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Sleep

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Original poster

Please help me tackle early waking! (21mo)

36 replies

sleepcrisis · 17/03/2013 19:08

DS has started waking at 530 with the dawn chorus. We have recently moved to an area where there are a lot I birds! He used to wake at 7, then 645, then 615 and now this big jump to 530. I wouldn't mind so much if he wasn't so grumpy by mid morning.

I am wondering if there is something I can do with his routine. His room is pretty dark, I don't think I could block out any more light.

He currently goes to sleep around 7. I sometimes try for 630-645 if he's had an early or short nap.

He usually naps for 1hr 15 mins anywhere between 12-2pm. Usually he drops off over his lunch around midday. The last few days he's been sleeping closer to 2 hrs which I guess he is using to catch up on night time sleep. I always make sure he's awake by 2pm or he won't go down at bedtime.

I can't just go in at 530 and tell him to go back to sleep. He'd scream if I left the room. I have to stroke him to sleep at bedtime (yawn) so I've definitely won't self settle a 530am.

Help! Please!

OP posts:

jennimoo · 18/03/2013 08:23

The groclock worked for us, and makes the click change relatively painless as we shift her schedule over 4 days.

yellowhousewithareddoor · 18/03/2013 08:32

Watching. My 15 month old has woken at about 5.20 for months. I don't like it.

Happydotcom · 18/03/2013 09:40

Watching too. My 21 mo thinks 0445 is morning and consequently is beside himself by 10am with tiredness !

Blackout blinds haven't helped :(

yellowhousewithareddoor · 18/03/2013 10:24

Mine is asleep now and has been fighting sleep since about 9 .I'd hoped she'd grow out of it when she was walking -one nap . Older. Please give me hope!

Original poster

sleepcrisis · 18/03/2013 13:55

I have a feeling its the birds, and there's not a lot I can do about them...

OP posts:

Original poster

sleepcrisis · 18/03/2013 13:56

jennimoo do you think 21 months is a bit young for the gro clock? Seeing as he can't self settle I can't see it working for us, but it is an idea worth a try...

OP posts:

sheeplikessleep · 18/03/2013 13:59

DS2 turned 3 this month and has been waking at 5.30am (if not 5am) since 10 months old.
I'm watching with interest, as we're slowly all going a bit doo lally in this household.
I've read about 'wake to sleep' technique, but not had the energy to try it myself. I've also considered putting him down at 10pm every night for a week, just to see if a radical change adjusts things in the morning.
I'm seriously thinking of paying out £140 to the Millpond sleep clinic to see what they reckon!

attheendoftheday · 19/03/2013 22:23

Dd1 is 22 months and is an early riser (5.30-6.30). Nothing has got her to sleep longer, but she is getting better at playing in her room for a while until after 6.30. It's not ideal but a slight improvement for us.

I'm tempted by a gro clock, so interested in whether it's worked for others.

yellowhousewithareddoor · 20/03/2013 07:37

Its not sounding great. I'd so hoped she'd grow out of it. I'm tempted to put her in childcare 2 days a week just to get some sleep. But it would eat all our savings!

jasmineramsden · 20/03/2013 15:57

My DS is 22 months and has been waking around 5ish if not earlier for about a year. He's up for the dat the time, nothing settles him back off and it is driving me mad. We have tried EVERYTHING. Currently using a gro clock and making a big song and dance to encourage him to stay quiet til the sun comes up (set for 6.15 presently, in the hopes I could push it closer to 7am.) To no avail, I think he's a little young to fully 'get it'.
Nothing has worked, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, short nap, nothing. He still wakes early and is a crank from about 5pm when I have to fight to keep him awake til 7-8pm. If he goes to bed early he's up for the day between 3 and 4am!!! So that's not an option and its a constant battle. The only way to survive it so I can function and do my job, 3 long days per week, is to go to bed by 9pm which completely takes away from my time with my partner and my own time. Its mad how much impact this can have on your life. Never did I think there would come a time in my life when 6.30 would feel like a decent 'sleep in'! Sorry for the rant just so downhearted by this issue and its taken away my desire to have another child. Pray to god he will come out of this before too long.

MillionPramMiles · 21/03/2013 16:30

Watching with great interest, I've a 10 month old that wakes every day at 5.30am and like others nothing has worked. I was hoping it was a phase but sounds like we could be stuck with it. Maybe time to get some ear plugs...

Jasmine : It's so frustrating having no evening time, I haven't had a proper dinner in months!

yellowhousewithareddoor · 21/03/2013 18:59

I was hoping it was a phase but it seems a common time for early wakers :-( I need to make myself go to bed by 9 really but I've only just got the older one to bed by 8 !

hazeyjane · 21/03/2013 19:09

dd2 used to wake at 5 every day, for a good year or so, nothing we tried worked. She does sleep until 6/6.30 now (she's 5), she just sort of outgrew it.

Ds (2.8), unfortunately wakes between 4.30 and 5.30, and always has done.

I drink a lot of coffee!

yellowhousewithareddoor · 22/03/2013 05:42

ARGH!!!!!

motherofvikings · 22/03/2013 06:07

Another early riser here too.
Dd is almost 2yo and wakes at 5.30. She has 1h-1h20 nap at 1.00. I've been wondering if shrinking her nap might help, or maybe making her walk to/ from preschool when we collect ds would help. But I'm too tired to implement any change ATM.

Ds did this too and outgrew it eventually. He's 4 (almost) and will sleep till 7 or later if dd doesn't wake him.

Fairylea · 22/03/2013 06:08

I'm sorry this isn't what you want to hear but I've had two early wakers like this and tried everything, done everything, got every book and nothing has made any difference at all except eventually school and them growing out of it!

I do think it's quite normal for young children to wake up naturally at 5/6 am and as painful as it is sometimes all that can be done is an early bedtime - for the parent !

Sigh. I do know how you feel. Dd is now 10 years old and ds is 10 months and both have been early risers, it's exhausting.

yellowhousewithareddoor · 22/03/2013 06:09

My older one sleeps until 7. I've so had enough of this. I want to leave her in there or put toys in her cot and get her later but she shares a small room with her sister.

MortifiedAdams · 22/03/2013 06:22

DD is 15mo.amd wakes at 5.30. I.know she isnt ready to wake as she is crying and when we get her up she just sits on our laps for a good hour while she comes.round.

She was waking at 3am and needing re-settling so this is an improvement as at least we get unbroken sleep, but somedays Im at work til 11pm so it males for a long day with no chance of an early night.

LouBeee · 22/03/2013 07:20

DS is 18mo and the gro clock arrives today. It's been 5.30am for a while so we're going to give this a go - will let you know how we get on. I don't necessarily need him to go back to sleep, 30 mins of chatter with teddy would be great - anything that's not "Mama, mama, mama mamaaaaaaaa" at the top of his voice

Fivemoreminutesmummy · 22/03/2013 13:48

We're going through this with DS2 at the minute. 4.55am is his time and it's a killer. DS1 was the same but gradually grew out of it. On a slight tangent, the thing that seems to get to me most is that all my friends have fabulously sleepy children. It makes me feel I'm doing something very wrong which gets me down even more (probably because I'm tired)

Hoping it will pass soon and I can feel human again.

yellowhousewithareddoor · 22/03/2013 15:06

Oh yes. My friends are surprised I'm tired. If you've never been there . . .

lookout · 23/03/2013 05:47

Another early riser here. Ds2 is 18m and wake 5-5.30 and has done since we got him sleeping through the night in October he had a period over Christmas when he was waking at half six but didn't last long! It's really very frustrating because he's obviously still tired at that point as I feed him and he kind of doses on the bob for 30 mins we got a sleep lady to help us get him through the night and she told us to try resetting his body clock by cutting nap right down and putting him to bed later for three days but we haven't the courage to try it. Need to do something though because it's getting to be debilitating

hazeyjane · 23/03/2013 05:56

good morning, bleary eyed early risers, drinking my first coffee of the day (keep it in a thermos cup, by the computer!) whilst ds cuddles in and watches Fireman Sam.

It is hard, and I remember with dd2 thinking it would never end, but it did, and she is my best sleeper now (dd1 (7) has always been appalling, she sleeps ok now, but is a sleepwalker, so has to be got back into bed in the night!)

Have any of you tried 'wake to sleep' (there are several old threads about it, if you put 'wake to sleep' into advanced search), it didn't work for us, but I know it worked for lots of others, so might be worth a go.

Good luck!

SoulTrain · 24/03/2013 07:46

Staggers in....

Can I join for a moan? DS 22 months and is standard time s 4:55am. We change his (usually soaked) nappy, offer him some milk and reset his music that he goes to sleep beautifully with at 7pm...I'd say one morning a week, he'll go back to sleep and that's usually a day we both have work . About 4 nights a week he wakes in the night and we repeat the same as the morning wake up but he goes instantly back to sleep. We're exhausted.

We've tried later bedtimes, earlier bedtimes, bigger nappies (he goes to sleep in the biggest Pampers size, his room is dark, he's warm...as a previous poster said, I genuinely believe its just him. He's looking for a sleep by 10 but we drag it out until lunchtime and then he can sleep up to 3 hours!!! We never let him past 3pm, I wonder if a shorter sleep would help? He does seem tired for bed at 7pm though and selfishly I am not prepared to "miss out both ends" at the chance of an evening to myself if he's going to continue to wake so early. We also use the chance frequently at weekends to sleep ourselves in the day when he does ....how old does everyone think they need to be to realistically have a chance with the sleep clock? He's 22 months but not talking. I feel his level of comprehension is excellent but maybe not good enough to understand that? He's not wailing when he wakes up, just being noisy and calling me, moaning, throwing stuff about. I sometimes feel he genuinely can't go back to sleep even if he'd like to - he's stuck in "had quite a bit of sleep/bit tired/not tired enough for more but will be in a couple of hours" territory. I'm rambling aren't I?

Coffee anyone?

Original poster

sleepcrisis · 24/03/2013 17:41

Hi, sorry I haven't been back in a while. Just thought I'd let you know we've had some success this week. I got so for up that I put gaffa tape all the way around his black out blind and it is totally pitch black. He now sleeps until anywhere between 6 and 7, so a big improvement. This morning he woke at 545, chatted for 5mins and then slept until 8am!!! Seriously it is like a cave in there but who cares. It wouldn't be an option though if you have beautiful wooden windows...

OP posts:

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