Do all babies wake at 5am...?

[bibiboo]

Or is mine particularly cruel to her Mummy? No matter what time she goes down, or what time she has her last meal/milk, or how dark her room is, she's up, bright as a button at 5am, rattling the cot bars to get my attention. If she sleeps until 20 past, I consider that a lovely lie-in.
Is there a scientific reason for their clockwork precision in time telling or am I just blessed with an early riser? She's 7mo btw and I am ageing rapidly.

Twiglett, I am v of your childrens' sleeping abilities. What do you give them/do to them to make them sleep so late? I will PAY for advice.
I was overjoyed at the 6am, and told loads of epople in work how pleased I was, and they just gave me odd stares because to them 6am is still stupid o'clock and not a lie-in at all.

Message withdrawn

crushed up valium in a mortar and pestle
large mallet on the head

I don't know .. they just do .. .. and sorry

dd (10 months) slept til 9.05am today!!!! SHOCK!

4:30 again today, but MIL let her sleep twice yesterday and dh is letting her have her 2nd sleep of the day as I type. Grrrrr. He's only doing that becuase it's my turn for the morning shift tomorrow, so he doesn't care what time she gets up!

Is Gina Ford worth a shot or do I have to do the whoel routine for her methods to work?

Can you really not put your foot down with the daytime napping thing? I know it must be difficult when the MIL has her, but can your DH give her a nudge as well? I think until you can give any change a good week or so it will be very difficult to tell if its going to work. Or, how about some cereal with her milk at bedtime?

No! Mine has 11 hours sleep at night exactly - and always have - so If I fancy a lie in, I simply keep her up later at night!

at 7 months your lo will probably need 2 naps a day or she will get very overtired and that can cause disturbed sleep in itself. Even Gina Ford still allows 2 naps at this age (a morning one of 45mins at 9am and another one of 2.5 hours at 12.30ish if I remember correctly)

Have you heard of the 'wake to sleep' method? Its in the babywhisperers newest book. You have to disturb your lo an hour before their normal wake up time e.g. by changing their nappy and then put them back to bed. They are not supposed to wake up fully but it re-jigs their sleep cycle and helps them to sleep later. You are supposed to try it for 3 days - the only problem is the getting up an hour earlier than them (4am in your case!!!)

I have been trying it with my dd as she started waking at 5.30am. The first night I needed a wee at about 4.20am anyway so I changed her nappy in her cot (very fiddly!) and she never started shouting on us till 6.20am. Last night she woke at about 4am standing up and crying anyway and dh lay her back down. She didnt wake up till 6.50am. It may be a coincidence but it seems to be working so far.

update on wake to sleep!! Dd slept till 7.25am this morning. Hopefully thats the end of the 5.30am wake ups for a little while.

I was just about to do the 'wake to sleep' idea when dd developed a nasty cough and was up for 3 hours solid the other night, every time she dropped off her cough would wake her, so me and her stayed up for a while, she then slept in until 8am! This morning she woke at 6, so things might be on the up, or they could just be messed up from her wakeful nights.
I well deff give it a try if the 4:30-5:30 waking continues though. Thanks

BLACK OUT CURTAINS!!!

I even had to get some for ourselves. Might not work for everyone but with these light mornings I find they made a huge difference to DD (21 months) who had always been a great sleeperbut started waking earlier and earlier. Honestly, it's only our natural bodyclock to wake up when it's light but sometimes I think we easily overlook the bleedin obvious. Has worked for me and DH too and we've stopped waking at 4am

We bought a blackout blind in Ikea over the weekend, went to fit it yesterday and we'd picked up one that was about a foot too narrow! Maybe she's punishing us by waking early because we're so dull!