Is this my life forever now?!

[lancsgirl85]

So.. I think the answer to this is "yes, you will never lie in ever again" but just to check in case there's a glimmer of hope...

My 13 month old has started to sleep through the night probably 5 nights out of 7, so we are lucky in that respect. However, why, for the love of God, does she think 5.30am is an acceptable time to get up every single morning?!

Usually I get up and take her downstairs to play and breakfast etc, but this morning I just couldn't face it and brought into the playpen in my bedroom while I dozed on and off and she played. I felt guilty but I am exhausted with the early starts. I'd like just one day a week where I can lie in until 7.30/8am. Just one.

I mean, she gets up so offensively early, that her "mid morning" nap is now, at 9am! I'm typing this as she snoozes in my arms on the sofa.

Am I ever going to lie in til 7.30 ever again? Am I doomed? 😫

(Semi lightheaded but also please tell me there is hope of a lie in one day before I turn 40)

Stop putting her to early. Let her get up and play for a few evening so you can rest her body to night time sleeps, mine by 3 hated to get up .

It will slowly get better and eventually you will get a lie in, unless you have more babies. My youngest is now 8 and still gets up at about half five but will get dressed have breakfast and watch TV until we get up.

It will get better OP. Even if she's still getting up at 5:30am when she's 6 or so she'll be able to get up herself while you doze!

Do you have a partner? Can't he let you have a lie in sometimes if you do?

Is the baby’s father on the scene? When ours wakes early we take it in turns to do the early shift so the other one can sleep for another hour

@Bollindger

She goes to bed anywhere between 7.45-8.45pm, depending on how much she is fighting sleep that particular evening. We start her bedtime routine at 7.15pm and sometimes she's still fussing in her cot at 8.45pm before she finally gives up the fight. I'm not sure how we can make it any later.

It changes once they are 14 years old and then you will be the one who is up, dressed, breakfast eaten and cleared away while they are still in bed at midday.

Yes her Dad is around but his work shifts don't always allow him to do the early starts with her. He's been on night shifts this week for example, so came in at 7am and went to bed. He helps where he can.

I know it’s ages away but mine are 10 and 13 and aren’t up before 9am at weekends unless we need to be somewhere 😊 and it’s a long time since I heard from them before 8am except school/work days when we’re all up

It sounds like you need to cut back daytime naps.

Sorry OP but I actually think young babies and toddlers are hardwired to a 5:30 start. We just had custom made blackout blinds made at huge expense to try and stop the dawn wake up. The room is pitch dark.

the baby now sleeps until 5:37.

Do you have blackout blinds? If not, I would get some. It's light at 530am, and baby won't know the difference between 530am and 730am. It does get better.

Mine are grown up now. But, I have my own business which means that I have to be up at 630am, 7 days a week. It's gruelling and I could sometimes cry when my watch starts tapping me at that time. No lie in's here until I go away in September.

Nothing wrong with leaving her in the play pen or transferring to a camp cot in her room each morning so you can doze. We always put books in the cot with mine from about that age and they are generally quite happy to look at them and sing to themselves.

😂 oh god. Those extra 7 minutes sound like bliss though......

I'm with MoastyToasty on this one. DD15 now emerges at the crack of noon. Sadly I've been so conditioned by those 5:30 am starts that I'm now incapable of sleeping beyond about 7 (probably not what you want to hear).

I wanted to cry 🤣 went to bed so excited about the baby sleeping until maybe 7, it was like going to bed on Christmas Eve as a kid. What a crushing disappointment!

I actually felt guilty for leaving her to entertain herself in her play pen for half an hour or so, but I just couldn't face another 5.30am start 😫 She seemed happy enough babbling away with her toys and books. I wasn't sleeping properly if that makes sense, just dozing.

to be fair if I take my DS into the spare bed with me I can sometimes persuade him to doze with me for another hour…but it’s hit and miss and I have to put up with his clawing spider fingers in my face, yanking bits of hair and high pitched shrieking in my ear, so it’s not really worth it.

My 5 am-er remained a 5am-er for the best part of primary school. She was in bed by 7ish most nights, Later bedtimes just meant she woke up proper grumpy. We tried grow clock and similar (she reprogrammed them) and clock changes were hell for a week after.

I mostly coped when she was very little by letting her clamber into my bed and watch telly in the mornings whilst I snoozed. I packed up and watched telly on bed/slept straight after she went to bed a few times too.

Eventually she took herself downstairs and watched morning telly.

Tbf in the end she seemed like a dream as her younger brother turned out to have SN and slept even less!!

You may find sleep sounds soundtracks do actually help. When she was little she had a little Mozart mobile that went EVERYWHERE. Now as a teen she still has sleep sounds on her phone.

Don't feel guilty about play pen time while you snooze. When mine were younger I dozed while they watched monsters inc on my phone on those 5am wake ups, which at the time feel like they will never end!!

However, they do. My youngest is 10 now, I've had 4 kids so had many years of those god awful mornings, and his 5ams stopped once he started nursery. Granted it only moved to 530 and by the time he was at school it was struggle to get him out of bed!

Unfortunately, like a pp, now if I sleep late I feel like crap!

You definitely did nothing wrong letting her babble away and amuse herself, that’s going to be a good skill for her to have! I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes you’d sell your granny for just 15 minutes of not having to open your eyes.

🤣 I'm familiar with the spider claw fingers in the face (and up the nose). DD finds this hilarious and giggles her head off (especially at 5.30am)

It gets better, my DD is still usually up before 7am but is now big enough she can go downstairs and work the tv by herself. For the toddler years I put a tv in our room with CBeebies on, and once she got big enough to understand the concept a gro-clock worked well.

Hang in there! DD used to wake up at ungodly hours in the morning at that age. It did get better eventually and from age 3 onwards she actually turned into a right little teenager who lover her lie-ins. Now we have DC2 of course, so here we go again with the 5:30 wakeups sigh

I was just thinking this. No more morning naps, one long one around lunchtime.