A thread for my early waking friends who want a whinge

[fififrog]

A few weeks back there were quite a few of us with DCs about a year old, too young for gro clocks etc waking up TOO BLOOMING EARLY. Where are you all at now? DD seems to be getting earlier. Cough not helping but we had 4.55 this morning. I hate to say it but I actually enjoyed her being ill last week as she slept til 6.30 once. Some mornings I think "just a long phase we can live with it" but this morning I was in total despair. Will I ever be able to make it to 10pm without thinking I will regret staying up this late??! I know some of you will say stick with the messing around with morning nap, it will fix it, but to be honest I don't believe it will and I just want to WHINGE to people who will understand!!

Hey newbies, it'd be really interesting to compare notes in 10 years time and find out if they ever did sort it out, and indeed what personality traits they share...

Burnham I have not tried wake to sleep though have read about it on here a lot. DD wakes at very variable times in the early morning - though she is often up for the day at 5.19 precisely (curiously she has shunned that minute so far this week!), she often wakes and cries out anywhere between 3 and 4.30 and goes back to sleep. So I am 99% sure that getting myself out of bed to do what she often does anyway is just increasing the agony (talking of which we're on hols soon, really hope our cottage isn't attached...). However, as with the blackout blinds that have done nothing for us, that's not to say it won't work for you! Worth a try...

I should go back and check this thread but my current perception is that the truly awful consistently pre-5.30 behaviour coincided with the dropping of the morning nap. Or maybe it's just warmer/lighter/more active/just a phase... Even if it is the nap, not a fat lot I can do, just have to wait it out til she gets a bit older and less overtired.

fifi I'm going to give it 3 days and see what happens. I'll either be shouting from the treetops about the wonderful inventor of wake to sleep or I'll be hunting him down with a big stick...:)

When you go on holiday, check beforehand that they have good curtains/blackout blinds and if they haven't, take your own believe me, you think they don't make a difference until you don't have one. The cottage we stayed in just had venetian blinds and I swear it was lighter in the boys room than outside!

Let us know about the wake to sleep. I had 4.30 am today (yawn)

Hi, I've just found you all!

Dd's just started lying in...after weeks of 4.30am she is now waking at 5.30am. I felt happy for a few days but now feel cheated because 5.30 is still fucking early but I've been tricked into thinking I'm getting loads of sleep because 4.30 was so bad.

Going to bed knowing you're really tired feeling scared about what time you're going to have to get up!

Can I join you all in having a moan when I'm up early?

I can't really offer any solutions but trying to get as much evening meal as possible into dd seems to be making her sleep a bit longer.

My DS is 2 and still a early riser but he had been doing well sleeping 7 until 6 the past few weeks up until we made the mistake of putting hi a toddler bed last night we have both been up since 5! He seems to really hate that bed and that's only one night! Hopefully tonight will be better!

Please ignore the atrocious spelling in that post lack of sleep does things to my brain!!!

I feel so bad for you all, you have it way worse than me.
We made it to 5.55 yesterday and a record 6.30 this morning but we are in Europe so technically 4.55 and 5.30 it's depressing getting up before BBC Breakfast comes on.

Yesterday she had a long nap at 10am and 45mins at 1430. I also dressed her in a babygro (she has been in just a nappy with or without pj top because it's been hot here) so maybe she felt cosier, I dunno. She has a tendency to work out of her cover and my theory was she was waking up with cold legs. Whatever, it seemed to work.

Tonight I switch the final bf over to ff , she normally feeds to near-sleep, so will see what effect that has if any

Yawn, yawn, yawn. 4.30am for us again, too.

DP is now going in with my moble phone alarm set to 5am, to try and get DS into the habit of not getting up until he hears 'the wake up bells'. He seemed quite happy to lie there until 5.15am today, let's see if this a workable trigger.

Hopefully we can then just leave the 'bells' in his room set to 6am (imagine that! 6am!! bliss!) and remain under the duvet...

5.15am today

Ladies - my sympathies to you all. It is utterly hideous especially on hols. I ended up walking up and down the Tarka Trail at 5.30am last summer on our holiday. I looked particularly special as she was in the underneath bit of the Phil and Ted's so it looked like I was walking with an empty pushchair.....

I hardly dare say this but we have had a week of post-6am wake-ups and thrown into that week for exceptionally good measure, about 3 post 6.30s - this morning was 6.50am. This is after a year of 5.30ish. However, we have had a respite of a week or so before but then she's gone back to early waking so I'm not counting my chickens just yet.....

sharkskinthing how old is your DS? Is it worth trying a gro-clock. We used it with DS from about 2.5 with great success.

Hey gals (yawns, and downs more coffee). Hope you are all well.

Meggy - he's nearly two. And I find your news really heartening" And it's funny you should say that about the gro-clock because...

DS woke at 4.10am. Beginning to get a bit ridiculous you may say? Well, we've been trying somehitng that looks like it may have some success. DP went in on Thurs morn (4.40am) with his mobile, with a gentle alarm set for 5am. He lay with DS and told him he couldn't get up until he head 'the wake up bells'. DS didn;t go back to sleep but he did lie quiely until 5.15.

This morning he woek at (eeek) 4.10am. In goes DP same as before, and what do you know, DS goes back to sleep until 5.45am! The he and DP had abig 'wakie up bells' moment.

DS NEVER goes back to sleep. EVER. So this could be a break through. Maybe tomorrow he'll just wait for the bells. OR DP can go in again and then sneak out. I'll keep you posted...

Thought we had a 6.15 am miracle this morning - then panicked when I hadn't heard Ds by 6.30. Turns out my mum had heard him when he woke up at 5 and had taken him downstairs. Lovely lie in

thinkfast that made me laugh

shark how'd it go this morning?

My DD is still doing post 6am but am sure it'll break now because DS woke her at 6.10am this morning so I'm sure it'll reset her early waking and she'll be back to 5.30. What is that all about?! He's normally a fantastic sleeper and sleeps until past 7 so I was deeply unimpressed this morning. :(

Meggy that's fab news! Apart from DS's errant behaviour ;) really hope it sticks! We had visitors today, their son was an early waker too, they said it didn't really sort itself til he was 3.... Sigh. but at least it did. Tales of improvement give me hope!

Birnham have already ordered blind. We are currently borrowing one off friends, it hasn't helped but now I'm paranoid she'd wake even earlier without, and I was already worried about hols given last year's thin gauzy curtains.

I keep wondering whether to buy a groclock. I have one in my amazon basket. At 14.5 months, she's clearly too young, but Part of me thinks should get her used to it asap - the other part optimistically thinks she'll be sleeping longer by next year. Thing is, whatever happens in the early hours, she usually has a good old shout at 6, which is when I go in. So I worry she'll never get past 6 because it is too engrained. I wonder whether I could develop an association with the clock, then move it back by stealth.

Ps think, LOVE your mum!! last year when we were on hol with my mum she kept offering to take DD so we could have a lie in. Her bedroom was downstairs though. Every time I tried to take her up on the kind offer I'd cart the babe downstairs to find mum so fast asleep she didn't wake when we came in - I hadn't the heart to wake her!

Meggy - thrilled for you, that's great news. Long may it continue!

Fifi - do it. It can't hurt. My DS started the pre-5am last May (when he was 10 months) and a year later, here we are again....

But I think we're winning a little! 4.50am this morn, put himself back to sleep until 5.10am, then 10 mins with DP and 'the wake up bells.' This time last week we were 4am.

Other factor is that he's teething with his last 4 molars and has a horribly sore bum. Perhaps this is what's really bothering him.

Oh look, 9pm, bed time for me! Joy of joys! Good luck tonight everyone. xxx

Just found this thread, I have 19 month old twins, they wake at 4 or 5 am every day! Usually take it in turns on who wakes first but after 10/15 mins of crying I usually make 2 bottles and go in, I always get them give them both a bottle and we sleep till 6ish together, either n bed or on the sofa. Not ideal but I'm not sure how to change it

LaVita I guess it's even more impossible because one wakes the other... At least those of us with one stand a chance that they'll go back to sleep. On the other hand at least your two will go back to sleep, unlike mine.... Nah that's not fair, sometimes she dozes but milk just gears her upfor the day!

My memory of anything past 6am has gone - DS hasn't done much later that 5:15am for too long.

We've just had a week's holiday abroad with mates and come home almost more tired than when we went. DH and I are desperate.

DS now 14 mo and we're going to start putting him on to one nap a day - surely having more sleep in the day will lead to more sleep at night. Esp if c.2 hours (or more) never makes him sleep longer. Worth a try, no?

I despise anyone who has a baby that sleeps until 7am. And I'm questioning my whole parenting philosophy by wondering if Gina Ford was right all along and I should've gone for the strict routine. Although that's not to say DS doesn't have a routine, he just skips the bit that says he should wake up at 7am .

Argh!!! I go back to work on Wednesday! How will I cope? The earlier we wake up the longer I take to get going in the mornings. Plus I need two breakfasts...

So, I have had a 6.20am this morning. This is extremely late for DD. I think it is a combo of a late snack before bottle and bed, slightly earlier bedtime, blackout curtains, lots of activity in the day and endless hoping on my part.

Or maybe she is testing me. Last week we had 6am (hooray), 5.45am, 5.30am and I could feel my despair rising. If I expect a 5.15am, it is awful but expected. If she messes with her waking time, I can feel myself getting frustrated and upset.

think I have second breakfast at work at 9.30, I really cannot go any longer without food...

Well this week we had three 5.45+ days, then followed by two 5.10s. Milla hate to disillusion you but she's been napping for Britain this week (well,for her.. Nothing shorter than 1.45) and as you can see wakeups are pretty random still. This after I convinced myself it might be overtiredness meaning she has stopped making it to 6am ever.

Are there any of us who have trouble getting them to bed at night? The more people I talk to the more I realise that if you just have a kid who doesn't need much more than 10hrs a night, you effectively end up "choosing" to have them up til 9pm, or have them waking at 5am. I am trying to look at the positives in our family life - at least DH and I can eat dinner uninterrupted.

Though we had a football recording mishap this pm, which now means I have to stay up and keep DH company while he watches the england match at 10pm.... Surely this is a recipe for waking every hour then up for the day at 4.30!

Bedtime doesn't seem to make Amy difference here. Have tried everything from 6pm to 8.30 pm but wakeup is around 5am regardless

Why were they digging the road outside my house til past midnight? Why was Ds up at 3am? And why was he up for the day and full of beans at 5 am? (yawn)

My DCs are 10 and 8, and wake between 5.30 and 6am.
I wake around 6-6.30, by which time they've usually made their breakfast and put a DVD on (they worked out how to do it without the remote controls after we took to hiding them).
Whoever asked for "later on" feedback, early wakers stay early wakers, but eventually they can do it without you present.
I'm on another thread arguing (against general opinion) that my DSs early bedtime is reasonable for him. It's good to see that not all DCs sleep 9.30-7.30