Another early riser

[porpoisefull]

DS is 18 months and has gone from waking up around 6-6.30 to waking at 5.30 and now to waking at 5am. We had meant to try just lying him back down and leaving the room when he wakes so early, but we live in a flat with paper-thin walls and if he wails for more than a couple of minutes at 5am it wakes the neighbours. He's still having two naps in the day usually. The day before yesterday we managed to cut it down to one. Yesterday he had two 40 minute naps and was knackered in the afternoon, but no effect on morning waking.

Has anyone succeeded in getting their DC to sleep later by cutting back naps? Should we stop giving him a bottle as soon as he wakes up? Is there anything else we can do? His bedtime is 7.25 and I'd be quite happy if he'd just sleep till 6!

Thanks

Early rising is tough to crack. I think one nap a day at 18 months is achievable and can contribute towards the overall sleep rhythms. An hour and a half in the middle of the day rather than two 40 minute naps should in theory make him less tired in the afternoon. Once you have one nap established, you can work out how long / short this needs to be for your DS.

I'm trying with DS2 at the moment but some days it's just not possible to keep him awake past 9am!! Getting better though and wake up times are also starting to improve - he is 23 months though.

It is also worth limiting your intervention at bedtime and allowing him to wind down and fall asleep on his own without a feed / bottle at bed time so that when he comes into a light sleep state in the early hours he can settle back to sleep without needing you. He should have his last feed before bath / stories. A later feed does not necessarily make them sleep longer in the morning.

It takes a while for changes to have an impact so don't expect it to change overnight - I would continue with a change for around 2 weeks before you "give up".

Dr Marc Weissbluth (Happy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) suggests an earlier bed time which worked for my DD. She was waking before 6 with a 7pm bed time, moving it to 6:30 moved her waking time to 6:30am.

And finally, if you are still getting up before 6 in a few months time, I have used the "light on" technique with DS1 and DS2 at 23 months where you talk them through the "sleep rules" and tell them they should stay asleep until their light comes on (cheap Homebase timer attached to a dim lamp) and cheer lots when they do!! You could try this earlier, I've been surprised with both that they got this concept!

Good Luck!

Some excellent tips, misty, thank you.

I also have an early riser - DS, 17 months, up every morning at 5 or 5h30, no matter what time we put him to bed, ever since the clocks went back in October. It's been so hard. I can't wait for them to go forward again in March, we'll get a 6-month reprieve.

Our problem is he catches up on sleep during the hour-long commute in the car every morning, and there's nothing we can do about that.

bunny 5/5:30 is hell's own place - and I've been there with all three of mine! Could you poke him and feed him sweets for the entire commute!!

I've been pretty fed up when my DS2 is asleep in the buggy by the time I get my older children to school - especially when it's his morning with his childminder as he sleeps on her watch, then not after lunch on mine!! No early sleeping at half term - I'm hoping to crack it this week!!

It's not just the catching up that is the problem, somehow it's when all the stars line up and it all comes together - I hope you get there soon!!

Hello fellow parents of early birds! I just thought I'd share that I'm trying wake-to-sleep with our 12mo dd. The theory is that by waking them slightly a while before their natural wake up time, they continue sleeping.

So we started this morning. I went in at 4.30am (an hour before her usual horrific wake up time) and jostled her a little. She grunted and rolled over. Then slept til 6.15am, which may sound early to some, but as any parent of an early riser knows, is more than fine to us!

So far, so good. I must say though that it's not unheard of for her to sleep past 6am, in fact she was doing just that for a while until she got ill last week . So it may just be a coincidence.

But I will try this again tomorrow, and report back, if anyone's interested?

Oooh, you're brave, shush, have never built up the courage to do wake-to-sleep myself, it's the only thing we haven't tried! Let us know how it goes tonight.

I was home with DS today (I don't work Wednesdays) and he went from 5am to 7pm with one nap of 12, yes twelve, minutes...YAWN...I'm exhaused!

Wishing everyone strength for tomorrow morning!

Waiting to hear about shush's wake to sleep experience tonight... may try it myself but also too scared!!!

wake-to-sleep interesting!!

In your position, I'd try
-milk at 10.30/11pm
-milk in morning
-cutting nap
-wake to sleep

then
-earlier bedtime.

I know it sounds weird but our dc are more likely to sleep later (disclaimer: by 'later' i mean 6 or very, very occasionally 6.30am) if they are in bed earlier. it also means we get an evening, and don't stress about them being too tired. We forfeit our right to moan about 5am starts but the payoff is we get them in bed by 6/6.30pm - and no battle

Ha! Well here I am on the internet, and I've been up since 5.45am! Did WTS again, she woke at 5.25am but self-settled.... for 20 more mins. I'm not giving up yet though. These things take a few days to work, right?

May seem like a long way off, but at 3yrs our 5am riser now sleeps consistently past 6 (not much past 6 but there you go!), it just seemed to happen on its own!

At 2 years our early riser (4.45am to 5.00am from 12 to 19 months). now sleeps till 7am which I never would have dreamt of! This happened on it's own. Like Adair our coping strategy during the early waking phase was making sure DD was in bed for 6pm and we went at 9pm!

Shush These things definetly take time - I would give it at least a week. I did something similar with a younger baby who was waking lots at night and it worked so I think I can see that taking her to a higher sleep level and allowing her to start the next sleep cycle without completely waking could work - keep going and fingers crossed!!

Well, well, well, DS slept until 6am this morning After having had NO naps yesterday. So could the key for us be surpressing all naps, and having a screaming child from 5pm to bedtime, but then getting a "lie-in"? ARrrggghhhh!!!!

caz, noooo, don't tell me it took until age 3?! I'm due another mid-August...what if this next one doesn't sleep until age 3 either?

I'm Pg too, due end of may, so have enjoyed something like a measly 6mths of sleep before it all starts again, Garrrr! Hopefully yours will do it sooner than 3!

For those pregnant ones - I resorted to seeing a sleep consultant just before my second DC was due as couldn't contemplate doing night feeds then the day starting at 5:30!! Her suggestions were as above with a reward chart though when you've paid someone £90 (some years ago) you do give it a good go!!

Oh well, that lasted one night - DS awake at 5h34 this morning. Although he did have a 1.5hr nap in the afternoon at the childminder's. So maybe my no-nap theory still holds.

Reward charts are a good idea misty, but from what age can you use them? I'm pretty sure DS at 17 months wouldn't understand them?

Congrats on your pregnancy, caz, although it's knackering having such early starts, isn't it! I just thank my lucky stars that DS does actually sleep through the night very consistently, which is not the case for everyone. It's just these early risings which are the killer.

shush, any more progress on wake-to-sleep?

Er...no... she was up for a good 45 mins in the night teething (cutting four teeth at once, hardcore!) so I didn't have the heart to stir her at 4.30am.

She woke up at 6.15am which was good (though I'm not sure it counts as she had been up for so long in the night!).

We're going away this weekend so will no doubt be back to square one.

I have to say, I was reminded at 1.30am that sleeping through til 5.30am is really not too shabby! Maybe I should just stop complaining...

How's everyone doing with their silly o'clock wake ups?

We've had 5.34 on the dot for 4 days running - it's like Groundhog Day.

Big Yawn.