time exh was up I had given ds breakfast, washed, changed & dressed him, I snatched some breakfast & had a shower, got dressed & ready. It amazes me now how long I survived on broken nights for, I couldn't do it now.

My DM had such difficult nights with her first that when I arrived she hired a night nurse. It turned out to hardly be needed, because when I woke I didn't cry or disturb anyone. I have made up for it since.

Do the early risers have more than one child? There is a difference between getting up at 6am with an energetic toddler who's up for the day when you've been able to sleep through fairly undisturbed from 10pm the night before and doing the same with a young baby waking multiple times overnight. I remember DS going through a phase of waking up at 1am for a feed, then around 4/5, then sleeping till 9 or 10am. Loved it.