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Sleep

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Original poster

almost 9 month early waking

62 replies

brightonbythesea · 30/07/2013 07:34

i realise this is a small problem compared to many other sleep issues but my dd has started waking no later than 5.30. she will not go back to sleep and as a result is still tires amd grouchy all morning until a morning nap. she goes to bed between 6.30-7 as she cant stay up any later. on a typical day she takes two 1.5 hr naps a day 9-10.30 and 1.30-3. I have tried:

shorter naps
longer naps
earlier bedtime
later bedtime
leaving her in her cot whining until 6.20 whih I think is acceptable and her old wake up time.

i wouldnt mind but she is very grouchy in the morning and too tired for breakfast. it is an effort to keep her up until 9. Thoughts gratefully received

OP posts:

minipie · 30/07/2013 10:04

watching with interest! same problem here

I occasionally get dd to go back to sleep using loud white noise and stroking her tummy, doesn't always work though.

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 30/07/2013 10:08

minipie how long does that take you? I find by the time I've spent loads of time and energy trying to get her to go back to sleep it's about 6.30 and might as well have just got up! This is quite a new thing, I think she's just excited about her newfound cruising ability and wants to get up and get going, but she's a right misery with the tiredness!
I had her weighed today, and saw the HV, who said just keep leaving her until the time you are prepared to get up. (6.15ish). Eventually she'll get the idea. It seems a bit cruel to let her cry for a long time,
(although I'm not opposed to letting her cry a little) but I might try it for a couple more days and see if it makes any difference.

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AnythingNotEverything · 30/07/2013 10:21

I have little practical help to offer, but plenty of kids wake up and are happy to chatter away to themselves. If she's not distressed I'd leave her.

Nancy54 · 30/07/2013 10:57

I also have the same problem with one of my twins. He wakes every morning at 5 at the mo. This week I have been rocking him back off to sleep but if I try to transfer he wakes up so I have him sleeping on e and he wakes about 615 ish. Prob is that it's not v easy for me to sleep then!

I think probably there are two solutions: get up and accept the early waking (if unable to rock back to sleep etc). Or leave to cry. I think it also depends on how they wake up, if they're just babbling etc you can just leave them. Unfortunately, mine do full on cry as soon as they wake up! I can't leave mine to cry as he would wake his sister who sleeps til 630 if I'm lucky. I don't think I would anyway but I think it may have the desired effect of sleeping longer.

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 30/07/2013 11:41

I would rock her back to sleep, but she hasn't let me do this since she was tiny (only if she's poorly now). She's a very independent sleeper, so going into her room at all, patting, shushing, rocking whatever will be game over!

Does anybody who parents an early riser leave toys in the cot for them to play with when they wake> I'm happy to do this but I live in fear of her spying them at some silly time in the morning (like 2am!) and playing then!

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Nancy54 · 30/07/2013 12:03

Yes we have some toys in bed and dtg used to play with them on a morning and after naps. She never played with them during the night. Now she never plays with them at all, just screams when she wakes up!

She is like your dd actually, impossible to rock, pat etc! Always goes to sleep on her own. It's funny how different they are! What works for one baby doesn't necessarily work for another!

minipie · 30/07/2013 14:04

sometimes it's quite quick... sometimes takes ages... sometimes doesn't work at all! if she is crying when she wakes, it works better (i think that means she is still tired) whereas if she's happy and chatty nothing will induce her to go back to sleep.

dd has been doing it for quite a while, I have tried leaving her to cry and it doesn't seem to work, at least not for me. occasionally she will put herself back to sleep but only after 40min+ of whining/crying and it doesn't seem like she 'gets the idea' after a few days of that, so not sure the HV is right at least not for us!x

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 30/07/2013 14:19

:-( I expect it's just a case of suck it up and get up when they do, and hope that perhaps when they need less day time sleep the nights will be slightly longer.

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minipie · 30/07/2013 18:11

I hope so - but the MN sleep board strikes terror into me with its tales of early waking 2 and 3 year olds...

Nancy54 · 30/07/2013 20:51

Ha I know! Before I had the twins, I just assumed they would sleep through by around 6 months. How utterly deluded I was!

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 07:19

rocking another 5.30am this morning. happy days.
interested in this theory of waking a baby after 45 min morning nap, then allowing the longer after lunch. does anyone have experience of thia working? my DD tends to do1.5 hrs each time

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minipie · 31/07/2013 08:09

5.30 here too brighton. DD usually has 30-45 mins in the morning and 1.5-2 hrs after lunch, she still wakes early.

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 08:45

what time do you have her morning nap minipie?

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Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 09:32

Also I have read a few threads where people have managed to get the morning nap to 9.30. How??? When she is up at 5.30 it is all I can do to keep her going until 9. How do people to this?

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Nancy54 · 31/07/2013 10:37

We were up at 545, lie in! But dtb also woke twice in the night.....

Mine tend to go down for nap around 930 / 10 ish for nap, they're not tired before then. They usually sleep 1.5 hours. Then the afternoon nap is usually shorter, around an hour.

Nancy54 · 31/07/2013 10:39

I should add that they are 10 and a bit months and a month ago they were going down a bit earlier

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 12:07

I decided not to wake her - she can only stay awake 3 hours ish from nap one to nap two, so cutting her first one short just means an early afernoon nap and an even earlier bedtime and I don't think this will help the EW. She woke after 1hr15mins anyway.
I can feel myself getting obsessed with this; must get over it and remember it is just a phase!

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Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 12:08

at 5.45 lie in!

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minipie · 31/07/2013 19:49

I do the morning nap at 9.15/9.30 brighton - tbh it's not too much of a struggle to keep her up till then, she has always been able to keep going between sleeps much longer than the books say she should. (she is 9 months but 7.5 corrected age as she was prem)

I used to do it earlier but then read that pushing it later helps with early waking, so i made it later... Not helping so far...

minipie · 31/07/2013 19:51

argh at waking in the night twice and then an early morning too nancy. if dd wakes in the night she mostly then sleeps till after 6 (small mercies)

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 31/07/2013 20:18

i had a reluctant look at gina ford to see her views on EMW. She has a nap at 9.30-10-10.15 then a 2 hour nap at 12.30. I dont think I could do this as my little one wont go back to sleep less than three hrs from waking.

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minipie · 31/07/2013 20:27

Yeah likewise. GF timings are for sleep loving babies I think.

She also says it's important to make sure early waking babies go back to sleep, whatever you need to do to manage that (ie even by feeding them as if I hadn't tried that) as otherwise they are likely to end up being long term early wakers. Weep.

neversleepagain · 01/08/2013 14:32

One of my twin also decided 5:30 was a reasonable time to wake up at around 8 months. Luckily giving her a cuddle in the dark with not talking and putting her back to bed often worked. She did stop doing it after about 2 weeks. I carried on like it was the middle of the night. Dark room, no talking, white noise etc. Thankfully she got the message!

Your DD may soon go back to later wakings. Try not encourage getting up and starting the day at 5:30!

Original poster

brightonbythesea · 01/08/2013 15:42

I'm loathed to go in to her room at that time though, as she will get all excited and I'm pretty certain she won't go back to sleep after she's seen me.
I never go into her room before 6.15 but it doesn't seem to be stopping her from waking early anyway.

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Original poster

brightonbythesea · 01/08/2013 18:42

also, what time are you ladies putting your little ones down for the night? It doesn't seem to matter what time DD naps till in the afternoon, she is wacked by 6, so I bath then, feed at 6.15 then put her in her cot 6.30 where she falls asleep no later than 6.45. Perhaps this is too early but I cannot, whatever I do, keep her up. It could be why she's up so early, but later bedtimes have not worked for me in the past.

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