Waking at 4.30 ???

[minibmw2010]

DS (9 mths) was until recently teething really badly. 4 teeth have come through in pretty much 2 days so he seems happier, no pain as far as I can tell.

Our latest thing is he sleeps well until 4.30/5am or so and then wakes up with a bad nappy. I change him and put him back in and he really cries for ages, but we are not getting up at 5am !!! So I give him some water and hope he calms down (he hasn't yet this morning, joy).

I thought it might be the noise of the house, boiler kicking in, etc. that was waking him so we shut his door completely (but with monitor on so i could hear any problems) but that hasn't really changed anything.

Any suggestions?

Yes ok, will try that. Thanks all.

Mini our routine looks something like this:

As close to 7 as poss!! milk
About 8am - breakfast
11am - Milk
12:30/1 - lunch
3pm - milk
5/5:30pm - tea
6:45/7 - milk & bed

All of this shifts depending upon what time he wakes up and how long he sleeps in the morning. He did an hour and half this am, which worked out OK as we met his daddy for lunch quite late.

I just try and leave at least an hour between milk & a meal. Actually, looking at the above, it's not surprising I don't have room for snacks!

Good luck x

LittleMilla, that is very similar to what we've done today. I'm glad I've decided to go back to 4 bottles as he's had a good amount each time but also eaten fine with his breakfast, lunch & dinner so I guess he was missing his extra milk (). We'll see how he gets on tonight.

I had an hours nap when he had his afternoons nap, I haven't done that for about 7 months but the bed looked so good, ha.

Fingers crossed to a good night for all.

loveis (and omama for that matter) did you see some kind of gradual change in behaviour that made you feel what you were doing was working? 6 weeks seems an awful long time to wait for an improvement and then think it's down to something you've done rather than your child growing up.

I've been fiddling with these naps for 6 days now, I'm not saying I've given up, but I have seen not one iota of any sign that she might sleep even 5 mins later and the rest of the day proceeds as normal except now rather than 2 one hour-ish naps she sleeps all afternoon making it harder to go out and do stuff :-(

fifi I can say without a doubt that the reason the EW stopped was because of pushing the nap later & not just down to him growing up. I have used this approach twice - first at 10/11 months I pushed out & cut the AM nap and again more recently at 16 months. The first time we'd had 6 months of EW & were regularly getting 3.30-4am WU's & I was putting him down at 7.30-8am for his first nap. His afternoon nap was early & his bedtime was early. By pushing his nap later his entire schedule shifted later & he started waking later. Similarly, at 16 months & on 1 nap, he was napping 11/11.30 & going to bed at 6/6.30ish & initially waking at 6/6.30ish but this then crept earlier to 5-5.30. His nap was too early so I pushed it later to 12.30 & voila we have 7am wakeups.

I know 6 weeks sounds like a long time but is it really, in the grand scheme of things??? Is it better to have 6 months of early waking??? Whenever you make any routine change, it can take at least 5 days for them to adjust, often up to a couple of weeks, so if you change things up on them before a week is out you'll never really know if it works. Yes my routine change took 6 weeks, but we had a big change to make (nap needed to go 1-1.5hrs later) and my LO is very sensitive to OT & so I went slowly but consistently with just 15mins per week. Some little ones may adjust/adapt more quickly than this or cope with being pushed harder.

Just my humble opinion!

oh & WRT the much longer nap in the afternoon - try & see the positive! Some folks would kill for a big long nap in the afternoon! I LOVE my LO's naptime - I can get so much done around the house, or put my feet up & have a rest & come on MN!

(((hugs))).xx

Yeah I'm happy to put my feet up and read, guess it will be better when we're down to one nap...

Not planning to give up, but I don't think there's too much wrong with DD's schedule except wakeup time - I'm only moving morning nap by 30mins and if I move bedtime it'll only be by 30mins too. Planning to start going to work earlier ;)

Sorry OP not meaning to hijack your thread!

Not high jacked at all, it's all interesting to me and as we are all 'suffering' if we can help each other all the better.

omama did you move you LO's bed time later too?

DS was up at 6:15am again this morning. Back to bed again at about 9:15am, but he's wanting to sleep for about 1.5 hours. I cannot help but feel wrong waking him up.

I have just put him back down, but he's not tired enough I don't think. Yesterday I couldn't get him asleep again until 2:30pm, which is almost too late if he sleeps for almost an hour and then goes to bed at 7pm.

Argh, such a palarva!

`LittleMilla yes I did push BT back too. We'd never started off with a really early bedtime, when he was tiny it was 7-7.30, but he started waking early, then needed his naps earlier, and so couldn't make it to his usual bedtime, so I ended up bringing that earlier too, so as to stop him getting overtired. Then we got trapped in an awful cycle where everything is earlier than it should be (including bedtime). Many folks just told me to do a later bedtime & then he would wake later, but in fact this just backfired & he would wake EVEN earlier because he was awake for too long between his nap & BT & got overtired. This is why I am convinced the best way to do it is to push the morning nap later. Then the whole day is shifted later in one go. Hope this makes sense!

And (((hugs))) I know it feels awful waking them from their morning nap - I hated doing it too. But believe me it really did help & I wouldn't hesitate to do it again in the future if we have more children & encounter the same issues. Though I hope I will be wiser second time around & not fall into the trap!

Oh & BTW - 6.15am WU after a 7pm BT is great! TBH if he's wanting to sleep 1.5hrs in the morning & 1hr in the afternoon its not actually too bad. The key really, is not letting that morning nap be too early eg before 9/9.30am. That's when you are going to encourage the EW.

Some mums actually address the 2-1 nap transition by leaving the long nap in the morning & shortening the afternoon nap. If you choose to do it this way then you'll still probably need to get that AM nap gradually towards 10ish if you want to see a 7am wakeup time. As they get older the morning nap naturally shifts later towards lunchtime, the PM nap will get nearer to teatime & will need to be shortened or they won't be tired enough for bed (but too short & they can end up overtired!) . Eventually the AM nap will be at around 11/11.30 & the PM nap can be dropped, & early bedtime offered instead. Just thought I'd throw it out there as an alternative for those of you who hate waking your little ones!

Thanks omama that all makes sense.

This morning he woke at 6:15am, chatted in his cot for a while and then started to shout at about half 6. Wasn't ready to sleep come 9:15am so I reckon our way forward might be pushing him longer and longer for the first nap. Then gradually move towards one nap over the next 6-8 weeks as I drop his pm nap, as you suggest.

He did another 1.5 hours this am, then slept for about 40 mins out in his pushchair this afternoon. It seems to be the way he prefers it, so I am inclined to follow his lead and then tweak by keeping him awake longer vs. waking him.

Thanks very much for the advice, invaluable. x

We had a full nights sleep last night, he's just starting to wake up now. The only thing I can think is that his naps have been later for the last two days (mostly by accident) but I'll try and do that again today. He was tired out by swimming y'day which probably helped but I think we can say we've had a 7-7 here today, hurrah. It may not happen again for a while but at least I know it can.

Mini that is brilliant - so happy for you.

My DS has been creeping earlier again (5:45am yest), but I had 6:10am today so I mustn't knock him too hard! Going to try a shorter nap this am as we're going in the car to my dad's...keeping my fingers crossed!

Forgot to ask...how much later did you make his nap?

A couple of days his morning one was about 9.45/10am (instead of 8.45/9) and his afternoon one was about 1/1.30 (instead of 12/12.30). These generally happened because DH was home, we had visitors and we were going out so I'm not sure if I can keep them that late on my own without much distraction. Today I managed to hold him out until 9.15 so not as late but still better than we've been. I'll try and avoid putting him down for his afternoon one too early and see how we go from there.

Right, DS has been shifting earlier and earlier so I decided to get tought this am. He had 45 mins from 9 - 9:45am after waking at 5:45am. He was old cold when I woke him, so think he could've stayed asleep for a while!

Put him down at 1:10pm for sleep and about to go and wake him as he's STILL alseep (this is unheard of, but we did have swimming!).

Is this right?? Or should I let him sleep a bit longer this pm and think about putting him to bed at 7:30pm instead of his usual 7pm?

Obvs meant tough

We had 1hr20 at about 9 today (after getting up at 6.30 (he'd been awake 30 mins or so already) and only 40 mins or so at 1pm as we had guests and I think another baby crying woke him up which meant the rest of the afternoon has been a bit fraught.

My question is did crawling both ways tire your babies out more than usual? He has been going forwards since Sunday (backwards for ages) and it's a real struggle to keep him awake until his usual 6.30.

When my DS first started to move he knackered himself out very quickly. It didn't take him too long to even himself out IYSWIM, and now I find myself having to make sure he has plenty of 'action time' as hours spent in the buggy etc just doesn't cut it with him!

x

Another 6am wake here ... The last 2 nights I've done his bath slightly earlier than I might normally as he's been so so tired and this is obviously the payoff. It means we'll probably have a bit of a nightmare evening tonight, oh joy. Well I'm going to have to keep him up a bit later tonight no matter what. Sigh ....

I had 5:20am babbling, then THANKFULLY he went back to sleep until 6:15am, up at about 6:40am as he was happy chatting. It's rediculous that I am actually happy that he went back to sleep for a bit .

Going to stick to short 45 min nap at 9:15am, then longer (up to 1.5 hrs) at 1:30pm, as per Omama suggestion. I do feel that it's the right way forward.

((hugs)) mini - we're in this together! xx

Thanks LittleMilla, much appreciated.

Nap time has gone a bit haywire. He fell asleep in the car on way back from town (for 5 mins) and I managed to carry him in asleep but he woke up as I put him in cot and now he's fighting it, not crying but not asleep either, grrr.

I bought some of that black film to put on windows today to see if that helps with early waking as his blind lets in light. Will let you know if it's any good. Has anyone else used it?

How are things for everyone? We are still getting 6am wake-ups (with mostly no night wake ups but he has a really snotty/coughy cold). I'm managing to keep him going until 9 for first nap and then next nap is usually about 1/1.30. Both naps are about 1hr20 mins. Then we get to 6 and he's just desperate to keep occupied.

What am I doing wrong ?? The blackout stuff has not had much effect I don't think, just makes me feel guilty that while he's awake and playing in his cot it's in the dark instead of him being able to see what he's doing.

What effect will the clocks have ???

hi mini - firstly - your EW have improved, right? From 4.30-5am to 6am? So that's really great!!!!!

WRT clocks changing, basically you do nothing, and everything will automatically shift an hour later. So where he was waking at 6am (old time) this will now be 7am, napping at 10am and 2/2.30 and BT will also be an hour later (so if it was at 7pm it will now be at 8pm)

If you're happy with the later routine once the clocks change, then stay with it for a while! Or when you say 'he's just desperate to keep occupied' are you saying he is struggling with it???

If he is struggling to last to BT IIWM I would probably start to cut the AM nap back a wee bit, perhaps to 45mins to start with, and see if this gets you a longer PM nap, which may help him to make it through to bedtime without becoming overtired. Once you cap the AM nap you might find his PM nap needs to be a touch earlier.

HTH.x

hello mini (waves!). I also feel that I should say hello to omama!

We're on a pretty steady 6am (ish) wake up. I have tried numerous times to cut DS's morning nap, but he simply ends up being grumpy until pm nap, then doesn't sleep for long enough, so remains grumpy for the remainder of the day. No fun for anyone.

So instead I am just holding him off until 9:30am/10am for a sleep and letting him be. He then goes down like you, mini after lunch.

My poor little lad had got conjunctivitis - just uploaded a pic to my profile of his sorry face!!

He's sleeping 11 hours a night (roughly) and a later bedtime doesn't work as he gets OT and seems to wake up earlier. Just going to have to sit it out I think. Oh, and I have just found out he's likely to have have his foot in a cast, but that's another story. :-( x