Hi there
I hope you don't mind me barging on your thread, but I'm the slightly desperate mother of a very early waker! (I'm new to this forum but have been posting on a couple of IVF forums for ages).
My dd is almost 9 months. For the past three months, since she's started sleeping through, she's woken between 4.30 and 5am. I've tried pretty much everything - feeding her and trying to resettle, trying to resettle with the dummy, ignoring her, etc. etc. As you know, there is no resettling these early wakers. Trouble is that Tamsin doesn't just lie there playing and chattering, she is yelling to get up. At the moment I'm letting her get up at 5.30am (I just can't face getting up before that), but this morning I had to listen to her crying (on an off) from 4.45. I just can't do it any more. As a last ditch attempt I think I might try the wake-to-sleep. Do you think it works? What time do you think I should wake her (or rather "stir" her), if she wakes for the day at 4.45am? How about 4am?
If that fails, I think I am just going to have to get up and start the day at 4.45am.
I was hoping that things might change when her "up" time between naps increases. At the moment she can only manage 3 hours, so we are still on 3 naps a day. But some of your babies are older than Tamsin, and their increased up time doesn't seem to have helped. How much of this problem do you attribute to daytime nap structure?
I've also tried adjusting the bedtime to no avail - she usually goes down at 6.30am. I tried putting her to bed at 7, but she still woke at the same time and was just so overtired.
Aaargh! When will it end?
Thanks for listening
Emma