Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

Original poster

Competitive early waking thread

290 replies

artifarti · 25/06/2009 13:57

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
artifarti · 03/07/2009 06:35

Back in contention today.

5.14.

Does anyone else find that having a baby has completely ruined their own sleep skills? I can't sleep if I go to bed early and if I wake early (4.20 again this morning) I can't get back to sleep. Sigh.

OP posts:
turtle23 · 03/07/2009 06:44

Hello...we had 4:38 this morning after a run of making it all the way to 5 for 5 whole mornings. I am dying. DS is 15 months and have tried it all. Oh yes...am also 20 weeks pg. Hell on earth.

aboveaveragemum · 03/07/2009 06:56

4.55 - better than yesterday, but only by 10mins! My lo is only 10 months so when I say limit what I really mean is instead of sleeping 45mins in the morning and 1hr15 in the afternoon (he's never been a great daytime sleeper) to lop off 15 mins off each. I'm beginning to be convinced that he needs precisely 12.5 hrs per 24hr, any more and he just wakes up scary early rather than copable... untested theory though!

melmog · 03/07/2009 06:57

Morning!!

4.40 for me this morning.

Feel quite bright though for some strange reason.

Just read my last post and got my dds mixed up, if anyone was reading it. It makes no sense.

Restricting naps didn't work for us then. Going to try getting them both down for a nap asap this morning and see if that makes a difference.

I wonder if I'll eventually accept that this is how it is going to be for the summer?

Original poster
artifarti · 03/07/2009 06:59

Oh turtle, poor you. DS is only 10 months - some of my baby friends (all with good sleepers, funnily enough) are already getting broody again. I laugh in the face of anyone who even suggests I might get pregnant again in the next ten two years. Hope you get the chance to have a nap later.

OP posts:
Original poster
artifarti · 03/07/2009 09:36

aboveaveragemum - I don't know about you but I am beginning to wonder if DS (also 10 mo) will be an early nap dropper. He's never been a very sleepy baby, dropped the third nap at 5 months and is now going about 4 hours or more between naps - even when he gets up early, it's getting hard to fit two naps into the day! I've also been told that this can cause the early waking (apparently GF recommends dropping the morning nap to stop early waking but I don't think he's quite ready yet). Ah, who knows?!

OP posts:
HerHonesty · 03/07/2009 21:32

i win i win this morning it was 4.20 again. but luckily dh got up and let me have a bit more sleep. something, no doubt, to do with him announcing that he is going to work in cumbria for 6 weeks. oh well at least one of us will get a decent nights sleep.

jammietart · 03/07/2009 22:15

Do any of you think it is to do with the time of year they were born? DS was a crappy sleeper but our days always started after 7; DD has always been a good sleeper but really from 4 months she has been an early riser (before 6). DS May b'day; DD Dec.
but to quote arti 'who knows?!'

aboveaveragemum · 04/07/2009 05:19

4.30 this morning! Argh! And he really slept very little yesterday, less than he needed, so my new 'theory' is that it's just totally random and there's not a lot I/we can do. But it sounds like our boys have definitely been chatting to each other artifarti - though that said my lo didn't have his am nap a couple of weeks ago, he woke at 6am so just wasn't tired, but was exhausted by 11.30ish and it was the morning after that day that he pinged back to waking 5amish and has been since. What does that mean? I have no idea!

turtle23 · 04/07/2009 06:02

Put DDS to bed an hour later just for kicks. We went to 5:02...a veritable lie-in. It makes no difference, it seems. Argh.

Umlellala · 04/07/2009 06:09

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhh. Needed somewhere to vent.

5am this morning, after a week or so of 6-7 (and one 7.45 ). I think dd used to wake and then we'd go back to sleep later. Problem is that dd would happily play by herself/watch cbeebies while ds will just whinge/pull/grab/bite me/destroy stuff/fall over/piss me off. In a flat too, so bet downstairs love us this morning...

Thing is, I DO know what works. It's EARLY bedtimes. I mean, before 6pm. He still wakes through the night, but will sleep past 6am (yes, I know. but that's a lie-in these days, isn't it?). Just hard to actually do (means no nap after about 11am/12ish).

Anyway... off to try and put him back into bed.

Umlellala · 04/07/2009 06:12

(PS ds is a July baby too. And we couldn't change dd's night patterns either.)

Original poster
artifarti · 04/07/2009 06:44

5.18. Not prize-winning but still yawn. And this despite the fact that he was awake at 3am to 'practice' standing. Grrr...

He had hardly any sleep yesterday as we were out and about so have definitely concluded that the restricting naps theory is bollocks groundless in our case. So I am going back to let him nap for 3-4 hours a day and at least I get some peace and quiet, haha.

I am clinging on to the hope that it is partly seasonal. DS is an August baby and had just started sleeping through until 6ish in April - then it started to creep back. I have been obsessively consulting sunrise charts and it seems we should all see some improvement by September [please don't sue me if you don't emoticon]

OP posts:
HerHonesty · 04/07/2009 09:40

ok. 3.40. not amused. tried dummy water nappy then feed and then ignored and some time after 5.30 either she fell asleep again or I did.

we have decided to go cold turkey. ignore until 6 am.

Original poster
artifarti · 05/07/2009 10:11

Lots of sleep yesterday, in contrast to the day before.

5.22.

Nothing. Makes. Any. Difference.

(But at least I got to go back to bed today )

OP posts:
aboveaveragemum · 05/07/2009 15:01

5.05! Not great I know but loads better than 4.30am! And he fell asleep at... 6.05pm. So more sleep = more sleep? Dunno.

Original poster
artifarti · 05/07/2009 15:13

A lot of people say that aboveaveragemum - that putting them to bed earlier works. I think it's because they are not so knackered that they fall into a really deep sleep straightaway. Interestingly the days this week when DS slept past 5.30, he had napped past 4pm the previous day - so again was going to bed not as tired as normal.

Perhaps we have found the answer, hahaha. Well, DS is currently napping so I might get to test my theory out tonight...

OP posts:
turtle23 · 06/07/2009 06:01

Little bugger DS refused to sleep until nearly 10 pm last night and then jumped out of bed at 5. I think I may have to just leave home for a few days and leave DH to get on with it while I sleep a bit.

melmog · 06/07/2009 11:29

Had two coffes and about to crack open the red bull.

4.15 this morning. My life is shit!

Ran in to get 16month old and whipped her downstairs to get milk before she woke dd 2.11. Didn't work, 5 mins later as dd2 dropped off in travel cot downstairs dd1 slunk downstairs asking for milk.

Thinking about ignoring dd2 when she first wakes and getting into dd1's bed to soothe her back to sleep while dd2 cries.

Rubbish.

turtle23 · 07/07/2009 05:19

430 unless you count the pretending to be asleep while holding DS in vain attempt to get 5 minutes or so. Got out of bed in tears at 440. So tired. Have my 20 week scan today and am terrified I will fall asleep with DS thisafternoon and miss it.

aboveaveragemum · 07/07/2009 06:44

5.20 again here - but ds called out briefly at 4ish, then 4.45ish, then finally up at 5.20. The going to bed earlier thing does seem to be making a bit of a difference - I'm so sorry it's so tough at the moment turtle and melmog. I really struggle with 4.30, it's RUBBISH and I'm not even pregnant. Good luck with your scan!

HerHonesty · 07/07/2009 07:01

another 5.20 start, after two or three wakes. have just spent 200 quid on a new pair of double black out lined curtains. no good. our new policy is to leave until 6.30 am. she doesnt cry, is more vocal/grumbly. will report back.

this is my first very dc but i seriously dont think i could have another, i am so knackered and have to go back to work in september.

Original poster
artifarti · 07/07/2009 07:01

5.15 here after he made it to 5.35 yesterday. I don't think early bedtimes work for us at all aam - this is where our boys may finally differ! He seems to currently need 10.5 hours sleep so am going to try and extend to a 7.30 bedtime. Clutching at straws.

melmog and turtle - that is very tough, poor you. Good luck with your scan turtle, I'm sure you'll be too excited to sleep past it!

76 days until the start of autumn...

OP posts:
melmog · 07/07/2009 07:13

Good luck today Turtle.

I'd do that if I were you Honesty, if she doesn't cry it's easier to ignore isn't it.

Came down at 6 today. Result!! Dh got up to dd2 a couple of times but just stroked her and told her to go to sleep and left her. I was in dd1's bed telling her to go back to sleep. Didn't work but at least we were all in bedroom, lying down and I had my eyes closed til 5 to 6.

They both had late naps yesterday as had such a crap night before, not waking til 5... oops! Bedtime was nearly 9 rather that the usual 7. Dh and I missed our grown up time though. Never satisfied!

isittooearlyforgin · 07/07/2009 07:36

condolences to anyone who has to wake up routinely early well into toddlerhood and beyond especially after all those anxious "when will they sleep through?" conversations when they were newborns. If someone had told us "ooh! probably three years" I would have run away screaming.
What I found particulary annoying was being woken up at 4.55 (its important to say 4.55 rather than 5.00 just so that the fourness of it is made quite clear) by our cats pining for food. . words can not express the depth of emotion this elicited. Beginning to hate the cats.

Swipe left for the next trending thread