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Original poster

Extra early wake ups - is it just us!

36 replies

5ambreakfastclub · 11/09/2018 02:00

Hi all,

First time poster on mumsnet! Just after a bit of advice or to hear from other people who have had similar experiences with early morning risers! My baby is now almost 10 months old and from day 1 has woken up at 5am ( or earlier ) ready to start the day. I have tried everything to get her back to sleep when she wakes at 5 but she is completely awake ( smiling , laughing and now crawling around her cot like a maniac!) She goes to bed at 1830 ( pushing this back makes no difference apart from she’s super grumpy) and on a good night has 2 wake ups , settles quite easily with her bottle or patting and then up with the birds between 0430 and 0500. On a bad night she’ll take around an hour to settle about 3am and then she’ll sleep in maybe till 0530 or 0600 max. I guess what I’m asking is a) please tell me I’m not alone with this and b) should I just accept it and pray she’ll grow out of it 😩 thanks in advance !

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GotTheKey · 11/09/2018 06:23

When my ds did this at a similar age i stretched his first nap to 830 or 9am as he was wanting to go back to bed at 7 and i read that within 2 hours it is classed as 'catch up' sleep. It worked within a few days.

Original poster
5ambreakfastclub · 11/09/2018 06:45

Thanks @GotTheKey , she actually stays awake for about 3 to 3 and a half hours after she wakes up at 5 so I'm not sure that she's using that as a catch up sleep sadly 😩 got a bad feeling she's just an early bird! I think my main issue with it ( apart from it's quite horrific getting up at 5 everyday- especially when the mornings have started to get darker) is it makes a normal routine quite hard sometimes , esp when it comes to meals - sometimes she ends up having 4 small meals a day around her nap times because they tend to merge into what I would call "normal" mealtimes if that makes sense?

OP posts:
Oly5 · 11/09/2018 06:52

I have three kids including a 10mo and they are all the same at this age. My baby is up about four times a night and really unsettled between 4am and 6am so you’re doing better than me!
I refuse to get up though as I’m hoping he’ll get the message to stay in bed until at least 6am. So between 4am and 6am
I’m up and down or he’s in bed with us.
Try not to get up before 6am. They do eventually crack it. My eldest two now sleep until 6/7am

iamawoman · 11/09/2018 06:57

All mine have gone through a stage of 5am wake ups and ready for the day. It's a killer !! Especially if they don't nap much in the day. Gets better once they are teens x

LusaCole · 11/09/2018 07:01

My eldest was an early riser (now he's 12 and needs dragging out of bed). I never found a solution for it, sorry! Can you let her watch TV while you doze?

schnubbins · 11/09/2018 07:01

The night is over for mostly all babies between 5-6 am.there is nothing you can do.I am a paediatric nurse and mother to two grown boys who now would sleep around the clock.

Original poster
5ambreakfastclub · 11/09/2018 09:18

Thanks all for the replies , I think I might just have to accept she's an early bird and hope she hasn't ruined my own sleep pattern forever! It does help to hear that it's not just her . She's getting to the age where she can kind of be distracted by tv ( mr tumble is the only thing she'll watch for 10/15 mins) so at least I can make an extra strong coffee and wake up a bit before she starts wanting to play!

OP posts:
Rach000 · 17/09/2018 12:13

My baby likes waking at 5 as well. Sometimes I can give her a feed and get her back to sleep for a bit but do try and stay in bed till nearly 6. We got a blackout blind that is also meant to reduce noise a bit to try help. It hasn't made a difference as she is normally in our bed by then anyway.
Sorry no help but hopefully something they grow out of. Think around 8 to 10 months can be a difficult time with a sleep regression.

Matilda1981 · 17/09/2018 12:15

Mine 2nd did this until she was 18 months old and then it seemed like overnight she was sleeping until 7/7.30am - nothing I did made her sleep any later than 5.30am!

Daisies1 · 22/09/2018 08:17

Mine wakes 3.30-4.30 every morning. He’s now 15 months. I’m dreading the clocks going back!!

BentleyBelly · 22/09/2018 14:31

Oh god...i hadn't thought about the clocks changing. 11 month old early riser in our house...I am not a morning person and hate getting up at 5am. My oldest is also an early riser but a gro clock keeps her in bed a bit longer, will use that with ds too when he is old enough. Re the meal times...I give milk at 5, breakfast at 7, nap 9-10. Lunch 12, nap 1-3, dinner 5, bed 7. Have to be quite strict to fit in a nap before the afternoon school run and mealtimes to suit the rest of the family too.

Original poster
5ambreakfastclub · 22/09/2018 15:22

Wah! Completely forgot about clocks changing as well! We also have quite a set routine , especially when it comes to bedtime because her best sleep seems to be from 7pm until 1 or 2am then it all gets a bit messy after that until she insists on getting up at 5 ( or if she has had a good night with only one wake up then it tends to be a 0430 wake up 😩) later bedtimes still result in a 5am wake up but a grumpier baby! On the plus side her internal body clock is so good she never seems to get jet lag when we travel , even with an 8 hour time difference she still managed by day 2 to be getting up at 5am local time !!

OP posts:
Mumof1DS · 23/09/2018 04:59

Definitely not just you. DS woke about 3.30 and I gave up trying to put him back in the cot about 20 mins ago in favour of making Brew. All I can suggest is can someone take over every now and then in the morning to give you a bit more sleep? DH took DS yesterday and came back for me two hours later, bliss it was Grin

DunesOfSand · 23/09/2018 05:04

The clocks thing wasn't as bad as I feared when mine were little. Because all the meals changed time, it wasn't too bad.
So, can you make breakfast 15 mins later, lunch 30 mins later, dinner 45 mins later, and bedtime an hour later to try and get her to 5am at an early wake? 4.30 is very very early.

And yes, I'm up with my 7 and 9 year olds, but it's 7am here. We have all been up an hour tho.......

Chosenbyyou · 23/09/2018 05:06

17 mo - up pre 5am again...I would love to sleep in til 6am!

Original poster
5ambreakfastclub · 23/09/2018 05:24

Awake at 0420 this morning 🙄🙄 I'd like to leave her in her cot for a while but she's just started standing in her cot and her balance isn't great so if I leave her for more than 5/10 mins inevitably she falls over and starts wailing! Hopefully when she gets a bit older I can just leave her in there with some toys ... even just 20/30mins so I can wake up properly would make a difference! DH usually gets up with her at the weekends so at least I get a wee bit of a lie in ( although of course my sleep is ruined now and I usually find myself wide awake by 0530!) . Hey ho it can't last forever .. I'll get my revenge when she is a teen !!

OP posts:
Stilllivinginazoo · 23/09/2018 05:33

I have 4dc.all up by 6 but youngest was a regular 430-5 riser
She's 11 next month and now manages make it to 6am.my body clock wakes me at 5 it's so entrenched these days(eldest is 23)all I can say is o got used to it,and in summer I love getting things done before it gets hot,and having four Dc was nice having bit time with just her to start the day!

Chosenbyyou · 23/09/2018 05:38

I have found literally nothing I do will make any difference - any one have any ideas?!!

HairyLegs11 · 23/09/2018 06:28

You're definitely not alone. Sad I increased day time naps and it improved a little. Still up a lot. Flowers

Original poster
5ambreakfastclub · 23/09/2018 06:34

chosenbyyou I honestly feel like I have tried everything as well 😩 tweaking naps, food, bedtimes, crying out, attempting to re-settle etc but nothing has worked . I'm at the stage of grim acceptance but I think I'll start finding it hard again once the mornings start getting darker , it wasn't so depressing in summer!

OP posts:
speakout · 23/09/2018 06:43

My DD was like this for years OP,.

I tried everything, black out blinds, early nap, late nap, no nap, earlier bed, later bed.

Always a 5am start.

In the end I stopped fighting it- just made sure I had an early night myself so no sleep deprivation.

In the end I actually enjoyed these early starts- we could go to the supermarket, get most of the housework and laundry done, prep something for the slow cooker for later in the day.

Even now I rarely sleep past 6am, even though my DD is away at University- I have come to like early mornings.
In fact I am about to do a few hours work ( I work from home) before the rest of the family get up.

PenApple · 23/09/2018 06:51

4:45 this morning for my 14mo. He goes to bed 6-6.30. Keeping him up later is hard as he just cries as he’s so tired and I have 2 other dc to sort, and he still gets up before the birds anyway!

Me & DH get up with him on alternate days which helps a little.

Chosenbyyou · 23/09/2018 06:55

Think speakout is right - might as well just go with it.

Mine went to bed at 9pm last night and was still up pre 5am (he likes 4.48?! Or 4.55!).

I have a 3 year old who sleeps well and gets up late at 8ish! No good for me though as I am always up by 5 with the baby.

I will be getting my sweet revenge when DS is a teenager! (Now I know why my parents used to hoover at 8am!)

I can’t get him back to sleep in the morning - I tried for 1hr the other morning and it’s draining - he literally fights me and screams! When he wakes in the night he isn’t like that and will go back down fairly easily (just not sleep Long!).

The winter is making it worse OP lol! It’s like pitch black and we are ready to roll lol!

I went to bed straight after DS last night so I have had no break from him lol!

speakout · 23/09/2018 08:13

Chosenbyyou

I know it's tough, but if all else fails then sometimes it's easier to roll with the punches and try to make the best of the situation.

It taught me to love the early morning- and now years later I still do.

A great time to go shopping if you have someone else in the house to look after other little ones - but 6am Tesco shop is brilliant- store is empty, freshly made bread, easy parking, no queues at the tills.

All done and dusted by 7.30am, leaving lots of time to do other things during the day.

My bedtime is still 9pm!

seekingthejoy · 23/09/2018 08:25

I've had two early risers and I think it's often just who they are and you have to go with it. My youngest was getting up at 4:30 for...2 years. When he was little he'd have another nap at about 8am, for a while after that I'd sometimes be able to get him to.go back to sleep.for a bit, from about 2yo we had a period where I'd let him watch cbeebies on my phone while I dozed, and now he's 2.5 he'll just happily get up and potter in his room till about 6:30 or 7. He does wake slightly later but usually 5:30-6:30 at the latest. My edlest was the same, he now is mostly awake by 6am, if he wakes earlier he'll sometimes manage to drop off again but sometimes is awake from 5:15. We have adjusted as a family, compared to others we just tend to have meals earlier, kids go to bed earlier etc.