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Sleep

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Original poster

Do you wake your baby in the mornings

28 replies

mandymac · 20/10/2005 09:49

I am loosely following Gina Ford with DD (17 weeks), she is waking for a feed between 4am -5.30am and then settles back to sleep. According to Gina our day should start at 7am, but dd is never awake then. So should I wake her? or leave her to sleep? and if I do what effect will this have on her bedtime? - at the moment she is asleep by 7pm every night and I don't want to mess that up.

She isn't a great napper, averaging about 2hours per day, so maybe she needs more sleep in the mornings.

Does anyone elses dd/ds sleep much more than 12 hours a night?

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BlackCat82 · 20/10/2005 09:55

Mandymac- Hi, we followed Gina Ford and we always woke dd at 7.00am, if she isn't a great napper and is awake earlier she may nap for longer in the daytimes, but if you stick to the routine it shouldn't effect her bedtime- it never did with dd anyway. Good luck!

CarlyP · 20/10/2005 09:56

i followed it religiously and got ds's up at 7am if they werent awake. really helped as they then had a morning nap and breakfast at 7am then dropped 4.30am feed quickly!

bakedpotatooooowoooh · 20/10/2005 10:14

DS will sleep 6.45pm-8am if we let him, with about 3.5 hrs worth of naps in the day. (He's nearly 9mths but has been doing this for ages.)
Don't stress too much about GF's detail: she does bludgeon one with those awful cautionary tales of People who Deviate from the schedule, but babies are more flexible than she allows (and both of mine needed more sleep than GF advised). Stick to the basic principles, they're sound, but tweak them to suit you. If it goes wrong, you can always whip back on schedule.
Having said all that, I can think of one huge advantage of regularly waking your baby in the morning. It means they don't get into the habit of waking up on their own, and shouting for attention. If your baby is used to you coming in, waking him/her up and starting the day at a time of your choosing, you're less likely (IMO) to get a child who wakes up and screams as a signal to start the day, and more likely to get a child who likes a bit of a lie-in. These children, they're worth their weight in rubies

Original poster

mandymac · 20/10/2005 10:58

I'd actually be quite happy to let her sleep to 7.30am or even 8am every morning, as at the moment, she is overtired (due to her rubbish naps!) by bedtime and I quite often have to start putting her down by 5.45pm, which I think is a bit early and a shame for her dad as he doesn't get much time with her then.

Should I just try it a few days and see what happens?

OP posts:

Original poster

mandymac · 20/10/2005 11:34

bump

OP posts:

hunkerpumpkin · 20/10/2005 11:40

I'd leave her to sleep - she might nap better if she's less tired.

PrettyCandles · 20/10/2005 11:48

I do. I loosely followed Gina with both of mine, and found her guidelines very useful. I always woke the babies at a time which was convenient for mne and would allow them to fit in all the feeds and naps they would need. At 17m babies generally need more than 2h napping, but she will also need to be tired enough to go to sleep. That means she needs to get up early enough to get tired, then you may find that the putting to bed at 5.45 turns into a shortish nap before playtime with daddy. Alternatively, if she manages to fit in a nap before lunch (for which she needs to get up by about 7.30am) and another after lunch, then she may not need another nap and have the energy to go longer before bedtime.

Don't take Gina as gospel - wonderful though she can be - both of mine needed the third nap for logner than she suggests.

nailpolish · 20/10/2005 11:50

you are kidding - right?

i would never wake a sleeping baby!

and both my babies have been the best sleepers ever

mumfor1sttime · 20/10/2005 11:51

Can I just say - how lucky for those who have to wake their LO!! My DS (9m) wakes every morning at 6.30am, wish he would lay in!!

CountessDracula · 20/10/2005 11:51

Oh goodness me no!

Are you insane?

Babies are not all programmed to be the same, GF obviously doesn't realise that

weesaidie · 20/10/2005 11:57

Not in a million years! Not that I have ever had to!

Nightynight · 20/10/2005 12:48

no I would not wake a sleeping baby!!
throw GF out of the window!

my friend apparently used to sleep more than 12 hours a night as a baby, she is perfectly normal

knickerbockerglory · 20/10/2005 12:57

My kids (just 5 and nearly 2) could sleep for Britain and generally require 11-12 hrs+ a night. Weekends we all 'sleep in' til 9.00am! They do say that children are owls or larks. Mine are definitely owls. ( downside: very late dinner everynight for us) The little one can still nap up to 3 hrs a day on top of that. They both slept through the night from 7weeks for 12 hours a night with only minor help from myself and husband ( we took away the midnight feed, had the radio on softly all night and never changed the nappy during the night. - A friend had the Contented Little Baby book and she told me the best bits but I felt it was very regimental) All babies have their own unique sleep pattern. I HAVE TO wake mine at 7.00am for school / nursery, but really they naturally wake up later. no matter if they go to bed at 7.30. 8.30 or midnight . If your baby needs 12 or so hours - stick with it kiddo! Try leaving her to sleep in the morning a little and see if it affects the bedtime.There are some great ideas out there, but what may suit one child certainly won't another. I have friends who are so rigid with their 'systems' that it totally throws the baby if she so much as gets fed half an hour late...we went for the flexible system ouselves - good sound basic structure but with bendablke rules. You are blessed - (as my sister in-law, whose kids are larks - 5.30 every morning even at 6 years old!) would say!!

Original poster

mandymac · 20/10/2005 13:38

Maybe it is a mad question. She's only started sleeping later than 6.30 - 7am ish for about the past 2 weeks, since we put her in her own room (it appears that DH and I were waking her) . So I have a rough routine based on getting up at that time and then following her sleep cues for daytime naps.

Trouble is, she only naps for between 30 and 45 mins at a go, so I have to try and get her down for 3-4 naps a day to even get 2 or rarely 3 hours daytime sleep for her. She does seem to need this much daytime sleep (if not more), and on days when we only get 2 hours, is really fractious by bedtime and needs putting down early (upstairs and feeding by 5.45pm) and its a real struggle to settle her.

Hence I'm concerned that if she sleeps much later than 7.30am, she won't get enough naps and will then be even more het up at bedtime. Or, will a longer night sleep mean she will need less naps anyway - this is my real question I suppose. Maybe I just need to suck it and see?

Believe me I am grateful to even be posting this question, as I know that many others have far greater sleep issues than this one, as we did until a month or so ago. Hence my reluctance to mess with a routine that's pretty much working at the moment.

OP posts:

flamebat · 20/10/2005 13:51

It could be that she is just like my DD... doesn't want daytime naps! Never did from day one, and still is only occasional now (2 1/2)

bonym · 20/10/2005 13:59

DD (7mths) is currently sleeping from 6.30pm until about 5.30-6.00am, having a feed and then going back to sleep. I usually have to wake her about 8.20am as I have to get DD1 off to school.

She probably has max 2hrs worth of naps in the daytime (2.5 at a push).

Pomi · 20/10/2005 21:23

No i never wake them up instead they (age 10 and 21 months) wake me up around that GF time I give them their bottles and go back to sleep till they play in their cots and when their screaming and shouting become unbearale to sleep i wake up.

Pomi · 20/10/2005 21:24

unbearable i mean.

busywizzy · 21/10/2005 10:24

My DS (just 7 months) sleeps from 7pm until 5.30/6.00am, has a feed and goes back to sleep until about 7.30am. Never in a million years would I wake him up, I think that's completely bonkers Having said that, I know people who do wake their babies and it works for them.

He goes back down for a nap after about 1.5/2 hours of being awake and recently has started sleeping for almost 2 hours. He has another nap after lunch and again sleeps for 1.5/2 hours. I was really worried that getting so much sleep in the day would affect his night but it's had the opposite effect and he's now doing better than ever.

A book I read said longer naps than 30-45 minutes don't really come until a baby is at least 4 months old (something to do with maturity of the brain) and this was definately true of my DS.

I've found that he's found his own routine and as a result, is the happiest bubba ever

Enid · 21/10/2005 10:26

I did. woke them every morning at 7am otherwise I would never have had a life.

both fab sleepers. I did Gina Ford with dd1 but didnt bother with dd2.

Original poster

mandymac · 21/10/2005 11:03

very interesting to read what others do. dd woke up by herself at 7.30am this morning which suits me fine. I think I will play it by ear, if I fancy a lie in and she doesn't wake up, so be it. If we have stuff to do then I might wake her - that way she won't come to be in such a rigid routine. A nice flexible option. - wish me luck

OP posts:

PrettyCandles · 21/10/2005 23:07

IIRC dd needed at least 4 naps a day to get through the day. She couldn't stay awake for longer than 1.5h. I think she was about 4-5m before she was able to manage on 3 naps totalling the same amount of daytime sleep as she had been having before.

With both of mine I definitely find that the mnore daytime sleep they had the better they settled at night and teh better they slept. Even now, at 2.9y, dd will be very restless and will cry every 90mins or so for the first half of the night if she misses her daytime nap two days in a row.

Chandra · 21/10/2005 23:25

Back to the original question... I do and I did, he is a fussy eater and if he is not awoken at 8 the latest, he ends up having a late breakfast, will miss his day nap, will lunch late and then he will be overtied by the time of dinner and will refuse to eat a thing before going to sleep. So... I respect the routine just to keep his weight on. However, breaking the routine once in a while doesn't cause a lot of trouble. HTH

MarsLady · 21/10/2005 23:27

Nope! I don't wake them

Sarahx2005 · 21/10/2005 23:28

Nope - I've hardly ever woken a sleeping baby unless we really had to be somewhere. I am a great believer in routines but not by the clock routines. My daughter is 18 months and has a two hour sleep during the day. It varies when she goes down for her nap but she very often sleeps through lunch, I just give her something to eat when she wakes!
Sarah x

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