Should i just get used to waking up at 5.30 am?

[dotcotton]

I feel a bit spoilt (spoiled?!) posting this as i know it's not the end of the world. But dd is 10 months, has always slept well, but has developed a habit over the past few months of waking at 5 -5.30.

When she does I feed her, and she does have a proper feed, then take her into bed with me, she then jumps about the bed a bit and usually goes back to sleep from 6.30 for an hour or so, but sometimes not. We are about to move her into her own room so i think it might be a good time to try and break the habit if possible. I think I might be too wussy for controlled crying, is there another way to try to prolong her sleep a bit in the mornings?

She is bf and eating 3 good meals a day, last one at 6 ish followed by bf before bedtime and settles herself.

Or is this going to be the time she's chosen to wake up for ever? (hoping not emoticon). Like I say I know it could be worse but I am knackered from the early start and going back to work soon.

this is not what you wnat to hear but my DS1 has just stopped waking up that early because.....

he goes to school now

Sorry

My DS did this, but at a later age, approx 14 months. It was very hard and knackering, we finally broke the cycle by not letting him have an early nap in the morning. He was also getting up 4.45-5.30am, and wanted a nap at 8.30am, we forced him to stay awake until 11ish and after a few days it seemed to break the cycle. Early wakers often have an early nap and make up the rest of their night sleep time. Not sure if this would work for you, as by then DS was eating well and I was no longer BFding, just a few bottles during the day, but may be worth a try. Good Luck

Hi. I think moving her into her own room with a blackout blind. Have you tried either increasing her food intake or giving her a feed at say 10.30pm? Then you know that she's not that hungry at 5.30am. Does she scream or just stir and make noises because I would be inclined just to leave her and see if she settles- babies do come into a lighter sleep at that time but generally will go back to sleep if left alone.
IMO if you continue to feed her and take her into your bed she will get used to waking up at that time and it will continue.

my dds have both been through phases like this. it's a real killer. i used to pray they'd go thru till 6. now they sleep till after 7. dd2 slept till nearly 8 yesterday! they're 2.5 and 4.9 btw.

sounds like her last phase of deep sleep has become seperated from her main night's sleep. to break this cycle, you have to get her to nap a little later -say 15 mins, each day, so the experts say! once her 6.30 sleep has been moved to 9.30/ 10 say, she should sleep till later.

agree with lovelybird about the naps. I can't remember where but I read that a child should have their longest nap at around lunchtime/early afternoon rather than in the morning because if they go to bed too tired it can result in them falling into a really deep sleep and then waking too early in the morning.

Ok, soph28 she doesn't scream but she does cry rather than just stirring. I didn't detail the rest of her naps as i thought i'd waffled on enough, but they are..

5.30 wake and bf
6.30 ish -7.30 ish sleep

8 bf

9 breakfast

10.30 bf
11 Nap til 12 ish

12.30/1 Lunch

2.30 Bf

3 ish Nap for 45 mins up to 2 hours!

6/6.30 Dinner

7 - bath, bf and bed usually 7.30

So it sounds like i might have success if i try to keep her up til 11, and drop the early nap?

Was thinking of getting blackout blinds for her room so i'll try that when move her.

Anything else obvious from seeing her routine?

will be watching with interest - fairly similar with my dd. now waking at 5.30, bf at 6, breakfast at 6.45 then she's back in bed at 7.30 - would it help if i tried to keep her up and if so for how long do you think?

Hi dcd so you are feeling my pain! Seems like the idea is to gradually keep them up 15 mins later each day, eventually going to a nap at 9.30/10, then they'll start sleeping longer instead of waking early and going back to sleep.

Going to give it a try but was too tired this morning so went back to sleep with her!

managed til 7.45 today. but then slept for 90 min - didn't know what to do for the best. she did this yday and i woke her after an hour as i thought she would end up having too much sleep and was really grumpy, so left her today. she now hasn't slept since 3pm and is really fed up - not looking forward to bedtime - will try 8am tomorrow.......?

dotcotton - how's it going?

just found this .. dd ( 10 mths!) is waking 5.30/6 ish atm - having been a lovely 7/7.30 girl. She is ravenous and totally awake for the morning at this time (but will play inbetween me & dh for 30 mins whilst we hide under the bedclothes
We're just ignopring it, tbh - ds (now 3) did this too, and got over once he was down to one nap...
(dd naps around 9 & 1, btw, and I tend to wake her when she's had 45 mins/hour in the morning. Will put this thread in my ones to watch & see if anyone has a clever solution...

Rubbish! I mean its going rubbish.. she woke at 5 this morning and i just fed her in bed and tried my hardest to get her back to sleep in bed, so we just had bouts of playing in bed and sleeping, putting her in her cot and getting her back out, then we all slept in together til 9.30! At least i had a rest though.

Think i need to tackle this when its a week when i can go to bed early and get up with her, without being too knackered myself. And i keep staying up too late on Mumsnet

How about you?

I'm so pleased to find this thread. dd (15 mths) is still waking at 5am. She does nap early - usually by 8.30am - so I reckon I need to try putting this back later. The main problem I anticipate is ME - by 8.30 I'm so knackered I can't wait for her to take a kip!

Another one here! Ds2 is 11.5 months, has been waking at 4.50-5am for as long as I can remember. I got a lie in 'til 5.30am today!! He's properly awake at that time, has just started lasting 'til about 10.30, then goes down for 2 hours or so. I then make him stay up until bedtime, when he's normally asleep by 6.45pm.

I've resigned myself to the fact that that's when he's going to wake for the foreseeable future. He still often has a 10.30pm feed, so I know it's not hunger. He wakes up happy and he's lasting a good long spell until his nap.

I'm dealing with it by trying to accept it. Getting to bed myself as early as possible and sky+ing whatever I'm missing in the evening to watch first thing in the morning!!

It is a nightmare though, ds1 was never like this!! I'm very glad to see it's not just me!

Clearly i should be in bed by now but just bumping this in case anyone else has some good suggestions for us!

dd awake at 5.15 today. ignored her for about 20 min then fed her. put her back in her cot knowing that she wouldn't sleep but was too knackered to get up. anyway, as you can guess she didn't settle. she was "singing" away. i thought about leaving her but htought this might make things worse in the long run - and i was fully awake by then. i managed to get her to stay awake until 7.50 today. i'm hoping that keeping her up a bit longer each day might help, as someone suggested earlier on this thread. how's everyone else today?

Well we had a crazy night because she kept waking up crying, i think she's teething and has a cough that kept waking her. So she was awake all through the night and up again at 5.

I have friends staying this week so will start my programme in earnest next week, sounds like you are making a tiny bit of progress dcb, well done!

well, dd woke around 5.10, gulped down6oz of milk& cuddled up & went back to sleep til 7!!! wondering if she is real3y hungry (normally we only give her 3/4 oz in the hope she won't get attached to that wake-up time...)

saw hv today - new one and seemed quite good. she thought she prob did need to feed at this time at her age as she's going from 7pm. said she would prob settle down as she takes more food in. i think she may well be right as it's only recently we've stopped the 10.30pm feed, and she does feed well at 5.30-6am. will just carry on for now i think.

Dcb how old is yours? Interested cos mine does have a proper feed when she wakes up too so i'm wondering if she just needs it then..

7 months. just got in from an afternoon in town to find she's slept for another 2 hrs on top of 2 prev naps - oh dear.......

1st time i've been on here, so if i'm not up to speed....apologies!!

my ds is 5mths & usually sleeps from 9.30pm ish to 8am but has over the last ciuple of wks started waking between 5 & 6. she doesn't want a feed. is happy & smiley!! & putting her in bed with us sends her back to sleep.
woke at 4.45am this am, left her for an hr talking to herself. finally took her into my bed with dummy & she fell asleep!!

i'm due back at work soon & not sure whats suddenly causing it & what i can do....?? don't want her to get in habit of coming in to bed with me.

We had this and started putting ds (now almost 1 yo) to bed a bit later, between 19:30 and 20:00 depending on how tired he is. Nowadays, he wakes up closer to 06:00 usually although we occasionally have mornings when he's up at 05:00... I think 06:00 is just about manageable, but 05:00 is a killer...

hi have same early waking thing with DS (9mo nearly).
Before Xmas it was between 6-6:30 which was fine.
now 5:30-6 and stimes earlier.
if anyone has any success with delaying bedtime or naps would love to hear it.
am trying to have structured nap times but proving difficult as he sleeps for such a varied amount of time at these naps.
can't work out where am going wrong or if teething disrupting them.
agree with mumpbump that before 6 feels horrible and after bearable!

sorry not read whole thread but thought I'd share. DS1 started waking at 5am with the clocks changing in Autumn (9mo). We tried everything! Nothing made any difference for long. The many books I read says give up and go to bed earlier yourself. He did it until the spring clock change 2 years later. We finally got him regularly past 6am with a proper alarm clock with big numbers so he could see the 6.

DS2 started waking at 5am with the clock change in Autumn (again 9mo). Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth. We are currently giving him an extra bottle of milk and that seems to give us an extra hour.

If you haven't already, get decent kids telly, take it in turns with your DH if you can and will those 2 years to go.