Please help me re very early rising!

[Natale28]

I've posted before about my early rising DS. He's now 8.5 months and is ready to start the day at 4.15 am! He is then shattered by 7 am and wants his first nap which of course throws the whole day out of whack.

He goes to bed between 6.30 pm and 7 pm. He naps for a total of around 2.5 hours per day consisting of 2 naps, about an hour in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon.

I've tried earlier bedtime, later bedtime (gets very overtired), white noise, shush pat, we have black out blinds, literally nothing has worked.

Is there anything else I can try?!

He eats well, has 4 bottles in the day totalling around 28-30 oz of milk plus 3 meals so I don't think he is hungry and he doesn't want milk when he wakes at 4.15 am.

My DP is very good and we are now sharing the early mornings because I was starting to struggle with it everyday even though we go to bed early.

Sorry this is long - does anyone have any suggestions? TIA.

Oh gosh, that is tough. Looks like she's getting plenty of sleep during the day (2-3hrs) so should be well rested.

Have you looked at wake-to-sleep? I seem to remember doing this with ds1 as a baby and it worked.

Hello mums
We had the same including multiple wake ups in the night. I was a zombie!
Like OP, my ds prefers an earlier bed time. We tried keeping him up til later but it had no effect in his wake up time.

He had naturally dropped his night feed himself so we knew it wasn't hunger. When he reached 8 months we decided to do this : go in and check if he is ok re wet nappy, etc. tuck him back in , replace dummy and leave. I must admit he does not cry with tears etc, just shouts angrily lol. We let him shout!
First time was so hard....within 3 days we had him sleeping til 6 or even7 am! Only one or two wake ups in the night , for 2 - 5 mins only. I always go in and check to make sure he's ok but no eye contact or talking. He is happier in the day time and his naps are longer!

We also bought him Ewan the sheep for company not sure if that's contributed to our success. I know it's not for everyone but it worked for us and we are all more rested.

Limes - for you. I can't believe the little rascal is still getting you up at murder o'clock!

We got up at 5.50 this am which is our pre-clock change time and now feels perfectly reasonable! xxx

I haven't looked at wake to sleep so will definitely have a read and give it a try thanks Slinky. The daytime naps do usually add up to 2 - 2.5 hours ish so that's good.

Don'tforget - we're not adverse to letting DS have a whinge in his cot for short periods and checking on him if we know he's not hungry, cold etc but he just doesn't seem to be getting the picture that he's waking too early and just wants to get up and play! I just think he has a habit which needs cracking and I know I need to pick an approach and be consistent but I don't know which is the best route.

Ok so something isn't working quite right...... DD keeps waking at 330, we have been doing cc at bedtime which seems to be working well but when I try at 330 she is having none of it. Goes ballistic with high pitches screams and back arching so I end up picking her up and feeding her.

I'm pretty sure she doesn't need this feed as a few weeks back she was going all night without feeds and I could just settle her at wake ups with stroking and patting.

Any advice on what I should be doing? We are off in holidays in a few days and I know everything will go up the spout again!!

Aaaargh! Up at 4.10 again here. I thought it had got better. Think she was cold and also got no fresh air yesterday.

Natale - I would try pushing both your naps a bit later. If DC is having to go from 2ish awake they probs are really overtired by bed. I don't let DD2 sleep in the am til 9, then afternoon sleep is at 1.30/2ish til 3/4ish.

Limes - you never know, I've found holidays can really help - lots of fresh air and a slight change in routine can break the habitual wake up.

It's really hard though. I've started getting into bad habits again, like letting DD2 doze on the boob in bed, which is what I paid a sleep consultant to stop us from doing 4 months ago!

4am today here too. Thought we were getting somewhere yesterday when it was 5.40. Not keen on wake to sleep yet as it's not habitual, same time every morning waking, yet (!).

I fed/changed/low key crawling around in the half light (him, not me, although I wasn't far off that) and got him back to sleep around 5am.

I might try someone's suggestion of a bit of porridge before bed tonight. Also his gro egg was on blue (15.8 degrees) at 4am, so put a light blanket over him (he wears a 2.5 tog gro bag) but will change for a heavier blanket I think.

Oh, I took him out for over an hour's walk yesterday afternoon so he had fresh air. Grr.

Stick the heating on - it gets cold in the early hours?

We are in a similar state. DD aged 9.5 months has started waking at 5ish and is then overtired making the rest of the day horrible. She seems to need 10-10.5 hours sleep overnight and used to go 8-6ish which was great (with multiple wake ups but those have improved since sleep training). She now wakes 0-3 times and often self settles but is up for good at 5. It's difficult for us to bring the bedtime forward due to work (not every day but trying to keep same bedtime on work and non work days). We've never managed to have a very strict daytime routine as naps planned around activities and depend on what time she wakes etc. Do you think we should try to be more rigid in the daytime? I would (grudgingly) accept 5am if she was less miserable.

Hmm, we've had this dilemma in the past. Without trying to sound bragg-y, it's a a four-bed house, and it seems extravagant to heat the whole place at that hour, when everyone else is fast asleep in bed.

Also, I remember early wakings with ds1 being caused by the gas central coming on, although tbf that was in a different house and the boiler/airing cupboard was in his room.

Last year we bought an oil-filled radiator to use, but didn't find it very effective and we were concerned the toddler might get up in the night and burn himself on it.

What do others do?

I'm staying with family at the mo so slightly at their mercy re heating. But I have to say the night DD2 slept til almost 6 I'd put a blanket over her at about midnight. Will try that again tonight.

This thread is worth reading - remember that it helped me with my last DD:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1415644-Waking-at-4-30?pg=2

• Read the responses from omama

Thanks Nello. That all makes sense. It's funny I remember posting in the same threads as Omamawhen DD1 was little. Wonder if she's still around?

Thanks fuzzywigs and nello. I did think his naps were too early but it's hard to stretch them out. Yesterday I'd just had enough of this early waking hell and dragged his first nap to 9.15 am and he woke up after 30 mins then I managed to get him to 1 pm for the start of his second nap and he slept til 2.30 pm. He was still overtired by bedtime at 7 pm and he woke at 4.40 am this morning cried for a about a minute and went back to sleep then cried again at about 5 am, I gave him a pat and left and he slept til 7 am!!! I can't believe it! It has to be the change to his naps right?

I really really hope this is a step forward but I'll try not to get too excited.

How did everyone else get on this morning?

We were up at 4.20!!! Fed as couldn't settle any other way, DH even tried, then that was it, up for the day post feed.... I'm so tired!

Trying to drag her nap put but she is so grouch that I think I'll have to put her down soon

Ah Limes - I really struggled dragging DS' s nap out but it must have helped today. The other thing I did was put a blanket over him when we went to bed as someone suggested on this thread or the old one which nello linked.

He'll probably go back to his old ways tomorrow!

Good luck with DD's naps and hopefully you might get a later start tomorrow.

Pleased to have found this thread as the clock change seems to have coincided with my DD 12mo waking 5-530 every day. Hadn't yet tried changing her morning nap til later so I'm going to give that a go. I know she may well need to drop to one nap soon but I want to try and get back to pre clock change routine first if possible!

Worth a try Sephy! I will report back tomorrow as to whether DS manages to wake at a reasonable time 2 days in a row! The problem is I am.now obsessing over making today follow the exact same pattern as yesterday!

Let us know how you get on with changing the morning nap.

4.30 yesterday here (altho just gave bottle in my bed, changed nappy and put back in cot to sleep at 5am...he then didn't wake til 6.30).

Pushed his morning nap back to 9am - 9.50, then he slept 2.30pm - 3.30pm and that was it. He was overtired at 7pm though and screamed the place down for five mins before falling asleep.

My 3yo had me up at 4am today as he was cold, so I checked in on the baby and did a gentle re-shuffle and tucked him back under his blankets....he woke up at 6am!! Am so chuffed, really hoping it's down to the later am nap so will do the same today.

How is everyone else? Welcome sephy!

That sounds better Slinky!

We weren't as successful today, DS up at 5 am and I tried to re-settle for ages but no luck so he has been awake since then. Now we are going to struggle to make it to 9 am for the first nap!

Back to 5am waking again this am. Feel pretty broken. I know I need to get bad-ass on DD2 and stop feeding her/bringing her into the bed when she wakes but just don't have the resolve whilst away from home and DP. Tried this morning but gave up hopelessly quickly. Also worried about waking DD1. Sorry to moan on...just felt on the verge of tears this morning.

Fuzzywigs - I feel for you and I have spent a few mornings crying to DP about it! It really does wear you down after a while.

I went through a stage of bringing DS to our bed when he woke at 4 or 5 am ish but it didn't help him to re-settle anyway so I gave up on that.

Feed wise we also used to give DS a bottle around that time but he actually isn't hungry and can wait til 7 am for his milk even after waking really early. He eats. Lot in the day. I have read other people's threads saying they swapped the milk for water and then their DC wasn't interested anymore, although this only works if they aren't actually hungry and just have a habit of having the milk for comfort i guess? Might be worth a try?

fuzzy feel free to moan on, that's what we're here for; to listen and support. When do you go home? Know what you mean about not wanting the baby to wake the older sibling/s up.

Forgot to mention my other change of routine/plan of attack yesterday, which was to offer more milk and food...and he gobbled it all down. So thinking he's having a growth spurt.

Am now giving him an extra bottle (re-introduced the mid-morning one he dropped a few weeks back) and a snack mid-morning, so that I can push his lunch back from 11.45ish - 12.45ish. Wanted to hold off on the snacks as long as possible but past the point of caring now.

Then for dinner at 5pm he had a cheese sandwich, a whole medium sized banana....and then a portion of beef stew and potatoes! How much do your 9mo's eat? Mine eats roughly this

B: A whole Weetabix/big bowl Ready Brek, maybe half a banana
Snack yest: a few Organix crisps, small yogurt, two Heinz biscotti biscuits (I was out and hadn't planned well!).
Lunch: A whole Ella's kitchen 7mo+ pouch, toast fingers (one slice toast), two big sticks of melon.
Dinner: Mentioned above, normally pasta/home made sauce, or meat and veg of some description.

On phone and it's a pita to amend a post once in preview mode, but just wanted to say hope things get better for you soon fuzzy and anyone else suffering.