Waking at 5am......HELP!!!!

[marlou]

We have sleep trained our DS which worked really well and he goes to bed at 7pm and usually sleeps all night with no disturbances, the only problem is he is now waking up at 5am every morning!! When we first sleep trained him he would go through until about 6.30ish but over the past few months he has been waking up earlier and earlier every week and I am at a loss as to know what to do? We have tried putting him to bed later at night and it has no effect, we have also kept him up later in the morning so that his first nap is later hopefully shifting his body clock round a bit (if you see what I mean!)but he still gets up early. I wouldn't mind but he is so tired once we get him up in the morning that he wants to sleep again after only being up for two(ish) hours. It's as if he then goes back to sleep around 7-7.30 to finish off his nights sleep.

Any suggestions on how to get him to sleep a bit later, back to 6.30 would be nice!!! We are out of ideas.

He's 9 months. Thanks

The only thing I can think of is that he may be waking up a bit earlier due to hunger, try to increase the food intake during the day (if he's very young more milk before going to sleep may do the trick)
Good luck

He feeds like a horse during the day!! Anything and everything!! I don't think it is hunger though, when I get him up at 5 he will have a quick feed (he's br fed)but then is happy to crawl around our bed playing while we try and doze!!

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Twiglett now I am just jealous, 9am, I wish!!! He starts crying and we do try and leave him because on the rare occasion he does go back to sleep. We did think it might be because the room was too light and so we now have blackout curtains but hasn't made any difference. Think we are just going to have to wait and see if he grows out of it!!

What about leaving a couple of toys at his cot?, he may be awake but at least you would have some extra minutes in bed.

The other thing may be the time he sleeps during the day, if he's sleeping more than the recommended time, he may be needing less sleep during the night.

We had the same problem (well, without ever having the decent sleep initially). Cutting out DS's early morning feed at one year helped a little - before he would wake up seemingly desparate for his bottle, but within two days of not having it slept on a little longer (and was never interested in drinking from his cup, which he would do quite happily in the daytime - indicating that he was not really hungry / thirsty). The bad news is that nothing else we did improved the situation significantly. He didn't sleep through to 6am until he was around 20 months and just within the last month has he slept (sometimes) until 7am (he is now 2.4). DH and I used to go to bed early and take it in turns to do the early morning shift. Sorry, for all my waffle that doesn't help much, does it?

My 6 month old son sometimes wakes at 5ish and chats away merrily as though he's had enough sleep. I know he hasn't though (7pm - 5am can't be enough). We either ignore him and hope he puts himself back to sleep, which he sometimes does, or give him a dummy and do his shhhhh 'sleep-signal'. If he is genuinely tired he will go back to sleep. He has never once woken at 5 and actually stayed awake and started the morning then, the earliest he's woken and stayed awake is 5.45.

I've had this problem on and off with my dd, now 15 months. It started around the age your DS is. Previously she was a fabulously good sleeper too. Now it's better but goes through phases. Sometimes she'll still wake up around 6.15 but mostly it's 6.45 which is early enough for me as my sleep pattern is totally different to hers and I feel shagged all the time!

As a follower of the Gina Ford routine from day one, my 13 month old has nearly always slept til 7am. Even later, but all of a sudden, he's waking at 5am! Needless to say, I sympathise with you!
I've been waiting for Gina's site to open, as it's been closed for a while now. Have tried all things. Still, he's awake at 5am.
Would anyone know when the site is due to re-open?

My DD does this as well - she is wide awake at 5am after sleeping perfectly from 8PM - cc means nothing to her - she can go for hours.. I land up feeding her to keep her quiet in an attempt to keep 4year old DS asleep - hence I too am shagged!

Keeping her up does not help - if anyone can cure this, please let me know - I am offering a reward!!

this is really really common especially (apparently) in very active boys.

Chrisopher Green has a bit about it in Toddler Taming - he just says that you can try various things but sometimes very active children are just naturally early wakers. My DS (now 28months) has done this on and off since quite young - it's usually a phase but it can go on for weeks His normal wake up time is 6am -6.30am which is bad enough!

this is going to sound too helpful but all I can offer is sympathy - I really don't believe there is an answer to this one - we've tried everything. - CC, left him to see if he'll go back to sleep, left him toys, drink of water, etc etc blah blah
I really do feel like an expert in the experience of babies/toddlers waking at 5am but haven't, as yet, found a cure!

sorry, that should have been this 'isn't' going to sound too helpful!

Also meant to say that keeping them up does not IME help at all - they still wake up early - just more crabby!

I would agree with KatieRocket - I have a 16mnth old and he has consistently woken btwn 5-5.30 for a long long time. I have tried every trick in the book - toys, food, keeping up later,not allowing much sleep during the day.......to no effect.

I really think you just have to role with it. I now bring him in my bed and we chat on until a more reasonable time ...like 6-6.30ish,and at least you are lying down!!! but I don't think there is a magic cure. Sorry. I'm hoping eventually he will grow out of it (like before this next one comes.........)

DS also used to do this for ages. Does your DS go back to sleep if you bring him into your bed? If so, then sleep training might work as he may just be waking up in a light sleep phase. GF has an example of this in her book - you basically do CC until they actually go back to sleep of their own accord (think this was actually Bloss!) But if he is bright and bushytailed, this probably won't work. What has worked for me is gradually shifting DS's bedtime later - eventually their body clocks do adjust (otherwise it would be hell if you went to a different time zone), but it can take a while and they may be a lot crabbier to start with. Remember, you have to shift naps etc to fit in with the later bedtime as well. DS now goes to bed at 8pm, and wakes up around 6.30 - much more acceptable to me than a 7-5.30am stint. Also going to one nap a day (when he was 1.5) seemed to help.

well, on a more positive note my DS has got passed stupid o'cock and 'slept in' - he's woken up at 6.15am the last two mornings! - In young, free and single days, who ever would have thought such a time existed? Except on a good night out, it could be the time I got home!!!!

Thanks for all the advice, it's nice to know it's not just us!! Surprisingly he slept until 5.30 yesterday and 5.45 this morning, good sign??? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!