WHY IS SHE WAKING AT 5AM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Schmauskin]

Help needed - my 7 month daughter goes to bed like a angel at 7.00pm, I give her a dream feed at 10-10.30pm (around 4oz) and she sleeps through (occasionally stirring and groaning at 3 or 4) and then wakes at 5.00-5.30 EVERY morning. She never cries, just moans/talks. She DOES fall back to sleepafter about 40 mins until around 6-6.20. then moans again until I go in at 7.00am and get her up. Consequently I am knackered, having been awake since 5.00am listening to the bloody monitor. She is eating 3 meals a day, getting enough milk and having a 45 min nap in the morning, an hour and a half after lunch then another 30 min nap in the afternoon. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??!!!! I know it's not hunger, because she's very casual about taking her milk at 7.00am. It's not poo, because she doesn't always wake with a dirty nappy. Please help as my tiredness is making me so miserable. Can't go to bed earlier as husband not in from work at night, early enough to do last feed....HELP!

Anyway, so really seems to need that afternnon kip. She only has 30-45 ins in the morning and after lunch the most she has ever done is 1.5 hours so when we're out walking from around 2.30pm she has a little nap of around 30-45 ins. She's 7 months but premature so her adjusted age is nearer 5.5 months, so I guess it'll be a little longer before she's ready to drop that afternnon nap...maybe if she could sleep longer after lunch...how do you all fit in other stuff though or does that come later?

I make up 8oz and let her take whatever she wants at 10.00pm

schmauskin I just didn't really - I had major traumas sorting out ds1's daytime sleep, so I would just fit in what I could around his sleep times (and also my need for sanity!). Generally that meant I went out briefly in the morning and then for a longer period after he got up in the afternoon - around 2.30. once they drop down to one nap it gets easier and this is usually the time they start to benefit more from toddlers groups etc.
Ds1 never regularly slept more than 1.5 hours until he was much older and only on one sleep.
btw if your dd is only 5.5 months corrected then there may not be much you can do about the early waking - just be thankful she does go back to sleep and that you are getting a reasonable unbroken stint at night - and keep in mind that it will get better... Can your dh do an occasional late night feed for you to catch up?

I'm a bit confused now don't know what to do...
he woke up at 5.15am on and off up to 7.am
finally I gave him breakfast he was tired and back to sleep at 9 for a nap and I woke him up
after 45min...maybe I shouldn't have to...
Anyway hoping he would sleep longer in the afternoon...only slept half an hour....
Gave him a bottle at 2.30pm now....
What's next???
He is sill a bit grumpy tired....when can I put him down for another nap....?
So it doesn't affect his night sleep...
I mean he might wake up later then 5...
please help.....

sounds like you're doing just fine, try to not to let it take over your life...it so easily can.

let him have 20 mins about 4:00 no longer and definately wake him by 5pm

You could always turn off the monitor. You'd presumably hear any full on crying, and it would let you ignore the moaning/chatting until a civilised hour.

soory just read your message, didn't realize he only had 30 mins at lunch. In that case I would give him his full 45mins between 4 and 5 pm

I agree Aloha, if he is happy to just chat away at 5am, then leave him to it, he will soon start to fall back to sleep alot quicker than he is at mo.

It's just one of those blips!!!

I agree Aloha, if he is happy to just chat away at 5am, then leave him to it, he will soon start to fall back to sleep alot quicker than he is at mo.

It's just one of those blips!!!

thank you girls
I haven't got monitor in the bedroom, he's actually next door to mine....
and I can hear him, I also usually got inside and give him his soft toys that some times lose during the night....
Should I just ignore him without walking in the bedroom....
Sometimes he follow asleep straight after seeing me briefly in his bedroom...

something that has worked for me, and I advise other parents to do with my job , is this...At 7:00am when you don't mind getting him up. go in to him with a very cheery good morning and make sure every morning you turn on a little side light.

Any time before 7 that he wakes, go in to him, no lights, and lie him down, with no eye contact, and only say this one sentence "ssshh, go back to sleep" then walk straight out. repeat this only when he is distressed not when he is only chatting.

Using the light, he will eventually learn to differentiate between still being night and when he can get up.

It may be another couple of nights but it does work

Crazy that's right and that's what I usually do...
But from 5am to 7am I do need to go every half an hour...he usually close his eyes...and seems that back to sleep ok...and 15 min later start again....
and I found stressing ....because I can't follow asleep anymore...as he moan every 20min...sometimes....

Schmauskin - personally I would say turn the monitor off! I started a thread about that recently - I really think monitors can be a real problem. Then you can sleep though your DD's ramblings.

I tried to keep him up all afternoon
and he just crashed now...
I'll wake him up for his tea at 5pm..

it all went wrong I think...

HI Schmauskin
just let you know that G slept 7 to 7, I avoided the late afternoon nap that use to be from 4 to 4.45pm, but he was really grumpy for tea....

I'll try to let him nap a little today, because
I feel sorry for not seeing him enjoy his tea time....

Maybe around 3.30 for 30 minutes...
will see....

But yes basically only wake up when hubby had a shower around 7.15am...so I managed to have a good night sleep...

SaSa - well done! hope you feel rested? My hubby slept in the spare room with the monitor, and did the morning shift today. Blossom slept til 6.30am woke and moaned for 15mins (husband just left her to it) then went to sleep until he went in at 7.30am. YIPPEE! Maybe she IS still waking at 5am but perhaps hubby doesn't hear the monitor?? Have experimented with cutting the morning nap today - she lasted til 10.50 when i gave her lunch, then she fell asleep in the highchair. she's sleeping now - hopefully for 2 hours?!
We'll see....

Just about to trawl through this thread as dd woke at 5.20am and I'm having a total sense of humour failure about it, esp as she kept me up from 10.40pm - 11.15 last night. So now I'm pre-menstrual and knackered. Nice.

Right, I think what we did wrong yesterday was let dd sleep for 1.5 hours at lunchtime, I think she only needs an hour and we've got to not let her have the little 15 minute power nap she'd like from 9.30 am as maybe she needs to reattach that to the night time sleep. We're also going to swap beds with ds (who sleeps through dd screaming EVEN in the same room!) so that we sleep through anything but the loudest screaming. We need another bedroom

Bloody hell - she's dropped the 10pm feed AND stopped waking at 5am!!! 2 days running, so let's PRAY it continues. She woke this morning at 6.15am for 15 mins then went back to sleep until 7.30am. I have nothing to do with this remarkable new developement - wish I could say it's because I did X or Y, but I can't because it's all down to her.....x

Copied and pasted from another thread, I may try Catbert's advice before I lose my mind due to lack of sleep:

By Catbert on Wednesday, 2 February, 2005 10:50:47 AM
To answer your last post - I think they wake unhappy like this when they have NOT had enough sleep to see them through. Even another 45 mins can make the diff between waking crying and waking babbling (which is how it should be!)

Good luck!

By Catbert on Wednesday, 2 February, 2005 10:49:02 AM

Sometimes with babies, the more sleep they have the more they want. You could start by bringing bedtime forward and ensure he does to bed at between 7 and 7.30. At least THAT way if he wakes early, he should have had enough sleep to make him happier.

However, I have a rule (cruel mother than I am) that my day does NOT start before 7am (!!!) and so when my babies were small and if they started early waking, I would try going in, settling, and leaving again as if it were the middle of the night (feeding, quick cuddle, pickup/put down method, whatever worked best for me with each child at the time). No talking. No lights, VERY boring mummy. If crying was persistent, sometimes I would sit in the room, sometimes holding, sometimes not, being VERY quiet, again, no talking, no lights etc etc until that magic 7am moment came and then we could do "Good Morning, switch on lights etc. After a short time, it seemed to sink in that it was pointless excercise waking before 7am, as there was nothing to get up for. I am pretty certain it was a MN tip from someone that sent me down this route.

Sounds simple, but it worked, AND (BTW) esp. with DD2 who was waking at 5 - 5.30 every morning for a short while.

Otherwise, you may end up "training" them that 5am is a perfectly normal time to start the day, and THAT is what becomes habitual. (certainly was with a friend of mine whose 2.5 yr old STILL wakes at 5am every day now...

AND my sister used to think 5.30am was a normal start to the day with babies and it was only months after that she realised that an hour or so after getting up, her DS was consistently going back to sleep for a couple of hours, but by this time, she was already up!

All that is Catbert's advice btw!

Schmauskin,
good to hear that your angel sleeping, G is doing well too, not waking up at 5am anymore...
he only sleep 45 min in the morning.. 45 min after lunch...and small nap from 3.45pm to 4.10 max...
He goes down happy and he wake up 7.30 in the last couple of days...
so catching up with sleep...

thank you crazy anyway I follow your advice for the 20 min. nap....!!!
I found this site very helpful...

x

smile