ho ho ho -- desperat etimes i the tutterhole (that sounds rude does it not) - come and tell me if you think our Great Plan will make a ha'peth of difference or NOT

[Tutter]

he wakes at 5am

every day

or slightly earlier just for fun

so - we're going for it. a whole week of putting him down later

no earlier than 7:45 from now on

so, go on, after a week, will it help? yes or no

The way I see it is all children adjust to the change of clocks twice a year, so why not?
I would also make tea a little later.

ach, just one 'yes' and tyhat's it

c'mon - i need to know!!!

It has helped (a little) with DS (16mo). He goes to sleep at 8 now and generally the earliest he wakes now is 6.

Oh yes, we also put tea back to 6pm.

my DS wakes up a bit later when he goes to bed later. worth a try!
(the tough part is keeping him awake at 4pm!)

my DC's always wake up at the same time regardless of they time they go to sleep. The DSs more so than the DDs who will have a lie in once in a while!

Oddly they always wake up earlier at weekends than school days

I'm afraid to say it never worked in the EandH house, the later the bedtime,the earlier dd1 gets up (and then spends all day being grouchy) she has always woken between 5.30 and 6.30 but shes nearly 4 now and on thursday slept till 7.45 (thats a record)

dd2 is awake at 5-5.30 every day without fail, so gave up putting her up at 7 and she goes up at 6 and I get an evening as I know she'll wake in the morning regardless

Sorry!!

Hasn't/didn't work with my nearly 4 year old. He is just grumpier in the mornings.

Strangely sometimes he actually slept later if he went to bed earlier.

I was an early riser too according to my mother - she thinks its pay back.

Good luck though. The early mornings drove me mad and still do although at least now he can play in his bedroom until a more acceptable time.

Did not work for us, later to bed means ealier to rise for us too and the grumpy mood is just not worth it.

So what do you all do when the clocks go back/forward? If you actually shift the other things in their life like tea/ breakfast/ wind down time, eventually they will change their routine as they do at the change of clocks. Things like school can't change time of course, but the other things can. I assumed this was a younger child who tutter sees more of anyway and the more you oversee their day the easier it should be to do this.

DS is 19 months and we have only just stopped giving him his 10pm bottle because he was doing the same ie going to bed at 7pm and waking at 5am starving hungry. By giving the bottle at 10pm (he hardly even woke up) he would sleep until at least 7am. Very much worth it IMO. Is he waking up hungry???

no it doesn't work

you need to "wake to sleep"

wake baby an hour before their usual wake up (so 4 am for you )

untuck them, stroke their cheek until they are nearly almost, but not fully awake and then leave to re-settle

the theory is that this disrupts their old sleep cycle so they sleep through their old wake up

you need to do it for three nights and then see what happens on the fourth night

if they wake at 5 am again (ie old wake up) you do Wake to sleep for 6 more nights

it works - i did it with my DS when he was a year old and waking at 5 am

it is a baby whisperer technique so you should be able to google for more detailed instructions

apols for cutting and pasting:

A PLAN: Nine times out of ten a child who wakes habitually doesn?t need more food (unless she?s going through a growth spurt; see pages 115?119 and 197 TBW SAYP). Instead, Re-swaddle, if necessary, give her a dummy to calm her, and comfort her with the shush-pat. Keep stimulation to a minimum. No rocking or Jostling. Don?t change her unless her nappy is soiled or soaking wet. Do the ?Four S? routine and stay with her until she?s settled into a deep sleep. You?ll also need to take steps to break the waking habit.

So, let?s say you?ve ruled out other causes such as pain or discomfort. You?ve also eliminated hunger by both upping her food during the day and tanking her up at night. This is what I call my ?wake-to-sleep? technique: Instead of lying there waiting for her to wake up, set your clock an hour earlier than her habitual waking time and you wake her (see bottom of this page). She probably won?t wake up completely, but her little eyes may dart back and firth under her lids, she?ll murmur and move a bit just as an adult would if you interrupted his deep sleep. Do this for three nights in a row.

I can just hear your response: ?You must he out of your mind!? I realise that wake-to-sleep is a shockingly counterintuitive suggestion, but it does work! Sometimes, in fact, it only takes one night to break the habit, but I recommended that you keep it up for three nights nonetheless. If it doesn?t work, you have to reevaluate whether her habitual waking is due to another cause. If you?ve ruled everything else out, do this wake-to- sleep technique for at least another three days.

Wake to Sleep? Tracy, You?ve Got to Be Kidding
Parents are often shocked when I suggest the wake-to-sleep strategy for habitual night waking. Set your clock an hour earlier than your baby usually wakes and go into his room. Jostle him gently rub his belly a bit and stick a dummy in his mouth?all of which will help stir him to semi-consciousness. Then, leave. He?ll fall back to sleep. This gives you the control, rather than your sitting around hoping that your baby?s habit will magically go away. (It won?t.) By waking him an hour early you?ll disrupt his sleep pattern.

my DTs wake earlier the later they go down, the grumpiness that follows is no fun for anyone

My DD1 never managed this, no matter what time she went to sleep she was always awake between 5 and 6. She is now 8 and is still the same. We taught her to really enjoy her books and placed some in the cot every night so she kept herself occupied for a bit...and learnt to read by 3. Which really helped my sanity and hers, no doubt. Even now if we are on holiday at a wedding/special event and she stays up until midnight she still rises by 6!! we call her our little Maggie Thatcher.

thanks for all your posts

ruby - yes, we have the baby whisperer book so have come across wake-to-sleep before

we are considering giving it a go tomorrow...