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?

I have two 5am-ish wakers too, I haven't slept past 5.30 for nearly 6 years.........

oh god its shit
specially on a wet sunday in november.

Vietnamese Cobbler. No!!!!!

You're supposed to say don't worry, they'll snap out of it when the dark mornings return!!

I love the clock idea though. Mine are slightly too little but definately going to do that.

NO
it wont.
ds2 for eg never woke up early as a baby and still is my sleepiest.
I am an early bird too even as a teen I never slept in.

GM and VC - cool names bythe way.

I am not REALLY sure I wanted to know that !! But as ds is two should we embrace the early waking and change the household to get up at 5. On the basis that he might do it for years so we might as well get used to it now? Or stick with 'taking turns'?.

There are plans for ds2. The thought of up all night and 5am fills me with horror.

NO
onyl one of you can be tired at anyone time or else you and h just row.
It never bothered me as much as dh tbh as I am an early waker. there does need to be allowance made - I would slope off for a long bath with a mag on a Sunday morning after a 5 am start.

Ah but Orangeknickers, we have ds (dc2) in bed by 6.30pm most nights, so at least we get an evening of rest... And he is waking approx 6am at the moment (as long as I can engineer no nap in afternoon, bed by LATEST 6.30pm, pref 5.45/6pm).

oh and later nights make no diff

Yah, for dd we got lovely luxurious lie-ins (though prob a brief wake at 5/6amish) and used to put her to bed post 8.30pm. Ds is definitely better (and I am exhausted by then ) with early early bedtime.

Nothing changed dd's nightly wakings though. So am very open to the idea that THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!!

Yes, but I want them in bed by half six so I can have an evening and I don't want them to wake up til eightish.
Is that too much to ask??

I know when I was little my Dad said he never got to see me in the evenings as I was asleep by seven and he'd wake me in the morning before he left for work so he at least had a bit of time with me. I blame my dh. He was a rotten sleeper as a baby.

VC, you're right about rows when you're both tired. We take it in turns but at the moment dd2 is waking in the night and only dh can settle her quickly, (if I go in to her she just wants to get up for the day and if I try putting her down again she screams bloody murder) so even when it's my turn he's still knackered.

Sigh. Maybe one day we'll look back at this stage and think how quickly it passed.

melmog
yes it is too much.
and no, it is a terribel stage - what if dh went away, surely she woudl have to manage?

Who would have to manage? Sorry, you've lost me.

And i was joking, I know it is too much. A girl can dream can't she?!

dd2 would have to manahe

Oh, I've got you! Yes, she would. I do go in sometimes but it ends up with me bringing her downstairs and we doze on the sofa. My own fault, I know, but I can't stand to hear her cry and it wakes dd1.

Dh does go away quite frequently but luckily the dd's have taken it in turns to wake so not had to do one above the other iyswim.

Need to start leaving her to cry a bit I think as it is mainly whining rather than full blown crying. Keep saying I'm going to do it then bottling it!

melmog, have you tried 'prepping' before bedtime? ie 'Dh is not going to be coming in, it's going to be mummy tonight'. We do it on any big change. Works well I think....

Thanks Umlella. I would but she's only 16 months so I don't think she'd understand.

It's all my own fault, she's got used to the idea that if I pick her up, she's going downstairs for a cuddle.

To be fair to her though, she doesn't wake every night but she has molars coming through at the mo.

Waking in the night doesn't change the early starts either!

Hi,

I am reading your messages with tons of symapthy but I hope a shread of hope...my ds woke everyday between 4-5am for 6 whole months last summer when he was about 15 months. Unbelieveably when the clocks went back he snapped out of it and started waking consistently at 6 am, a luxury! This summer although waking earlier than in the winter he has been loads better, I wonder if an age thing? I remember those early starts so vivdly, really is a killer, I would never have believed it this time last year if someone had told me he would be waking at 6 (sometimes 6.30!)so hopefully this may give some of you hope!

Thank you Jooles. That is more like it. I love you.

woop woop for jooles, was starting to despair about DS doing it until he's 10

Just come on here for any sympathy/condolences that may be on offer. Went to bed at midnight (I know! I know!) lost track of time watching a trashy film Ds woke up at 4.00am. Have been teaching 4 and 5 year olds on 4 hours sleep - feel like my eyes are literally going to fall out!!

there is light!!!!

Looks like I am back. 442 today. Am supposed to be going on lovely outing today...think we may stay home to nap.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we've got a long way to go til we're out of it I reckon!!

03.45, 04.10 then up at 05.30.

Istooearly, you poor thing. At least I don't have to work. Especially with KIDS!! Hope it was better this morning.

Turtle, you didn't think you'd get away did you??

5.17 yesterday

5.18 today

progress, no?

Been doing 5-somethings on and off for years (DS1 is 3).
All join in....!

Morning all!

Well, we're back and sleep-wise, it's been interesting...

Friday night, bedtime at 8pm, awake at 5.20 (bang on, as usual)

Saturday was a bit mad with random napping and an eventual bedtime of midnight (I know, call social services!) Wake up was 6am.

Sunday bedtime was 8.10pm and wake up was 6.40 (whoop! whoop!)

Monday saw a massive four hours of napping, a bedtime of 7.50 and this morning's wake up was 6am.

So, no idea what's going on really. He could just be catching up on lost sleep or I could have messed with his internal clock and jogged him out of 5.20. Too early to say really. I'm not sure we'll be able to stick with 8pm bedtime - that only really works if he has a late nap (I had to wake him up at 4.30 yesterday, even though he'd been asleep for 2.5 hours!)

I'll bet it creeps back but if not you will all be able to purchase my tried-and-tested sleep solution, provisionally entitled 'Take your Baby to a Disco and Solve All your Sleep Problems'.

[Oh and I spoke to lots of friends with kids at the wedding and the consensus seemed to be that their baby sprogs had all been through the early waking phase but grown out of it, usually when the mornings got darker...so hang in there]