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?

isittooearly - you have had an early waker for three years?! [horror] And sympathies on the cats; mine woke me up before DS yesterday at 5.15. He got very short shrift...

[steps forward with some trepidation to ask question]...for those of you with toddlers - have they always been early risers or this a fresh hell they have inflicted on you?

arti - it might help to know that dd1 was early riser but now wakes between 7 & 8 depending on what time she falls asleep. Now my younger ds wakes early - so it hasn't been the same child - its like they play tag team early rising. Didn't you know too much sleep is bad for you! (yawn!!)

This morning DS woke up at 4.11am. and then went back to sleep again until 6.45!!!! This is unheard of - if he's up after 4 he normally won't go back to sleep for love nor money. So I at least have some hope that it might happen again.

For the record, I haven't slept well in about 2 years - pregnancy, then bfing in the night til DS was 11 and a half MO - then about 2 weeks of sleeping through only to start early waking when he turned 1. Might I hope to actually go to bed later than 9.30?!?! I don't think it's seasonal TBH, and DS started early waking early January and it's been pretty consistent since then. I have no theory that holds water.

In my case, dd1 always slept til 7am and had a 2 hour nap in the day. She would now wake at 6ish without a nap if the other one didn't wake her first.

Dd2 is the main culprit. I'm hoping we can be strong and continue with the ignoring. It will work, she whines more than cries and when you go in she's standing up grinning like a loon!

I'm thinking egg boxes on their bedroom walls might help.

I am not here to brag, just that you lot are the only ones who will understand my delight. We slept until...620 this morning. After over two solid years of being pregnant and breastfeeding this is the 5th morning later than 615.

Good for you turtle and hope the scan went well. Maybe you will have 20 weeks grace before it all begins again.

5.30 here which is on the good side of shit until I add that I was up every hour from 1am as he has a nasty cold. And now he won't stop crying, poor thing. It's going to be another loooong day.

artifarti-poor you!
and yes, scan all good, thanks...another boy!

Congrats Turtle!!
Poor Artifarti and ds. Hope he feels better and you bnoth get some rest.

Dh got up with dd2 at 5.30. Dd1 came in to me at 6 to tell me it was 6 o clock and milk time. So much better! They both had very early nights. Going to try it again tonight.

ds just gone for a nap (never usually has a day time sleep) having woken up at 5.00am for second time. Makes me go GRRRR! as while he's spark out, I'm not! Makes me say through gritted teeth "Why can't you sleep when I sleep at the designated sleeping time." I feel your pain arti!!

Hello ladies, can I join in? Am at wits end with DS, who is 10 months. He has always been a bit of a crap sleeper, shocking after his angel of a big sister who at almost three still has an afternoon nap a couple of times a week and has slept 7-7 since she was 9weeks old (no kidding, she was astonishing. I thought it was my amazing baby whisperer-style parenting skills. Ha.).

He was sleeping till 6.45 a while back, absolutely perfect, but it's getting earlier and earlier every morning, hitting a new low of 5.20am today. I know it's not the worst ever, but I am totally shattered and so overtired that I'm sleeping badly at night myself.

DH went in this morning and just saiid to him 'this is not acceptable', stuck a bottle in and walked out. Not exactly my style, but I have turned into shouty mum with both kiddies and I'm sure my nursery run drive is about as safe as if I'd had two glasses of wine...

Lol at "this is not acceptable"!

My dh says " shut up and go to sleep you stupid baby" and it often works.

My first words in the morning are usually "Oh FFS! You are having a laugh!" but fortunately DS sleeps in his own room and doesn't hear so I don't think I will scar him for life just yet!

Not even going to try and compete with the early waking thing- I feel so much for you all!

But, FWIW, ds2 tries to get up at around 4.30/5 a.m. What we do is keep a bottle of milk in a freezer bag by his bedroom door and when he mumbles, run in, give it to him, and run out again. We also leave some cardboard books in his cot for his entertainment (although this often means just throwing them out of the cot for fun). It usually buys another hour and a half or so.

I have also been known to put earplugs in. The beauty of this is I can hear if he gets too antsy but I can't hear the first mublings/chunterings which often account for nearly half an hour. (Although, DH is always around for emergencies AND ds2's bedroom is next to ours, with his cot and our bed situated on the joining wall, so he's really only about two feet away)

oh, hello, this is where the dawn chorus hang out? Artifarti - my DD used to be a pretty good 7.30 - 7 sleeper from about 12 months to last month.

Now she's in a big bed (22 months) she takes aaaages to go to sleep and comes into our room increasingly early in the mornings - wake up mummy, downstairs, beebies, milk!.

On average she's dropping off between 8 and 8.30 pm with me in the room (meaning if I want to eat and have any evening to myself I don't go to bed until 11) then her wake up times have been between 5.30 and 6.15. She naps during the day (at the childminders') for about 1 1/2.

Which I realise doesn't put me in the premier league but it still leaves me befuddled at work and slightly lacking in patience.

I really, really, really hope this is a phase. I seem to post a 'oh god it's all gone wrong' message about her to mumsnet about every 5 months.

4.30 this morning! BOO! Doesn't it feel like everyone else in the world has predictable babies? As soon as I get lulled into thinking ds is doing something pretty good (OK, 5.20 starts aren't good, but comparatively, they're a lie-in) he pings back to keep me on my toes. Am knackered. Feel like crying. Anyone else care to join me?

at last! other mothers with early risers!....ds is my first, now 8 months old and EVERY other mum I have met has a dream baby who sleeps for 12 hours, grrrrr

we get up between 4.30 and 5.30 every morning and only rarely go back to sleep before 7 - my biggest problem is that he IS hungry at 0430 so I feed him - but then he's totally woken up ...

he has never slept through the night - until six months was waking 2 or 3 times - now just very early - I am completely shattered all the time and the idea that this could go on for years is so unbelivably depressing I'm not sure I can face it!

I wish I could do the 'this is not acceptable thing' - I just find tears at that time so hard to deal with, harder than getting up with him, as at that time I think my ds really knows it's nearly morning, and that his body has had almost enough sleep... I know, I know: I've made my bed, will have to lie in it (as it were, I wish...).

aboveaveragemum - I am a master weeper. In particular I am good at the self-pitying 'woe is me, it's sooo not fair, why me, why do all other babies in the world sleep better than mine, boo hoo, sob'. Then when I stop I am actually a bit . But there's nowt wrong with a good cry I always think!

At the risk of teaching gran to suck eggs - do you have blackout blinds? Ours didn't bring us the promised land of 7am but seemed to cut out the pre-5am nonsense (oh lor, what have I said, tomorrow morning he will be awake at 4.20 now...)

I'm a regular cry baby! It's being tired, it ruins everything. At lease if the dd's wake early they can nap later. Not fair!

Back to 5am today. It's so much bettr when dh gets up as I can snuggle with elder dd and get another hour with her. But when I'm up, they're all up!

Going to wear them out at a playgroup then the park then hopefully they'll both fall asleep. Then they'll have a later night. Then they'll be up even earlier tomorrow. Then I'll be ratty and tearful again.

sigh.

I am cursing myself for saying this..but we had another 11 hour night ending at 615 so I will be back, I'm sure, by next week!

Maybe you've cracked it Turtle! Can you pop over and sort mine out?

Run, run from the thread turtle! Make the most of it, hope it lasts. You know where we are.

I love the word 'ratty' melmog! Much underused these days!

A rummage and shouting session at 4.30am. Just enough to wake me up good and proper and then he goes back to sleep until 5.35! Still, at least I get to read my book. DS seems to be able to stretch to 10.5 hours sleep now rather than 10 so hopefully, tentatively, maybe moving in the right direction...

Fingers and toes crossed for you that it keeps going Artifarti.

I always reckon being in bed, however early, is better than being 'up' and downstairs.

You can kind of pretend that you are resting anyway.

Earplugs for tomorrow??

Hi everyone
Just popping in to see how everyone is getting on, DS has been fine for the past week or so (desperately hoping I'm not jinxing that) seems to be sleeping consistently until after 5. We'll see how long it lasts! He's in a bed now as well so doesn't tend to cry in the mornings, either just asks for me or comes through to wake me up

5.01 this morning! So feeling comparatively well-rested! Great news for everyone who is seeing some improvement. I think I gave birth to random-boy, but if manages consistently after 5am then - for the moment! - I'm happy....