taking 5 mo DD into bed at dawn waking

[ExistentialistCat]

DD2's sleep is all over the place. Dreadful naps, waking 2-3 times a night for feeds. Most recently, she's started having awake thrashing spells of a couple of hours in the middle of the night, or from 4-ish onwards. If the awake spell is in the middle of the night, I usually ride it out until she falls back asleep in her cot. But if it's at 4, that's not a lot of time until waking up anyway and I've found that I can get a bit more precious sleep if I take her into bed with me. I'm worried that this is creating bad habits but I am just soooo knackered.

She can self-settle and does so without any problems at the beginning of the night and for most of her night wakings, so it's not that. I'm trying so hard with her naps and the usual pattern is half an hour between 9 and 10, half an hour between 11 and 12, and a longer stretch later in the afternoon. It's particularly hard because DD1 is only 20 months old, so I can't spend hours rocking/patting/shushing but have to work around her as best I can.

ANy advice? Can I do anything about this or do I just need to grit my teeth and ride it out?

Hi - I'm not sure that I can be of any help, but I want to let you know that we are in the same boat - DS is 7.5mo and self settles for 2 good naps in the day and self settles at night when he goes down at bed-time. but when he wakes up in the night, he needs help, and we do bring him into our bed at about 4/5 when he wakes up - rod for our back? maybe, but it works!!

No advice, but watching with interest as we do the same. DS is 15 weeks, naps during the day, goes to sleep well at 7/8pm. He wakes for a feed usually around 2/3am (although last night he decided he wanted feeding at 11pm as well) but for the past few weeks he has been waking at 5ish and, like you said, thrashing around for no reason. He sometimes wakes up screaming and, as you do, if I get him in with us he goes back to sleep and sleeps for a few hours - today until 8.30.

Also watching with interest my ds 6m is the same and I'm doingt the same it seems that I'm not the only one! I never wanted to go down the path of bringing him into bed with me but one morning it was one 5 o clck start too many !

Cat, does she go back to sleep once you put her in your bed?

5.25 was morning time here. Is there anything we can do about this? DD is 8 months. It just instantly puts me into a bad mood for the day, and I start to panic that come 4pm DD will be knackered, and the last few hours of the day will be absolute hell.

We've never co-slept, DD hates lying down beside us and just kicks and cries. It seems counter-intuitive to try to get her to sleep in our bed, but it's the only thing we've not tried!

[Why isn't there a knackered emoticon?]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this! Yes, DD2 does settle easily when I bring her into bed with me and shove a nipple in her mouth, but it doesn't strike me as a long term solution! And although I manage to doze and get more sleep like this than with her screaming, it's not proper sleep either.

FWIW a sleep clinic consultant told me a couple of months ago not to worry about bringing her into bed with me in the early hours as long as she's settling well at night. She said that it becomes progressively harder for babies to get back to sleep as night turns into morning, as they've had a stretch of sleep already. Mind you, that was when DD2 was about 12 weeks...

I would love to hear from people whose children were the same at 6 months and who magically dropped their dawn wakings without any rods having been created for any backs !

Yes, I need to here from them too! It's all very well hoping they'll grow out of it, but judging by the posts on here from parents if 3 year olds still waking at dawn, it's not guaranteed!

Ditto - the early starts are driving me crazy and really need to hear some good advice or hear someone tell me that it sorts itself out...

Just a thought, is it worth putting in AIBU? Just conscious that those lurking on the sleep forum probably all have bad sleepers so may not have the answer.

I thought Iam the only one who is experiencing so with my six month daughter she naps 3 times a day each nap for max.half an hour and she sleeps around 11 .30pm and I start the horrible trip which unfournately ends that she sleeps with me in my bed she wakes up twice first time well she isn't hungry but at the second time she needs the bottle well it end that I transfer her to My bed(((

We do this too, I really don't see the harm. Anything that gets us some more sleep!

DD is 6 mo and I can get another hour in the am, sometimes 2 - if I bring her into bed with me at 5 or 6 am. Apparently when they start crawling they wear themselves out and sleep better.

Same here. DS (4 months) is a good sleeper and self settler but has taken to babbling away loudly early in the morning, or fusses and thrashes about for ages in the night before farting really loudly. I regularly co-sleep from the early morning waking. It keeps me sane!

Practically everyone I know foes this with young children. I do it with DD3.

Mine grew out of it at around 2.

And another one here! DD used to be a good sleeper, and I know she can self settle when she first goes to bed, but now at almost 5 months is waking around 3 times a night.
I'll get up and feed her when she wakes in the night because I can't sleep properly with her in with us (she fidgets and wriggles constantly) but come 5am when I know I've had enough sleep to be able to doze, she comes in with us. She's breastfed so I just latch her on and she dozes off.

My worry isn't necessarily about the early wakings, but the fact that a tired mummy means a nice warm bed, a cuddle and a nipple in her mouth for at least an hour! She's not going to want to give that up is she?

I always took Ds into bed when he was little and woke early. We would laze around sleeping and BFing until about 10. It gradualky stopped as he slept in later of his own accord and by the tine he was 10 ish months he'd stopped coming into our bed all together. Now he is 21 mths and rarely awake before 8 and more usually 8.30 or 9 ish. Perfect for me. I am not a morning person