Competitive early waking thread

[artifarti]

Aaaarrgh! Between 5 and 5.30 since April. Every bleedin' morning. Nothing works. He laughs in the face of blackout blinds and curtains. I hate the Teletubbies even more now.

Can't wait for the Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness and really dark mornings in the hope it changes (it has to change, surely?!)

It's not just me is it?

question: When your los wake up at some ungoldly hour and don't go back to sleep, do they look tired? And do they seem tired and ratty at breakfast?

(4.45am - booo hoooooooo)

No. I am the ratty tired one, and not just at breakfast.

My LO seems to have superpowers of wakingness. She doesn't seem to need much sleep. She will sleep for a bit in the afternoon. I wish she'd not sleep in the day and tack the hour on to the night, but it just doesn't work like that. It really doesn't matter what time she goes to bed, how tired she is, what she's been doing, whether she's napped... pretty much always the same, always around 5-5.30am.

To be fair, I actually don't need that much sleep either, so she probably takes after me... But I do find I need more sleep at the moment because of all that running-around-after-a-toddler thing.

DS looks completely knackered in the morning, it's so annoying.

If DS is up pre-5.15, he's ratty and shattered. Anytime after that is fair game to him though and he'll quite happily go 3.5 hours until he wants a nap.

5.50 this morning. Monitor successfully hidden at back of wardrobe to avoid murmurings. Unfortunately was let down by DS1 (ginger, furry, smelly) who broke down my door barricade at 5.25. Bah!

thank you for the replies. My ds looks tired too, and I keep on saying 'You are tired, you need to stay in bed longer!' but to no avail.

As Mrsjamin said, it's SO annoying.

But maybe it means that when it gets darker then he will sleep later? [hopeful emoticon]

my latest theory is that DS is just an early riser, perhaps genetically - I have never been one to sleep in, as a student I was the only one to be there at 8am for breakfast! My parents are also early risers even now they're retired, they get up for a 7.30am breakfast as they've always done. It's like you're aware of light even before you open your eyes and your stomach starts rumbling for breakfast and your mind kicks in to all the things you could be doing rather than lying in bed (of course that's pre-children days!!) I think DS has just inherited this from me. Who else is the same?

I think you might be right. I have never been a big sleeper and, like you, was always up early even at uni when everyone else slept until midday. I don't even mind getting up at 6am that much (before = poo, though!) and seven hours sleep does me fine.

DP, on the other hand, needs a good eight hours+ to be human. DS has been a big shock to his system . I'm hoping if I'm ever foolish enough to have another, they will take after Daddy this time...

Yawn. Bed-time. Sweet, late mornings to you all. Whoever's up first - put the coffee on, there's a love.

I put the coffee on for you all at 130 but no one was here.
I woke at 130. DS slept til 515 then I cuddles him back to sleep til 615. This was due to him not going to sleep til 9 from screaming teething pain. Am I actually here? Feel like I am somewhere else....

Oh, I just missed you turtle! We were awake from 1.45 until 3.15, not quite sure why but think maybe more teeth on their way. Wake up at 6.10 though, so I'm going to get kicked off my own thread if I'm not careful.

Madigan - have you tried lavender oil? I find that a few drops on my pillow helps me to sleep if I'm having problems.

[puts fresh pot of coffee on]

Back with you ladies.

Teeth.

5.10.

Arse.

2 x 5am here. At the weekend!

Does anyone else think it just makes life so hard. Or am I just a wuss?

OrangeKnickers - I go through phases where I seem to be able to get on with it and not mind so much. And other phases where it really wears me down and I get very fed up (and start a thread to whine about it!) I don't care if I'm a wuss!

I was talking to another friend with two DCs yesterday and both of his have been through this phase and come out of the other side. We will get there!

I'm the same as you artifarti and Orangeknickers and I don't care if anyone calls me a wuss...it's blo*dy hard work starting your day at 5am (if not earlier)...EVERY day.

We had 4.45am yesterday and 4.55am today. My first words this morning were 'Im FED up with this'! He manages to amuse himself for half an hour but that's it and the beginning of another day. It wouldn't be SO bad if I didn't also have a non-stop 3 year old (oh, and a smug sister-in-law whose 3 WEEK old baby seems to sleep better than my ds (apparently)....I must have been really bad in a previous life...!

Sweet dreams to all you and your little ones tonight.

I am joining you if I may, albeit temporarily, I hope.

Gone from a lovely 6:30am/7am type of toddler to just shy of 6am, then 5:30, 5:15, and today 4am.

And to top it off she has decided tonight not to go to bed either until late. so last night she slept 8:15pm to 4am, until 5:30am or so, slept until 7:15am latest, and now finally asleep at 9pm. I have no idea what is going on. All I know is she must be exhausted. I know I am.

Add to this, my continued, although subsided hyperemesis, the builders here every day making lots of noise and general inability to catch up on my sleep. I have had enough.

Not much response on my other thread, and reduce the risk of some sarcy comment demonstrating my sleep deprived paranoia I am posting here.

Hi PavlovtheForgetfulCa - I feel for you. How old is your toddler? When my dd started early waking (I thought it was early before I encountered my ds!!!), I bought her a training clock which face changes when it was time that she was allowed out of bed (her one is a nightgarden one with Igglepiggle sleeping - then, when it's 7am, it changes to Upsy Daisy and she is allowed to get out of bed). I didn't think this would work but I explained it to her and to my utter amazement, she stays in bed every morning until the clock changes (even though sometimes I can hear her singing for about an hour or so beforehand. I didn't introduce this though until she was 2 and a half so might be that your little one is too young yet...just an idea though.

Sorry about the sickness - I also suffered badly with my ds and it's so hard with a toddler running around.

I have heard of those before and forgot all about them! Do you know what DH has just said 'find out where the bloody hell you buy it, and buy it, right now' .

She is just 3, literally 2 weeks ago, so old enough to understand what it means. She might even like it.

So, where did you buy yours? And do they do others and she is off of ITNG!

Pavlov you have my sympathies! My 3.5 yo has changed from 6.30/7ish to 5/6 and I can see no end in sight!

We tried one of the those clocks - feckin hard to get it set at the right time and when I did get it righ she decided she was scared of the green glow light. Then once I figured out how to keep that off it didn't work anyway - she figured out how to change it better than I did

Now we have fairy lights on a timer and she knows that she shouldn't shout on mum until the fairy lights are on but she just shouts 'mum the fairies aren't awake yet' gggrrrrrr

I think I am going to start leaving out something for her to eat and drink to see if that will keep her in her room longer.

YAWN

Morning all!

I'm back from a weekend away, thinking I'd be telling you all how the sleepover had cracked it.

I'm not

Dd2 seems to have either flu or earache or something and has been up and down all weekend.

Dd1 decided she didn't want to sleep as there was too much excitement going on.

So.
Friday morning up at 6am, great.
Saturday morning up at 5am, not great.
Sunday morning, up at 3.30am, awful!

Back home and back to 5.30 for dd1 on the one morning that dd2 was going to sleep in. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Going to get me one of those clocks.

Ok, I think I got it from Argos but have seen it in other places too. I guess it's worth a try and if it works, great. If not, bad luck!! It worked for my dd but like a previous person said, it's not a great design as to be able to see whether it's Igglepiggle on (sleep time) or Upsy Daisy (time you're allowed out of bed), you need to keep the night light on...I thought this might be a problem but I tried it and my dd loves the idea. Also the mechanism is noisy when it changes from night to day so even if your lo was still asleep at 7am (as if!!!), it would probably wake them up. Also, it's a 12-hour clock so you can't set it to go off more than 12 hours later (if you see what I mean)...although sometimes I sneak back in her room and re-set it when she's asleep!!!! Having said all those negatives about the clock, I LOVE it for my 3 year old as she understands about it and knows she's not allowed out of bed until the clock changes. Fab.

So, I've just got 2 more years until my ds will understand about a clock like that...! 4.50am again this morning...although he did go back to sleep 20 mins or so later so not tooooooooooooooooo bad!

sleep clock - we got a 'Kidsleep bunny clock' for ds about two months ago. We couldn't get an argos one.

here

It worked for two weeks, with a sticker chart. We thought we'd cracked it - then ds got bored. On the packaging it says from 30months.......

Thank you to those who said they find it hard too. It's just bloody hard. All I want to do is read mn, not do any work! Mind you that would prob be the case however much sleep I had.

melmog - your weekend sounds awfully tiring! I used to love going away but now I just know ds won't sleep very well and I dread it.

Positive thoughts needed!

OrangeKnickers - I return to work (p/t) in three weeks and apart from all the obvious hand-wringing doubts and concerns, I am thinking 'how will I get through the day without a doze at 2pm?!' But I think whether you're at work or chasing round after a toddler at home, it's bloody knackering. It was 5.30 this morning which isn't toooo bad but I woke up in a foul mood, a real 'it's not fair, why me, everyone else's babies sleep for 13 hours' mood.

I feel for you also as my DS is still a baby (just!) so is supposed to be crap at sleep - it must be doubly annoying/frustrating when they suddenly start doing it after a period of relative good sleep. This too shall pass...

You should try and plan things though - weekends or whatever - as it gets even more depressing when life is totally restricted due to sleep (I know this as DP and I are constantly having to remind ourselves of this)

Positive thoughts: it will end! Also, I read something spurious that said early waking particularly affected clever boys and so at least our DS's will grow up to be very important and mine will probably buy me a holiday home in Greece.

Wow reading this makes me feel so much better as I am not alone! My 20 month old daughter wakes anywhere between 4.15 and 5.15am every day... I have got used to it now and can function fine on a 5.15 start as long as I am in bed by 10pm... I have resolved myself to the fact that nothing we do makes any difference to what time she wakes so we just try and get through it. I am praying that the dark mornings will put an end to this!! I dream of waking up at 7am at weekends!!

artifarti - thank you for your kind post. I do hope you are right and am already looking forward to the house in Greece! That really cheered me up, thanks.

Good luck with the return to work. When you get enough sleep then it's great to have the opportunity to work and spend time with LOs. I found the work bit easier than toddler taming! And hot tea without interruptions. Bliss. If you want any info then I am happy to go on and on about it!

tiredhappymummy - I am impressed by your name. I am tiredmainlycrossmummy.

We have had a 5.20 and a 5.30am after I reset the bunny clock to 5am so he could get more stickers. So maybe it's working again. We have given up on the chart and just do two stickers on the back of the hands with a lot of fuss. It's amazing the difference between 5am and 5.30am.

Hope the silence on the thread is everyone's LO's ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzing!

Unfortunately not Oragngeknickers!!! 4am this morning but resettled after a nappy change and then slept in until 7am (obviously that bit is good...but not the 4am bit!!). Had to have quite a few strong coffees this morning...

Not been on this thread for a while. things aren't really getting any better but I'm hopeful with the dark mornings looming. 4.11am this morning, the worst in quite a while. I'm tempted to just give him something to eat at that time, as I think once he's been awake for a little while he just wants milk/breakfast. But am I making a rod for my own back by giving food in the night?!