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Original poster

Early Morning Waking

12 replies

caw · 06/07/2003 09:53

Hey All,

This is my first time adding a message, i'm not quite sure how this works, but, I will give it a shot. My problem is this, I have a 6 month old baby boy, I am following Gina Fords routines,everything is going great he is a very content wee man, except for his early morning waking. He goes to bed every night at between seven and eight and sleeps sound till around five when he starts to stir, he nods on and off from then till seven. He is a big baby he eats three good meals and three bottles a day, he weighs about 23lb. Do you think it's hunger thats waking him, or has anyone any tips for me.

OP posts:

SamboM · 06/07/2003 09:59

I should just leave him, he'll get into the habit of going back to sleep if you do. That's what I did with my dd and she now sleeps till 7 or 8am every day (from 7pm).

Original poster

caw · 06/07/2003 10:04

I do try to leave him, but he seems to get stuck on his belly and then starts to struggle, and wants to be put on his back. We bought him a sleeping bag thinking that might help. Ah I dont know I've tried everything else.......

OP posts:

Melly · 06/07/2003 13:06

Hello caw, welcome to Mumsnet. I agree with SamboM about leaving him to settle back to sleep if you can. Is he in your room or his own? If he's in with you maybe he stirs when comes into his light sleep and hears you, just a thought. Another thing that it may be, do you have blackout curtains or blinds, if not they could well help.
Has he always woken at this sort of time or is it a recent thing?

Original poster

caw · 06/07/2003 14:50

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated He is in his own room and has a black out blind. This has been happening for about a month now, before that he was sleeping right through. If he wakes at any other time of the night he just puts himself of to sleep again. So we have no idea what else to try????????????? This early morning waking means that I'm more or less up from 5.00am everyday.... HELP......

OP posts:

Sonnet · 06/07/2003 15:22

hi Caw,
I had this prolem with my Dd now 2.5. She use to sleep form 7.30 until about 4amish and then start to stir.
I agree with the other advice you've been given - leave him to put himself back to sleep - if you do go in treat it as the middle of the night 9 ( which it is). Dd got better and as the mornings start to darken up again that should help. Try to avoid feeding him at this time as then he will wake for the food.
Not much help i know when you're up at 5am!!
Good luck

nobby · 06/07/2003 19:11

It could just be during the summer months and his body clock has changed a little - my son (3)is waking a little earlier now it's so light in the morning and he has a blackout blind too. I think he just senses the day starting early. I'm sure he'll settle back down again.

Bobsmum · 06/07/2003 19:35

Hi caw - I agree with everyone else here - definitely not hungry - let him burble and doze and he'll soon get to love his bed!

ds did this for a few weeks until he got the message that it wasn't waking up time -now he'd sleep till 8:30am if i let him (I do at weekends - bliss!)

ds has a blackout blind and blackout curtains as well as a towel thrown over the curtain rail to block out all of the light which seems to help.

Birdsong usually starts at about 5ish so it could be that or a milkman - not much you can do about that though!

If we're staying with family, we've now got a huge roll of blackout fabric which we got from the local market and blutack that round the window frame - then it's scarily pitch black!

boyandgirl · 06/07/2003 21:31

The sleeping bag is definitely a good idea because if you always use it then in a year's time it will stop him climbing out at 5am if he is still waking then. If he's bored on his stomach then you could try leaving a couple of soft toys at the top of the cot where they won't disturb him during the night (assuming that he's a back-sleeper) and they may entertain him when he wakes at 5am. But before you try that, I agree let him try to settle himself for a couple of weeks.

Baba · 07/07/2003 13:10

Hi Caw

I had exactly the same problem - Josh slept in a sleeping bag and when he was old enough to start to turn over in it, he used to get caught and he has always woken early.

He too was a good sized baby and ate very well but insisted on waking about 5.30am!! He wouldn't go back to sleep once he was awake - I too followed Gina Ford and had (and still have) black out blinds - nothing would stop him from waking.

IN the end I just accepted that he would be up early and gave him his milk but kept the curtains closed and didn't speak to him - that way, he knew that he should go back to bed. He sometimes burbled for a while on my knee but 98% of the time, he would put his thumb in his mouth and want to go back to sleep. THen he would wake at about 7.00am.

Eventually I replaced the milk with water and he soon realised that it was not worth getting up!!!

Original poster

caw · 07/07/2003 13:21

Hey all,
Well thanks for all your words of wisdom. So last night we put him to bed as normal, but instead of just leaving him in his sleeping bag I tucked his quilt around him nice and snug, he did wake at his usual time between 5-6am we didn't go near him. When I did go in at 7.15am he was on his back. So I don't know if it was the quilt that made a difference, but I will be trying it again tonight............ Wish me luck!!!!!

OP posts:

Tazzie · 07/07/2003 22:03

I too have a big GF baby boy (10mths) and we had similar problems earlier this year. We tried everything too and I agree that leaving them to learn to sleep through that wakeful period at 5am really is the trick. But two things we tried along with everything else were ensuring he had plenty of protein in his nighttime meal and we also gave him a little snack just before his bedtime milk of some mashed banana. This is really because he is a complete GF baby and has his dinner at around 5pm so when he was waking around 5am he did seem to be hungry and I didn't want to encourage breafast that early in the day.

But sounds like you are doing fine anyway.

Good luck.

DGD · 08/07/2003 11:27

I have a 7 month old daughter (have a two and a half yr old too). She does exactly the same as your boy (although this is a routine she developed completely by herself)- wakes every morning at around 5am, plays with her cot toy, occasionally gurgles to herself and after a short while, she nods off again until her sister gets up around 7. She's a big baby like your boy and very happy. I hear her at 5, leave her to it and get her up when she wakes later. I don't think there's anything to worry about....unless you can't get back to sleep again after she wakes the 1st time!

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