Anyone fancy doing a support thread for early wakers....

[whoneedssleepanyway]

There seem to be quite a few threads at the moment about early waking. Just wondered if all those of you with early birds fancied all joining in a single thread and posting what goes on in your household each night and anything that helped you so we can all support each other?

I will start. My DD2 (2 and a quater) is the early riser in our house, she shares a room with her older sister and has always been a bad sleeper.

Last night was a very good night for us, she slept from about 745pm through till 530am, at which point I brought her into our bed and made her lie there (no TV, no milk) until 630 when we both got up, this mean DD1 could sleep on till 730. I need somehow to try and ignore her when she wakes early but hard with DD1 in there and DD2 cries and wails when she wakes up till you get her.

Anyone fancy joining me?

How early is early? It's all relative! I find it incredible when people mention DCs waking for a feed at 6 or even 7 then going back to bed, but I guess some people would think I've got it lucky even though I consider my DD is going through a bad patch waking at 5.40+/-10mins... I'm no lark, 7.15 was my norm, but I was happy with 6am; 5.30 is just too much for me! I don't know how she's so perky, I'm still so tired even though she only usually wakes once or twice in the night now (6 months) that I often go to bed about 9.30 so she's only had a couple of hours more than me!

What worries me is that it was 6.15 for months, 5.50 the last week in august, then 5.40 last week, 5.30 last night... But with a couple of random 6.30-7ams thrown in there a few weeks back. She's getting earlier, or so it seems! To think I was worried when it was light over the summer!

I would say pre 6am is early. We have had a spate of pre 5am which is unbearable hence why 530am this morning was pretty good.

I like you go to bed at 930pm..

I am dreading the hour change...

I, curiously, am not dreading the hour change because I am dreading instead jet lag and utter exhaustion from trip to NZ we have coming up over hour change weekend! Are we nuts??!

I agree pre-5 is unbearable, and the situation with your DCs sharing sounds awful, how long has it been going on? I am hoping this 5.30 stuff is just a 6mo developmental 'feature' and will go away again in a few weeks...

Another one dreading the hour change here - 5.40am is our norm with 14m DD. Although we were treated to a lie in for 7am this morning because she was up between 2 and 4 :-(

Pre 5 am is unbearable, agreed. At 5.40 she comes into bed and BF's on and off until alarm at 6.20 so i can cope with that although it sucks at weekends.

Not sure if this will get off the ground but will bump this to see if anyone else is interested.

We had a pretty good night for us, 6am...!!! This was because we had a little blip in the night (the nights I get up we get treated to a bit later...I don't if I prefer no interruptions and up 5am onwards or get up once and get a little later in bed).

Anyway if anyone else fancies joining in and sharing their tips/ experience.....

I have no tips.....just a longing for a lie in pact 5.30am..

I'm with you all on the hour change!

I've just been sleep training 19m DS, which has worked brilliantly, but now instead of waking up 3/4/5 times a night, he's sleeping through and waking at 5 - 5:30.

I completely agree whoneedssleep I don't know which is worse! At least when he was waking a lot, MOST of the time he would sleep til 7:30/8ish!

spanglygiraffe - am reluctantly considering sleep training here - mind if I ask what you did?

5.45am sharp this am. Not to bad as she will BF until 6.15am and then DP gets up anyway - but it's the weekends that kill me! At least she slept through bar a small grizzle at 11.30pm. So what strategies are we going to try out then? who is brave and wants to try 'wake to sleep'.

BTW what time do all your DC go to bed and what age are they? DD (14 months) goes about half six as she is so tired by then due to early waking and bad naps - it's a vicious circle. But then when she has the odd night whne she won't go down til 8 she still wakes early!!!

zimm it took me a long time to decide to do it!

I did controlled crying. When he woke up, i lay him back down, patted his stomach & said shhh, then left. Then repeated it in 10 minutes, and then doubled the time, every time, until he fell asleep.

The first night it took 2 hours, and the second & third night it was half an hour, and now he's sleeping through (i've probably jinxed it now..!)

It was hard, but am really wishing i had done it sooner!

I find that he has to have either two naps, or one long one (depending on what time he wakes up), otherwise the nights are a LOT worse.

He's 18 months and goes to bed between 6:30 & 7.

Dd's early morning have vanished again for the moment - sorry guys! 6.50 this morning! :) and she's been sleeping really well generally. Hope this lasts...

To answer your q though she's 6 months, goes to sleep between 6.45 and 7.20 usually.

Hi ladies,

Just a quick hello. I'm in the same boat as most of you. We have DD aged 10 months (or nearly) who has always been a pretty horrible sleeper. I think basically she can only sleep for 10.5 hours a night, so she either wakes for a couple of hours in the middle of the night (hideous) or wakes at around 5.15am (pretty hideous but I think not as hideous as being awake in the small hours).

The obvious answer therefore is to put her to bed earlier, but she won't last from last nap until 8pm so she's in bed by 7pm. Anyway, I don't know. DS is 2.5 and a brilliant sleeper - wakes at around 6.15 which is not late, I know but anything after 6am is totally acceptable in my book.

Anyway, would love a support thread especially with the hour change coming up - am DREADING it. I'm planning on changing everyone's routine 15 mins every 3 days in the run-up to it. Help!

Morning, My ds1 still getting up at between 4 and 5. It makes my eyes itch. He's 4, as said in previous posts, he gets up earlier the later he goes to bed. Just for a laugh ds2 has been crying out on the hour and needing settling, holy fuckaroony, I'm feeling slightly jaded.

Anyone else misread the title?

Just me then?

Morning.

Hope it's ok for me to post here - for the first time ever DS3 slept all night from 9.15pm to 6.45am without waking once.

Usually he'll fall asleep by 8am, then wakes about 2am ready to start the day. He may fall back asleep by 5ish, but only for half hour at the most. When he wakes he screams. A lot. I don't mean little screams either - i mean huge red face angry howls that wake the whole house and next door too if i don't shove a nipple in his mouth. Which he then bites and pulls until he's had enough.

None of my children are good sleepers though - DS2 wakes at 4.30am religiously - he's 7 and dyspraxic, but he knows that he can put his tele on and watch a dvd without disturbing anyone. He usually surfaces about 6am. DD too is an early waker - she was awake at 3am this morning, til half five, then dozed until quarter past six.

Am currently pregnant with DC5 - i've asked for a sleeper this time....

My DD has just turned 2 and used to be an amazing sleeper, but the last 3 weeks she's suddenly decided to start getting up at 5.20, she very rarely sleeps during the day now and to top it off used to go to bed at 6 no fuss, but now it takes me 2 hours to get her to sleep. Apparently she has decided that she no longer finds it necessary to sleep ergo neither can mum or dad. I'm thinking about giving the controlled crying a go, but the problem is as she is two and in a bed, she just gets out and opens the door... any suggestions would be greatly received :)