How do I get 6 month old DD to have a lie in - 5am is not my idea of morning!

[sharonE]

Any advice on this would be appreciated - my 6 month DD is a good sleeper except she gets up at 5 every morning - which is killing me - I feel like I have done a full days work before I leave for the office! I am going to bed earlier to compensate but would like to rejoin the adult world at some point..

Can you do cc at this time of day - she does not sleep a huge amount during the day - she will nod off for 15 mins or so when in her pushchair but as soon as we get home, she wakes up - I think she could do with more sleep during the day as by 7:30 she is shattered and impossible to keep awake and most nights sleeps thru until 5. I am also unsure as to how cc works - how do you comfort your baby without picking them up - if I go to touch DD, she latches onto my arm and almost pulls herself out her cot.

I know this is not a bad problem but my DS at this age was sleeping until I woke him at 8 and I am worried that this could be it now until she leaves home - are lie ins now a thing of the past?!!

Thanks for any advice

Sharon

Is she on solids?

I wonder if she is over tired.. put her t bed earlier - then if she wakes you can give her a quick drink at say 3 and then put her back down till 7 or whenever

OR (my fave ) isshe cold? put the heating on at 16 all night

Oh and when she wont sleep in the day do you leave her to cry a little bit?

Wow - thanks for quick response codswallop - DD is weaned and we give her foos as close to bedtime as possible - might look at more bedclothes as she just wears bodysuit under her grobag - possibiliy over paranoid about over heating so could be freezig her!

During day, don't let her cry much before we put her in the pram for a walk - how long would you leave her to cry - I haveleft her for 5 minutes and she never seems to show any signs of slowing down so normally take her out - am I being too soft - you can tell me!!
Thanks
Sharon

SharonE, I don't know if you want to hear this but IME there isn't very much you can do. My eldest son has always been an early riser and has gone through periods of getting up ridiculously early - 4.30/5 am. Keeping him up later/ messing with his daytime naps just resulted in a tired and grumpy early rising child, and I can't see that CC would work in the morning. They aren't going to cry themselves to sleep if they're not tired - just get more and more hysterical.

My son has always had periods of several weeks where he wakes EARLY, interspersed with periods where he wakes early (6ish) so hopefully your daughter will be like this. Somehow 6-something never seems as bad as 5 something!

Suggestions for keeping your sanity: go to bed early (I know you feel like you have no "me" time, but it isn't for ever); will your dh/dp do alternate mornings with you (mine never did, but don't get me started on that). If he's not up for that can you at least get a lie-in at the weekend?

I know that's not much help, but I am now much better at mornings than I used to be. And my eldest is now 6 so when he wakes up early these days (20 to 5 this morning, I kid you not!) he goes downstairs and watches TV. Not an option with a 6 month old though, unfortunately.

You do have my deepest symapthy though!

Sharon my DS was like this at first (goodness knows why I worried about being late for work when I went back ). We just used to put him in bed with us and sort of snooze or not as the case maybe before finally getting up. But he gradually got better and I remember being woken up by the alarm clock for the first time as being a real shock. The good news is that these days I have to wake him up on nursery days. He sleeps to between 7 and 8 every day, in fact because he recently gave up naps he sometimes goes after 8 at weekends. We did have problems with him in the height of the summer (light mornings)but that was a blip really.

Agree with marthamoo - not much you can do. You might be lucky like me, or unlucky like marthamoo.

hello my dd is 8 mths ang has slept through night from 3 months. i pit her to bed at 8 and she sleeps till 8 or later on weekends when we dont disturb her as she is in our room.
when she does wake in the night or early we just ignore her and she eventually goes back to sleep, we kept he room dark in summer, if we did need to pick her because she had a wet nappy, teething etc we would not speak ro her - just do what we had to d - big hug, kiss and put her back in. i have done this she was born - no speaking at night. all i have to do is give her a big grin or say hello and thats it she is wide awake and ready to play so my advice is if she doe snot need nappy change etc and it sjust that she wants to start her day then just ignore her, let her cry, if she keeps crying, wait firstabout 10mins and then pick her up, hug etc (no words) put her back, over time her crying should get less. ro maybe start with putting her to bed later. my dd started from birth going to bed when we did 11pm, we soon decided thatwas not a good idea and slowly got earlier... actually think its about time i tried 7.30pm. good luck!

sorry - at work, no time for corrections!

My ds seems to sleep longer if wearing 2 pyjama tops and socks. And I have the heating on low to come on at 5am.

ditto aloha - ds3 woke a lot on mOInday night and it was very cold

Sharon check out the "Non sleeping baby up for sale " threads on the sleep topic if you want a laugh!

IME better sleeping in the day equals better sleeping in the night. It is better if you can get your ds to sleep in his cot. Don't wait to try to put him to sleep when he seems tired and irritable, try putting him down before he gets to that point i.e., 2 hours after he gets up in the morning and right after lunch. A short ritual like washing his face holding him while closing the blinds, put him in his grobag, and then pop him in bed. He might need to cry for a minute or so, but I wouldn't do cc to force it. At that age my ds was sleeping 2 and a quarter hours in the day plus 12hours at night. HTH Good Luck!

sharon, I wouldn't lose all hope.

DD2 is now 7 1/2 months. Up until recently she was not a good sleeper, I was still feeding at least once and often twice at night until she was 5 1/2 / 6 months (exclusively b/fed). I decided to call a halt to that, and we had nearly a month of broken nights with her getting used to the new routine. She then settled down but consistently woke up around 6.

She now usually wakes up around 7-7.30am (we still have the odd early morning, but she will take herself back off to sleep without any fuss). Like others, I will not talk or doing anything to stimulate her if it is still early, and in fact won't go in to her room unless she is distressed, and only then to check she hasn't got herself stuck in an awkward position in her cot or is wet and uncomfortable. (I now rarely need to get up for her).

I agree you should make sure she is warm enough, the nights have been very cold recently and DD2 has been in a sleepsuit plus a vest in her sleeping bag (her room is chilly).

I also agree she may well be overtired by the time she gets to bed. DD2 needs one really good sleep during the day (1 hour +) together with one or maybe 2 short naps to get her through to bedtime. Does she sleep in her cot during the day? If not, it might be worth trying (although if she's not used to it, I would say that 5 mins crying to get her to settle isn't very long).

HTH, and good luck!

very wise advice both of you - deffo "sleep begets sleep" as mY Granny said - the fact hat she is over tired in the day is not helping.

Agree re 2 hours and routine of blinds etc

set your watch for say 5 minutes and do not go up till then and if so cuddle her and then replace her

THANK you so much to everyone who has responded - it was great of you to take the time - it is very much appreciated.

I am going to try all of your advice over the next couple of weeks before I resign myself to the fact that my perfect DD has a genetic flaw and is an early riser - god knows where she gets it from as everyone on both sides loves their sleep!

I am going to start tonight with more bedclothes and tomorrow I will try for better naps by following your advice - or rather pass it over to DH who has the job of looking after her whilst I work - typically, tomorrow I have to be up at 5 for a meeting so in some ways could do with her getting up then to prevent embarrassment of exploding boobs in my 9am meeting!

Will definitely read the baby for sale posts - but not tonight - it is almost 8 - bedtime!!

Thanks again - will let you know how we get on - don't want to have to sell her!!

Sharon

Just to add my 2p worth. Is your DD very tired when she wakes up at 5am? Or is she raring to go? First, I would try to sort out the naps as there is a theory that if they are very tired, then they fall into a very deep sleep, and wake up early. You can also try just not going into DD until a time more suitable to you - sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. There is a description of CC for morning waking in GF's book BTW (I think it's Bloss!).

However if you do this and still find DD waking, then try shifting her bedtime later. DS was and is an early riser. In response, we have slowly shifted DS's bedtime from 7 to 8pm (and sometimes later). For the first few nights (or longer) you will find that your DS wakes up at his normal time. But if his whole routine shifts then he should as well. Found this out by experimenting when the clocks went back/forward. For us, a bedtime of 8pm and wake up time around 6-6.30 is preferable to bed at 7pm and wake up at 5am.

A quick update - DD slept in until 6:45 and 7:00 two days running since we started with your advice - THANK YOU! It is of course far to early to think wehave cracked it but just to have slept in until 7 has been a major treat and has given us some small hope that she can sleep in!!

the major change has been putting her down in her cot for a sleep at lunch time instead of taking her for a walk - she has slept for about 2 hours with a bit of work from us - we are going to keep with the program now we are see results - so thank you again for all your advice - I will think of you all when I am enjoying a lie in!