Help - Dd (11m) suddenly getting up at 5am!

[Maggietess]

My DC3 is my absolute angel baby. He's great. Sunny tempered, great eater, good sleeper. This has been very novel for me!!

But around 8 weeks ago he started waking looking for a bottle between 5 and 6 and would then go back over to sleep happily til around 7/730. We tried upping food near bedtime, making sure he always had his bedtime bottle and putting his music on via the monitor which sometimes just settled him without the bottle. But it seemed to continue so we were just riding with a little bit since he's so good.

BUT (sobs) he has now decided 5am is his new getting up time, he is bouncing round the place, chatting and jumping up, no chance that he goes back over. We've tried ignoring the protesting for a while but it just gets louder and then dds get wakened which is disastrous for their form later in the day.

Anyone any suggestions - DH and I are alternating early starts at the mo but it's breaking us!!

Oh and we've tried a later bedtime but doesn't work, if anything makes it worse!!

Oh and we've tried a later bedtime but doesn't work, if anything makes it worse!!

Have you tried giving him supper? Banana is good. Does he have a blackout blind? Have you tried making bedtime later by just 15 minutes every 3 days or so and giving it a chance to have a knock in effect?

dancemom we've tried the supper and he does have a blackout blind.
Haven't tried phasing in a later bedtime just as slowly as that, it's a bit of a vicious cycle as he's so shattered we're having to really stretch him just to get him to 7 o'clock!!

Is there something making a noise at that time that's waking him up, perhaps the neighbours going out or the boiler clicking on or another child stirring or a bird twittering? Could you perhaps try white noise in the background to drown it out?

Either that or do you think he'd respond to training him to at least stay in his room and playing/sleeping/entertaining himself until a more reasonable time? Perhaps a gro clock or a light/radio on timer and he can't disturb the others until a specific time?

Does he still nap during the day? It sounds mad but the more tired they are, ime, the worse they sleep. Perhaps jiggle nap times so he has one long, or 2 short daytime naps and see if that makes a difference? Or even put him to bed a little earlier if he's knackered by 7?

Sorry, I have no more suggestions!

mumofboyo thanks for all your suggestions!
Def not the neighbours, we definitely wake them with the noise of our ones! Might be birds though, I have noticed them myself. We are moving house soon so maybe there'll be less noise outside his window in next one.
We've tried the play on for a while for a few weeks now, sometimes it works okay and gets you an extra 45 mins or so but other days he just wants up and if you leave him you end up with all three of them awake as he is loud and his room adjoins the girls!!

I'm definitely a believer in the more they sleep they more they sleep! He naps well during the day (normally two of an hour/hour and a half each) but might try a couple of nights letting him go earlier to see if that the kickstarts the sleep again. We did that a few months ago and it seemed to work.

I know it might just be his age (and teeth - everything is always blamed on teeth! ). I seem to recall my other two at a similar age getting up early although they were both far worse sleepers than him.

Even if we could just get to 630 I'd be happyish happy but 5 is just torture!

You won't want to hear this but DS is an early bird. At that age it was 430am every day, he'd be totally bright and breezy and ready for the day. Slowly it has got better of its own accord, as nothing I did made any difference. He now wakes at 615 but it's taken til he's 3 years old.

I do think that some babies are early risers, unfortunately.

HP I think that's totally true but with dds who were both also early risers we were able to tinker with food/blinds/routine and eventually got 630. Now that dd1 is 5 she would happily sleep til 730/8 if noone else woke her up but he others aren't there yet!

I guess I was hoping I'd forgotten something magical in the intervening years and you would all just remind me of it . Oh well off to bed early tonight! Not good as DH and I are night owls!

You have to go to bed at 10pm. That is all.

It's just a phase, and it stops IME. In the meantime it's far easier to change your routine.

Big plus is you can get ahead of the day, get your laundry done, get dinner prepared and a quick whizz round the park before the others have opened their eyes.

The downside is you have no life of your own.

Have you tried an earlier bedtime rather than a later one. I'm not there with my DS - we've just hit 8m sleep regression :-( but a friend of mine had the same problem with her little girl. She's two now and still goes to bed at half 6 sleeping through to half 7/8 o'clock. My friend tried the extra food, later bed, set routine (which was in place before but she made it really strict) but nothing worked so she tried earlier to bed and worked a treat.

ohforfoxsake in my head I know the easiest thing is to change our routine but honestly I feel like throwing myself out his window at 5am...i am the grumpiest sod in the world at that time with the exception of dh no matter what time I went to bed! Will aim to be in bed by 10 tonight though as I know you're right!

I gave him some extra porridge tonight so we will see if that helps, but I think I'll also try and untying him down at half 6 tomorrow to see if that works.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll let you know when if something works!

Just noticed I called him dd in the title, whoops he's definitely a boy!

Feel your pain ds is 15 months and gets up at 5-530 I absolutely hate it !! Really feel poisonously angry at that time of day

I think the answer is probably to be tough and do as above says - go in , lie next to cot going shhhh for an hour and Never let then get up before 6 ..but I worry about annoying our neighbours if he is shouting or crying ...,

My DS did this from 10 - 11.5 mo and I tried lots of things to no avail then he one day just decided to sleep really late (10am!!!) and from then on has risen around 7am (instead of 5.10). I was anxious an early bed would make it worse so am interested to hear how that goes.

They do this for a bit, and then they stop.

Hi DS is an early riser between 5-6.15am everyday. It's painful but much worse in the winter when the mornings are dark.

We have tried everything but not much success really, blackout blinds etc don't seem to make much of a difference. It started getting bad after I stopped bf (I think I must have used to just feed back to sleep at 5am).

He is now 22months and I'm unfortunately resigned to it now and just have earlier nights. One thing someone suggested but I can't try as we don't get in from work early enough but to actually bring the bedtime 30mins earlier. Apparently it worked for my friend

520am this morning

So I now have a two part plan for tonight. I think he may be cold so we are going to go for heavier jammies. And we are bringing bedtime forward by 30 mins.

Full of optimism that one of these will work!

I've also read somewhere that having a long morning nap can make early waking more likely...something about babies using the morning nap to catch up on night sleep?

It took 3-4 nights with my friend for the earlier bedtime to work.

Also pushing morning nap back helped a bit when Das was younger but now he naps 1-3 and still wakes early!

Das = DS

I had this with my daughter when she was younger we discovered it was because she was thirsty. Even now she goes to bed with water. We also did lots of ignoring which was really hard at the time but worth it now. We had one of those cups that don't leak even if they are upside down.

melisma he's definitely using a morning nap now to catch up on his night time sleep but that has only happened since getting up early so it's a bit of a catch 22.

Before when he got up at 7 his nap was around 11am for 2 hours then perhaps a catchup 40 mins at around 4.

Now he's up between 5/530 back down again by 830 as he's exhausted. Up at around 945. Then back for a sleep around 12 for hour and a half and another hour then at 4.
It's def screwed up at the mo but ime with the older two if you try and cut back on daytime naps you end up making them overtired which is then far worse for nighttime.

I think the additional sleep ie bed at 630 is the first thing to try as he's always been a baby who has needed lots of sleep. He still did 3 sleeps a day until around 9 months and 3 long sleeps at that and slept all night. So maybe now he's on the move that's meaning he's extra tired again and e overtiredness is waking him up iykwim??!! confusing!

I seem to recall reading somewhere that when they are starting to cruise they are so busy practising their new skills that it disturbs their sleep. Anyone else hear of this or am I making it up!!!

Maggietess you're definitely not making that up-both wonder weeks and ask moxie my sole sources of comfort in the early days with DS talk about a sleep regression at 12 months ish. This too shall pass. Good luck

Thanks Melisma. It seems like you just get one of them sleeping and the next one says haha no full night's sleep yet!! He's got cosy jammies on tonight and went down at 630 having had a good tea and 2 naps of 1½ hours each... It's all gonna be good she keeps telling herself whilst rocking on the sofa crazy lady style!