Early morning waking... does ANYTHING WORK??!

[rungichungi]

We're getting a bit desperate! Our nine month old has been getting up for two months from any time after 5, which was just about doable, particularly as it coincided with him sleeping through the night (is it's not all bad). But for the last two weeks he's getting up at 4 plus, which is not at all doable! He's waking up tired and crying but can't get back to sleep.

I've tried a lot of things over the two months, mostly tweaking his first nap of the day, timings and length, but thing is working.

Has anyone got any success stories to cheer me up?

No success stories, but "this too shall pass" - to be replaced by something else equally as annoying and tiring!

(Soz, not much help :))

Have you tried feeding him?

I listened to everyone - 'don't feed at night, they don't need it' (DS was a year) and put the 4.30-5.30 start down to EMW, so got him up. Was bleary eyed for months.

Then one day I was so exhausted fed him and just put him back the cot....he went back to sleep!! Has done ever since. It gradually got later and he now wakes after 6.30am and still goes back for an extra snooze.

Ok, will repeat 'this too will pass' ... And sorry for typos, sleep deprivation and small keypad to blame.

Feel your pain OP

The early mornings are getting me very down.

Also struggling with short naps in day.

Think it could really be worth listening to the advice about feeding? I have been resistant to the idea as "I don't want to revert to two feeds a night at 6m, she's not a newborn any more etc..." but I think it could be the key to getting past the phase. On the occasions when I have 'cracked' and fed her, she has gone back to sleep, it hasn't been as quickly as after her earlier night feed when she is still barely awake, but eventually she has gone back to sleep.

I am wondering if solids may be part of the problem? dont know what your DS is eating? But DD is on more solids now and EW is sometimes (not always) down to a dirty nappy at 4.30am...

It's got colder recently, is he cold? I would have thought it gets the coldest at that time. Not sure how tweeting the early morning nap would help, wouldn't the afternoon or late afternoon nap have more impact? What about putting to bed later?

From a lot of things I've read on mumsnet and sleep books, they blame EMW on too long a first nap of the day that also starts too early. So they basically treat it as an extension of their night time sleep.

Anyone had any experience? Nothing I've done has made any difference but keen to know other experiences.

Emeraldgirl... I'm with you in the short naps too... maybe nine months is just a dodgy sleep phase?!

Nine months is a very dodge sleep phase. DS dropped to one lunchtime nap around this age.

Here's a straw to clutch at. From when dd was around 10 months she could hold the formula bottle herself so if she woke up at 5, I'd go in and give her a bottle and then leave. Nine times out of ten she'd go back to sleep.

My DS been doing this since 8 months, now 13months. Tried everything but not much seemed to help. Made sure he didn't nap before 9am and kept morning naps short, made his dinner closer to bedtime so not hungry, tried to co sleep at 5am, tried ignoring, giving bottle etc. He also went to 4am wakings for a bit but that passed fairly quickly. These days its all a bit erratic- any time between 5:30 and 7am but usually before 6am. But there is no pattern to why he occasionally sleeps late. I think him being generally more active with walking etc has helped his sleep. Hope it improves for you soon

What rungi says! If still having a morning nap try pushing it back to 9.15/9.30, gradually if necessary, and limiting to 40mins. Stick with it for about a week and see if it makes a difference.

Also I found a high carb snack before bed helped stop waking from hunger eg.toast. or reinstate a dreamfeed?

Got same problem with 10 mo who wakes 5 .30 on the dot.

For those saying feed, would you do this even if she still has dream feed? (as my dd does!)

No advice but loads of sympathy. I think some dcs just wake up early but 4 something is clearly TOO early. Agreewithh lots that has been said on here. We tried it all.My llittle darling now aged 9.5 woke at 5:50 this am despite going to sleep after 9:30pm !

We found with DS1 (now 2.4) that we had to STOP giving him a bottle. Ferber book says that you shouldn't feed them until the time you want them to get up. So we started off at 6am, then gradually shifted it later and later. Pretty hellish for a few days but this was the main thing that helped.

Also advice on later naps etc. A friend also said to calculate how much sleep they seem to need in a 24 hour period. For our DS this was about 12 hours - and I then broke that down in to how much at night and then how much in the day. Then tweak daytime naps accordingly. Since a year he's only had an hour at lunch and still does.

OH Holey Moley...we are at 81/2 mths and this has just started...don't say the regular night wakings are now to be regularly accompanied by this..eeeek!

I found feeding dd as if it were a night feed helped - she would settle for another couple of hours.