It's 5 a.m. and I want to play with Mummy

[fisiltoe]

Mummy, on the other hand wants to sleep.

Ds2 just wants to play at 5a.m.

We've dropped all night feeds except the 10:30 dream feed, and he isn't hungry.

I can't cuddle him back to sleep because if I hold him he bounces up and down, laughs, grabs at things, tries to make me play with him.

I'm a big fan of controlled crying (that's how we dropped the nighttime waking), but any time after 5 and it wakes ds1 who is getting really ratty because he's so tired because he needs to sleep longer.

If it is about 5:45, 6am when he wakes, as it sometimes is, we just put on his light, put him on the floor with plenty of toys and a CD playing and let him play on his own. But he needs an adult every 10 minutes or so.

Help. Is there something I can do, or is this just payback for having had such a good sleeper first time round?

Hi how old is ds2? Do not give in to him wanting to play. sorry thats the only advice i can give.

He is 7 months

Can DS1 stay with someone for a few nights while you sort this one out with CC?
Does DS2 nap in morning? If so, it shouldn't be too difficult to persuade him to tag that sleep onto his nighttime one (Ferber has a chapter on this)

Travel cot, quiet interesting toys, in your bedroom.

He does nap in the morning - he goes down anytime between 8:30 and 9 - so that might be possible, but I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Can you explain what I should do?

Hi Colditz
fisiltoe, Ferber's take would be that DS's 'final sleep cycle, which should have taken place from 5am until 6.30 or 7am, had become detatched from the rest of the night and appeared several hours later as an unusually early morning nap.'
(Check out p103 of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems in a bookshop. DS is, literally, textbook!)
Ferber's solution would be to push DS's nap significantly past 9am. DS is napping so early bcs he got up so early. You need to shift this sleep towards mid-morning if you want to change his sleep pattern at dawn .
F also says not to go in immediately when DS wants to get up at 5. Wait for 15 mins (though he is dealing with a 13-mther, so adjust as you see fit).
He says you should see a result wakings, but quiet ones, with the baby going quickly back to sleep within a week