Awake at 5.30 am

[Kaziah]

I am new to Mumsnet and my daughter who has just reached 6 months has been awaking between 5.00 and 5.30am every morning. She sleeps in a cot in our room and we hae blackout lining on the blinds. She will suck her fingers and play for a while, before becoming grizzly, and then will want to be fed. She is not very hungry and I normally breastfeed her for 10-15 minutes. She will then play for 10 minutes or so and go back to sleep (sometimes in our bed)until 7.30am.

I would love for her to sleep until 7am, as she is not interested in breakfast and has a a very small feed at 7.45am. I have tried giving her bolied water, but then she cries and is more difficult to settle. Any ideas on this would be great.

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Hello Robinw and thanks for the quick reply! With regards to DD's food, she normally has a big bowl of baby rice mixed with a little fruit at about 5 pm, and then a breastfeed at around 6.45pm; bed by 7pm. If she eats quite a lot of rice she normally wants a smaller milk feed.

DD is sometimes so tired she has one side and a very small feed on the other. She does have a nap between 4 and 5pm, for 30 minutes. We have also given her a bottle of formula before bedtime, and she still awakes at about the same time.

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Yeah - I agree with Robinw about the nap being moved earlier - though its easier said than done.

I swear by the blackout blinds and now have them all over the house upstairs !
Is she a light sleeper ? when my son was in our room I'm sure one cough or snuffle from me would wake him up ... But I have to say - when we moved him to his own room he was much more settled. Good Luck

Kaziah DS is 17 months and we are lucky if he sleeps until 7 am. We had a couple of 5.30 am wake ups this week and I think he may have been hot. Because to be honest the light mornings have been here for a couple of months but this last couple of weeks the night time temps have been up. Could this be true for your daughter?

You may prefer not to, but I really would try putting her in her own room, she may still wake up but be able to settle herself back. I sometimes hear our DS very early but I ignore him (unless screaming of course!) & he will usually doze back by himself.

My DS is a year now and still wakes at 5.30 most mornings. I read in a book that this is normal!

I must confess to moving him into his own room at around five months because of this (I know it is not recommended until six months because of cot death).

Once he was in his own room it was easier to ignore. He just moans for 10 to 20 minutes then goes back to sleep until 7.00.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. Robinw, as dd normally awakes at about 2pm after her nap, she is ready to have another at about 4.30pm. I have added a formula top-up this evening as well as a breastfeed, and she went to bed at 8.15pm tonight so I am hoping this may help. Wait and see! Will also give her a very diluted formula feed as she is really thirsty when she wakes, and will not take much of the water.

I definately think we need to make some kind of change to the windows as there is still quite a bit of light coming through the gaps of the roman blinds, which have blackout lining, as we have a bay window. What could be used to omit the gaps of light? Once we have decorated her room, dd will be moving in hopefully in the next couple of months. I am thinking of ordering a sleeping bag as she kicks off her covers and it is also quite warm in our room. What is the best tog to buy for the summer/autumn season? Would a 2.0 tog be too warm? Thanks for your help on this!

My twins use sleeping bags.

I use 'Grobags' as they supply a room theometer and a note of what they should wear depending on the room temp. At the moment they are in 1.00 tog, I would rather they were cooler than too hot. The room is between 21 - 24 degrees and they just have a long sleeve top on.

I have found the 1.00 tog to be quite flexible as you can adjust the clothing they are in and will cover up to Autum.

I only really use a 2.00 tog in winter, (though you can use in in warmer weather if they sleep in a vest/T-shirt).

Probably best to have a look in the shops or the 'Grobag' web-site. They will be able to give you an idea before you commit.

Kaziah - sleeping from 7pm until 5.30pm is a long tome for a 6 month old baby to sleep - it's 10 and 1/2 hours. If she feeds and goes back to sleep is there a real problem?
If you want her to sleep until 7am it might be more realistic to put her to bed at least an hour later. You might find that you will frustrate yourself trying to get her to sleep for longer wheras accepting she is up for a 10-15min feed and going back to bed will be more relaxing for you all.
If you think the sleep in late afternoon is a problem then bath her then to keep her awake. Formula will not solve the problem.

I agree with mears...my son 19 mo. and only sleeps 10ish hours at night plus maybe an hour and a bit during the day. Some kids just need less sleep than others. We put him to bed at 9pm so that he doesn't wake us up before 7am.

Glad it isn't just me who thinks 10.5 hrs sleep is pretty good going! Only one of my four did that at 6mths and I don't think the 6 yr old has ever slept that much, LOL!

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SofiaAmes - I'm so glad to hear that someone else has a child who's still up at 9 pm. Everyone I know seems to have babies who are in bed by 6.30pm and not getting up until after 8am. But my 10 month old DS just doesn't run out of energy until about 9.30 and there's no way he'll go to sleep any earlier. Then he's usually awake again by 7 a.m, and he only sleeps for about 45 mins after breakfast, and about an hour after lunch, so never more than 12 hours total in a day. I guess as you say he just doesn't need as much sleep as some, but I do find the funny looks and comments that he should be in bed when I take him out in the evenings hard to take.

My dd who is now 9mnths sleeps from 7.30pm to 7.30am, although she always wakes at 6am ish for about 10mins. During this time i can hear her laughing to herself and playing with her toys. After about 10mins she just lies back down and goes back to sleep. You may find it helps if you put a few toys in her cot after she has gone to sleep as she may just get bored when she wakes and want something to play with.

Yes, GillW, I get a little tired of the comments and looks too. Especially the "my child gets cranky by 6, I could never keep him up that late..." like somehow I'm torturing my poor child by keeping him up to the inhumane hour of 9pm. My son has always had that bedtime so he is used to being up at that time and therefore isn't cranky at 6. In fact he doesn't normally have his dinner til 6:30/7:00. It's all a matter of habit and culture. When we are in italy I find that my son tends to go to sleep earlier than the other children.

I can't believe the number of people who ask me "is he sleeping through the night yet?" regards my 4 month old baby.
Surely it's not that common (would be nice though) for so young a baby to sleep all night without waking to be fed?

Jasper, my ds is just 2 weeks old and the first thing my SIL said when she came to visit was "How's he sleeping?" - it drives me nuts - he's a baby of course he's waking in the night. Of course the next topic of conversation was the inevitable hour of "Who do you think he looks like?" - to which I am inwardly screaming "shut up shut up shut up" - but that's another story. Perhaps it's just my hormones playing up!!

My ds also wakes sometimes at 5ish, but we now ignore him (he does about 5-10mins of grizzly wailing) and he goes back to sleep for at least an hour. I think it's easy to assume they need less sleep because if we go to him at 5am he looks very lively, 'talking', smiling and rolling and kicking and will feed quite well, but if we ignore him he goes back to sleep and wakes up just as happy. It is essential for this to work the baby needs to be in a different room, IMO. Also I swear by sleeping bags. Am currently using a summerweight one and layering night things depending on the temperature. Being too hot seems to wake him up. Try a bit of ignoring and see how it goes! Oh, and sending him to bed later made not a blessed bit of difference, so it's back to 7 - 7.30 for us. He sleeps a regular 11hours, occasionally 11 1/2.

Jasper - it all depends what "method" you are following
But clearly your baby hasn't read the book - maybe you should read it to him at 3 AM when he feeds !!!!

Thanks so much for all the tips and advice. Some of it made me smile quite a bit (Adelaide and Jasper)! I am not frustrated with her waking up at 5am, more worried about her not wanting to eat any breakfast. Mears, I also think she is doing rather well with her sleep at this age, and especially after waking a few times in the night. I used to get annoyed with the sleeping through the night questions as well (had also been asked at about 4 weeks!) and tried to make people realise that all babaies are different. I did put dd to bed at 8pm last night and she did sleep a bit later. She was sucking her fingers and playing with her feet in her cot at about 6am. I don't mind her going to bed later, as her bed time had previously been around 8pm, but she started wanting to go to bed earlier herself. I have ordered a grow bag so will try that out soon as she kicks off the covers and gets cold on cooler nights. Peanut, will also give her a couple of toys to play with as she gets very lively and wants to play when she awakes as well.

Hi, i've just tuned in to this discussion so forgive me if this is repetitive. My 15-month-old girl was always a good sleeper until she got to about 8 months and started picking up colds from nursery. then she started waking during the night and early morning. just recently she's slept better during the night but always wakes between 5am and 5.30 - no matter how late she goes to bed. if we leave her for a few minutes she starts wailing. as a result, we're both exhausted. any suggestions. she's a very perky, inquisitive child so is suspect it's just the way she is.

Toys/books in the cot Popsqueak? DS will sometime be entertained by this. Although I have to say that we do not get much sleep since part of the entertainment involves throwing them as far as possible. Still lends the possibility of dozing for an extra half hour or so.

My son went through a phase of that...waking up at 5 am. We solved it by my dh going into his room and getting him and putting him in bed with us. My dh would then cuddle him til he went back to sleep. He eventually got over it and now sleeps very nicely through til 7 or 8.