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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Getting DS to sleep past 5am

42 replies

LittleMilla · 11/06/2012 09:38

I have been hanging out in sleep for ages on this, but thought I'd try here for any inspiration from those that have gone through this. We're desperate.

My DS is 14 months and almost consistently (bar a two week blissful break) has woken up at about 5am since he was 9 mo.

We have tried to jiggle his daytime naps - he's much happier having a long sleep in the morning and then 40 mins in the afternoon - usually totally about 2 hours. We've moved bedtime earlier, later etc. But NOTHING seems to make a difference. When he goes down later he'll still wake up at the same time, but then just sleep longer for his nap.

DH has said we ought to try getting him on one nap a day and we've just packed DS off to nursery asking them to give it a whirl today.

Will this be the 'magic bullet' and how long should we wait before expecting to see any results??

OP posts:

brightonbleach · 13/06/2012 10:05

keep at it, it takes about a week for a new 'habit' to form... the 1 nap a day or shorter overall napping time will have an effect shortly! mine loves books and we have always left a couple of books at the end of his cot and when he was adjusting his wake-up time he used to sit up between 5 and 6am, 'read' a couple of them then drop back off till 7 by himself... now he still loves to have a pile of books on the bed and will 'read' for about 20mins when he wakes these days between 7.30 and 8 before shouting for us to "waaake up!" :)

Original poster

LittleMilla · 13/06/2012 10:46

I've just let him have an hour (woke him up) and will pop him in the buggy for later to ensure shorter nap at about 2pm.

Dh is away until Friday. I'm working tomorrow and will ask the babysitter to keep him up, but I often need the am sleep when the bugger has woken up so early .

OP posts:

tootiredtothinkofanickname · 13/06/2012 10:59

LittleMilla, strong coffee is the answer? and then some more strong coffee? 5.15am for us today, but he slept through from 7pm, I went to bed at 9pm so I actually feel ok. He has one nap a day now, but around 10am as the CM can?t keep him up until lunchtime, however he has been fine until bedtime (albeit a bit cranky). I?ll see how this goes, but to be honest I?m resigned with early wakings for a while, I just hope he will continue to sleep through.

4.45 am is horrible though, hopefully it was a bleep.

Craving, thank you so much for the link, I think I?ll give the blinds a go. Anything for a bit of sleep?

Original poster

LittleMilla · 13/06/2012 19:28

Right, so DS had a 40 min-er this pm and gone down without a fuss again 20 mins ago.

He's had a late trip to the park in an attempt to wear him out bit more (was sweating when we left and I had a proper big boy toddler meltdown too!). Then he had some banana and bisciut before bath.

So we'll see if anything makes any difference. I am not hopeful, but will now have a quick G&T and grab an early night!!

OP posts:

JuliaScurr · 13/06/2012 19:36

www.amazon.co.uk/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp/0863181228

worked for me and 2 friends

Original poster

LittleMilla · 13/06/2012 19:43

Thanks Julia.

Having skimmed through the reviews lots of people are talking about broken nights. My DS self-settles and sleeps through, but just wakes up ruddy early.

Is this the problem you had (and the book helped solve?) If so, I will obviously buy it now...but just wanted to check!

Thank you x

OP posts:

brightonbleach · 13/06/2012 20:36

fingers crossed for a later wake-up time for you in the a.m., I remember having to go to bed by 9pm each night to cope with the 5am start (and needing to go back to bed by about 9am as it felt like we'd had a full days stint by that time!!!!) :)

tootiredtothinkofanickname · 13/06/2012 20:47

LittleMilla, my DS had a similar day. He had a 40 min pm nap and went to the park with DH in the evening. He went down without a fuss at 7.30pm.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, but so far a later bedtime hasn't made any difference. I'll be happy if he sleeps through TBH, beggars can't be choosers... On a different note, I'm determined to give the blackout blinds a try in the next couple of weeks.

Off to bed now... I hope you enjoyed the G&T :)

facejacker · 13/06/2012 21:18

littlemilla, 4.30am for me this morning :( And I had a full day at work. But he had a 2.5 hour daytime nap yesterday (11.30-2) so I think that accounted for it. Asked the CM to limit it to 2hours today so will see how it goes.

In reply to ur question, put him down at 11.30 but trying to slowly stretch it back to 12.30.

tootiredtothinkofanickname · 14/06/2012 08:50

How is everyone this morning? 5.40am for us, but DS was awake at 4.30am and took 15-20 mins to settle... hmmmm...

Original poster

LittleMilla · 14/06/2012 12:13

5:50am. He woke up an hour earlier but managed to resettle himself v.quickly.

I think my DH's theory is correct. He thinks that DS needs to be asleep by 7:15pm so that his sleep cycles allow him to stir at say 4:30am, but it's still dark enough not to think it's time to wake up! He always tends to stir at c.4:30am, but whether or not he goes back to sleep seems to depend on how late he went to bed - later it is, worse it seems to be.

Does that make sense?

He was getting grumpy at 9:30am ish so I put him down for an hour and a bit. Had a demi nap myself and have now left him with babysitter to come and do some work...I've said to try him for a short nap at 2pm, but not push it too much and not let him sleep past 3pm.

OP posts:

JuliaScurr · 14/06/2012 12:27

Hope today's a bit easier.

That book covers all bases, libraries often stock it

Our probs were all different, book helped with all

Original poster

LittleMilla · 14/06/2012 15:57

Thanks julia I will definitely give it a whirl.

OP posts:

brightonbleach · 14/06/2012 16:50

I agree with the 'asleep by 7.15' cycle, it always works best for us :)

StealthToddler · 14/06/2012 17:24

My ds1 used to get up near 5 and it got to the point 6am was considered a lie in. Got better as he got older but putting to bed later made no difference at all. Once he got to 2.6 we started using a bunny clock and started gradually moving the get up time later and later with a reward if he waited in bed such as stickers or chocolate buttons. By the time ds2 moved in with him when ds1 was 3.4 and ds2 2.10, he trained ds2 for us! I now have ds3 who is getting up at 6.10 every day but I know when he is older I can train him. Some kids just are early risers. Our oldest 2, now 3 and 4, wait most of the time till bunny wakes up at 7 before charging around the house. But it is exhausting.

Original poster

LittleMilla · 14/06/2012 21:18

Brighton he struggled to go off tonight and didn't go quiet until 7:40am. I ought to be getting ready for bed as I am pretty sure tomorrow will be an early one. YIKES!

Stealth I don't want to get all PFB, but I really think my DS understands A LOT and am tempted to get one of these things sooner rather than later. He was standing up throughout his bath today and so I jokingly said that I'll have to shower him if he carries on, at which point he laughed and turned to point at shower! If I ask him if he wants to go for sleepy time/bath/food etc he'll reply "yep". I dunno. I don't think he's ready yet, but thinking in a couple of months he might be?

OP posts:

StealthToddler · 16/06/2012 21:21

Always worth a try with a sleep trainer clock if u think he might understand. They say from a certain age but I agree kids understand earlier. Ours has a picture of a bunny asleep which changes to a bunny awake... Easy to understand and great for taking on holiday, adjusting to time changes etc....

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