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.

DD2 has been up to Limes' DC's tricks this last couple of nights. Up at 2.30 and 3.30 for an hour and a half. Yesterday I thought it was illness so brought her into bed for milk but this an I just gave water and sat by her cot til she went to sleep. I actually don't think it counts as early rising as was so clearly middle of the night and she went back to sleep ( and then slept til 7!). I agree that night wakings like this you've got to be firm and consistent coz in most cases they will go back to sleep before morning.

Urghhhh so we are now on holiday and everything has gone well and truly up the spout!!! Yesterday before we left for the airport dd woke at 315 and would not go back.

We are now battling a 4 hour time difference and mega cranky baby :-( last night she was up fir the day at midnight local time and stayed up until 6 am!! Beginning to wish we hadn't come now as think it's making matters a whole lot worse!! Also finding it completely impossible to get her off to sleep here even with buggy and boobs! Help........

Ha ha apologies, moaning over now

Anyone got any advice tho please??

Oh gosh that sounds awful Limes - sorry I have no advice but you have my sympathies! Was last night any better?

DS still up at 4.45 am today - I give up!

Yes much better, she was up 1-130 for a feed then up for the day at 4.

Can't actually believe I think this is good?!!

Slinky- is he still having the 530pm nap?

We're still on 5-5.30am starts here. I had a look at Andrea Geace's sleep book today for advice on early waking. She places equal importance on three things:
1, Baby needs to be properly self-settling at start of the night ie without you there.
2, naps need to be right ie morning nap not too early and no longer than an hour + afternoon nap timed so that baby isn't overtired at bedtime.
3, when DC wakes keep them in the cot either popping in and out or sitting with them until whatever your acceptable time to get up.

Currently we're only getting the naps right, so I'm going to try to work on the other two. Not this week tho - got busy evenings and I reckon DD2's going to take ages to settle without be doing the old shhh-pat. Also need to work out what to do with DD1 whilst her sister's yelling her head off at 5am! Any ideas welcome!

Still on 5 am wake ups here too fuzzywigs, and today he cried at 4 am and 4.30 am too and I had to go in to pat him.

Looking at those 3 things in the list I still can't see where we are going wrong as DS self settles for bed at 7 pm, first nap is now 9 am til 9.45 am and second nap is now 1 pm til 2.30 pm or 3 pm on a good day. We also go in and out trying to re-settle when he wakes and have chosen 6 am as our acceptable time to get up so we try not to get him out of the cot til 6 am. I was hoping DS would get the picture and sleep til 6 am but no sign of that!

We are back to rubbish again up from. 130-630am yesterday morning!! This morning was better, bf 2-230 then up for day at 430.

Not doing ourselves any favours as on holiday and taking easy options for everything sleep related, pushing to sleep in buggy and feeding to sleep... Am I mad?!!

Hi all, how's it going? I haven't posted for ten days or so as I think, hope, we might be out of the woods for now.

Terrified we'd dropped his evening nap a couple of weeks ago. Until last night, when he was shattered at 5.30pm so put him to bed for half an hour (had to wake him as he was zonko). Regretted that decision at 5.30am today! He had previously been sleeping in til 6-7am.

We even had one weird morning when both boys slept in til 7.20am - weird and unheard of.

So, for us what worked was this:

9-10am nap. Not earlier. Not longer (wake baby).
10.30am - snack.
1-3pm - nap (although my ds will actually only sleep for 45 - 70 mins tops)
7pm - bed

Obviously he has breakfast, lunch and dinner too, just didn't think adjusting these had any impact (dinner is around 4.30pm).

Hope the reason it's been quiet is because you've all cracked it and your babies are no longer getting up at silly o'clock!

That's great Slinky! Well done!

We have similar naps to you (9 am til 9.45 am and then 1 pm til 2.30 pm or 3 pm on a good day) and same bedtime. DS is now waking at around 5.30 am but he seems more happy to stay in his cot for half an hour or so just chattering away and standing up which is his new obsession!

How long did it take after you changed the nap times to get to 6 am or so wake ups?

Hi all, we're still on 5.30iah wake-ups except on the nights when she's up in the night for an hour or 2 and the she'll sleep til 6. I think our problem now is her needing to be shhhed and patted to fall asleep, so we're going to start some sleep training tonight to try to get her better at self-settling. I think since she started standing in the cot her settling skills have got worse because she's not got used to lying herself down as we've always patted her down.

It's going to be extremely boring but has to be done as sleep has really gone to pot over last month.

I only went quiet because I'm. So blooming tired!!!

Still on holiday and still not adjusted.

So we wake anywhere between 330-430 for the day

Nap at 8ish for an hour

Nap at 12 ish for an hour

We were then napping at 3 ish too but for the last 3 days she has point blank refused this one so we are up from 1pm onwards...

She is in bed by 7, bf to sleep (not good I know)

Wakes 1-2 times to feed in the night too...

Just hoping we improve once home again. Think sleep training will be making another appearance...

She now will not nap in her buggy either.... So it's feed to sleep or car and that's it!

Glad it's getting easier for some tho

Using my posts on here as a guide, I think it took about 7-10 days to work. We got a bit tough with him and if it's before 6am we re-settle and leave (he's not crying though, obvs we couldn't just leave him to cry).

My ds has also just learned to stand up, so seems some of us have that in common too.

Limes that sounds really tough, hope everything improves when you're back.

re: sleep training, has anyone else used Baby Whisperer techniques/books? I've found them helpful in the past.

Well done Slinky. What did you do in the end about your worry that DS2 would wake DS1? That's been our worry too and one reason why we've been getting DD2 out of her cot when she's only been chatting/shouting. Although this am we left her for a bit which did wake DD1 but she crawled into bed with DP and went back to sleep whilst I dealt with DD2.

Am actually thinking of doing wake to sleep with DD2 as she wakes at same time every morning. Slinky do you know how much you're supposed to wake them? Is it just til they stir/whimper or is it properly awake?

I just let the baby moan/cry a bit/whimper and luckily ds1 hasn't been waking much. If he does, I just put him back to bed and he goes back to sleep.

Wake to sleep - you just stir them slightly. I tend to put the hall light on, re-position the baby (his gro bag is usually twisted about so I straighten it, and baby has usually wiggled down to bottom of cot, so I move him back to top). Make sure his dummy is in his reach.

It's normally enough to rouse him slightly. He doesn't usually open his eyes, but if he does then I just put his dummy in and stroke his head.

You still up in the middle of the night then fuzz?

Oh, forgot to say our heating comes on at 5.30 (I think!) now which I think is helping him not to wake/want to get up before 6-ish?

I'm so glad to see this thread!
I have been battling with 11 month DS now for about 5 months when it comes to sleep!
He starting sleeping through at 4 months, but it was short lived and as soon as his teeth started coming we were back to nightly wakings. This has calmed slightly, but now for the last 6 weeks or so, he has been waking up for the day anytime from 4.30am to 5.30am. I have tried to get him to settle back down but he seems wide awake and wants to get up!

This is his current routine, please tell me where I am going wrong! I really need sleep!

4.30-5.30am - Awake
6-6.30am - 9oz bottle
7.30am - breakfast
9am - Nap for up to an hour (if I am working he tends to nap in the car from 8am-8.30)
10.30 - Snack and drink
12 - Lunch
1pm - 2/2.30 - Nap
3pm - Snack (just replaced a 5oz bottle)
5.30pm - Dinner
6.00pm - Bath
6.30pm - 9oz bottle
7pm ish - Bed

Fingers crossed things are improving. Last night I heard DD2 wake at about 2.30 but she just chatted to herself for a bit and went back to sleep - yay! So sleep training is working (Limes take note!). Then she slept til 5.40 and was quite happy in her cot til 6 when I got her up. Probably could have left her a bit longer but didn't want to push my luck with DD1. Can't believe now think 6 is a reasonable time to wake up! Anyway, am going to see how it goes over the next few nights before waking to sleep.

Bad welcome to the thread. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a silver bullet for these early birds but self -settling and pushing the morning nap back as late as possible apparently help.

Thanks. Will try and push that nap and see what happens. Its Hard on days I'm working as he nods off in the car.

Glad you had a better night

Welcome Bad I can't see anything wrong with your routine. I'm guessing, like everything with babies and smallies, it's all "just a phase"!

Just keep trying to re-settle each time and he'll (hopefully) sleep til later soon. I kinda got into the habit of bringing baby downstairs and putting the tv on at silly o'clock, but soon realised this wasn't a good idea and could form bad habits.

I'm no expert, but think teaching your babies how to fall asleep alone, and self-settle and sleep properly, is a skill. It's not easy to teach, or for them to learn, but it's definitely worth it in the end.

Fuzzywigs sorry for asking but I've lost track a bit, which sleep training are you doing?

We have 3 more days holiday then strict Mummy is coming out!!!

Limes I did gradual retreat. The first time round at 5 months I actually got some help from a sleep consultant (Andrea Grace) but if I'm honest I never fully retreated, so then it was all too easy to go back to patting when she was sick. So have done it again this week and tonight she went to sleep in just a few minutes with me behind the bedroom door shhhing - woo hoo. And she's definitely self settling in the night now she's not expecting physical contact. (Sounds callous, doesn't it?)

Have you ever seen the thread "what worked for us - hope this helps". It's got a really good step-by-step on how to do gradual retreat. Do a search and it should come up.

Go strict mummy!

Just re visiting this thread to see how people are getting on with the early rising??!!

Hi limes I have just found this thread! Ds is a year next week and for the last few months has been waking at 4.30. Today was 3am. I'm at the end of my tether. He used to sleep through from 5 months then illness/separation anxiety ballsed that up and for the life of me I can't crack the early waking.

How are things going with yours?

Hi Limes, not much good news to report here. After a bit of sleep training things got better and DD2 was sleeping through til 6 then we had two weeks of illness and everything's gone to pot. It's a different thing every night but usually I have to resettle her at least once in the evening and then she wakes up between 4-5.30. I 'be been able to get her back to sleep the last couple of nights but only after 30mins-1 hour of rocking. DD1 has also been ill so haven't wanted to let DD2 cry hence the rocking. Naps have gone to pot too - 30 minutes only a lot of the time.

I know the problem is her not self-settling (I have to pat her and shh her to get her to sleep). I had cracked this before she got ill but it took over an hour's screaming on night 1 and I'm not sure it's worth us doing that again when we're about to become very nomadic over Xmas and new year, not to mention inevitable teething etc. A bit fed up given that things had been so good.

What's been happening with you?

So..... We definitely have improvement here in that I did controlled crying last week and it was really hard but seems to have helped the night waking.

So we now sleep 7.30-430-5 which is obviously loads better and I can cope with it I guess but it's still very early to be getting up.

So for the past week and a bit I've done controlled crying from wake up to 6am and if she hasn't settled by then (which she never has) then I get her up and feed her.

It doesn't seem to be getting any better tho so I'm not sure if I just need to accept that's when she will wake up?!

I'm wondering when I stop trying the cc between 5-6??

I've pushed her naps back as advised on here so she now goes down for a nap at 930-10 ish, which is a very long time after waking and she is really tired by then but it's made no difference at all.

Any other tips or advice?!