Help! 5am wake ups!

[vadensmommy]

catonss
My dd is a bit younger than yours, but if she has 1.5hr nap in the am, it takes FOREVER to get her to take a nap in the pm, and many times it is only a 45min nap.  So we've started shortening the am nap to about an hour, and that really really seems to help, and then we do a 3hr A time between the am nap and pm nap, and that seems to work pretty well for us.

[catonss]

Thanks - do you mind posting your schedule for her, vandensmommy?


Last couple days have been better - 1.5 hr am and pm naps.  But still a fairly long A time b/f night sleep, b/c we're still trying to stretch out A times during day.  Getting better though.  Today b/f both naps she took a long time to fall asleep - almost an hour.  Usually if she's not asleep by 30 mins she doesn't sleep, so i was surprised both times that she took a good nap.  Still adjusting....

[Layla]

Hey Sarah... I have been meaning to look into this thread to see how you are doing .

So things are better? How are things with your 2.5yo?

[vadensmommy]

Catonss

Well, our days change all the time - mainly because dd is at a sitter's in the morning through the week and then with me in the pm, however, I'll post what the sitter tells me she does (which doesn't always seem to be real accurate - she has quite a few babies to watch).

A 6:30
E 6:45
A 6:45 - don't really know - seems different everyday because it's at the sitters solids sometime in here
S 10ish sometimes it's later - in fact a lot of times it is later, but on a good day she sleeps around this time
 
E 10:45 - again the sitter does this, and there are MANY days when I pick her up around noon there are still oz left for this bottle, I just feed her again before her pm nap and that seems to do ok
A 10:45-1:30ish solids somewhere in here
S 1:30ish-3:30ish sometimes a little later depending upon when the last bottle was and when the nap actually started, but this is usually a pretty good 1.5-2hr nap

E 3:30ish sometimes part of this bottle is right before the pm nap - just depends on how hungry she seems and how close it is to 3:30 before the nap
A 3:30-6 solids somewhere
E 6ish -last bottle
S by 7 typically again depending on when she woke up from the pm nap.  Earlier if nap ended earlier.

Hope that helps.  It is so hard to put down on paper, because the only day that I see an entire schedule without interruptions is Saturdays.  Hard to adjust things just based on how saturday goes iykwim!  HTH!

[chanashleigh]

Hello again!  Hope you are all doing well. Just thought I would post and let you know how things were going.

The morning set nap times are going pretty well. At the moment her morning nap is 8:45am no matter what time she wakes up but she still pretty much wakes up around 5:30am. I know its a long time A time and I really did not increment as much as I should of because she seems to handle it pretty well. I usually spend around 45-1hr quite A time, take her for a walk, read etc etc and she goes straight to sleep. PM naps are still a bit of a hassle but I will keep working on it. I try to get her to sleep before 3hrs as I know she is tired from morning A time but its most been after this because she just fights me (seems to be only me!). 

Well I have just woken her up after 1.15 hrs so we will see how she goes this afternoon. She used to sleep 1.5 hrs but I think I need to decrease this so I am just doing it slowly.

We start daylight savings this weekend so I have no idea how all this is going to effect wake up times! Layla....with increasing her morning time, how long did it take for your LO to start waking at 6am. What sort of things usually happen?

[Layla]

I think 1.5hrs is too long for her.... try cutting it down to 1hr15mins & possibly even 1hr. Try for the afternoon nap about 3.5hrs later .

I think with daylight savings its the same theory... increasing A time with morning, afternoon nap & bedtime. Thats what I had to do & it really only should take no more than 1-2 weeks for them to adjust.

[chanashleigh]

Thanks Layla, I think I am going to have to cut it down to an hour as the last 3/4 mornings it has been 1hr15mins but its not helping. She was awake for 5 hours today....took me 2 hours for her to go to sleep. Very frustrating...I try adjusting the am nap and see what happens, I will let you know.

[Layla]

That would be very frustrating... I must admit at 10months, Jasmine would fight the pm nap unless her morning nap was 45mins but you might want to start with 1hr... so pm nap no later than 3.5hrs later (watch her cues as well cause if she's tired at 3hrs or so then lay her down then). It might take a few days for her to be taking a longer pm nap until she is used to things....

I also wanted to send you a link to have a read through... its a sticky in the naps forum (as well as other sleep forums)... might help you out as well. https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

[catonss]

Hi there!

Thanks for asking how things are going.  Overall, things are looking much better than they were a few weeks ago.  I'm sure it's because we're putting more A time earlier in the day.  Thanks for helping me see that!    And it helps so much that she's been getting more sleep, cause overall she's able to handle things better as she's not so overtired. 

So for probably a week she got stuck on waking at 6.  Then nap was around 8:45 for 1.5 hrs, or a little under on her own.  Then afternoon nap 3 hrs later (1:30-3ish), which she seems really tired for, borderline overtired, and sometimes taking 45 minutes to fall asleep.  But still usually sleeping 1.5 hrs, so i'm glad for that.  Then asleep at night b/t 6:30- 7.  We're still adjusting though, b/c for 3 nights she was waking around 11, not for real long, but unusual.  And set on waking for the day at 6.  And waking quite grumpy.  Like "that wasn't enough sleep!"  And i have felt like she's just stuck waking then, b/c she's done it for so long.  So now I'm trying wake to sleep these last couple nights, and she's been sleeping until 7.  Hopefully it sticks.  I'll let you know.

I too am not excited about daylight savings,  but if i can get her on a 7 to 7 routine b/f then (we change Nov 4), then 6-6 will be ok for a while.  Or maybe we'll just keep on adjusting for a few more weeks to hopefully get it later w/ the time change too.  I tell ya, wake to sleep is big for us - I'd really consider using chanashleigh for that 5:30 wakeup!  I fear you'll have a 4:30 wake up for a while once you change clocks   

Sarah

[chanashleigh]

God I really hope that my LO does not start waking up at 4:30am, that would be very bad  . We roll our clocks forward so I hope that means wake ups are going to be later  Hope you don't mind me asking but where are you from that you change back an hour and on Nov 4? I live in NSW, Australia......

I am not sure on the wake to sleep thing yet as it does not seem to be the same time every morning. It ranges between 5:00am and 5:45am, my fingers are crossed every night that its 5:45am  I will see what happens after I get the morning A times and set nap time sorted I think???

Things sound like they are looking up for you! Thats great, well done Sarah! I hope things start to go well for me soon. Day one of dropping morning am sleep time did not go well but I won't give up yet.

Keep up the great work 

Thanks for the link too Layla, it was great reading!

[catonss]

Keep up the good work on your end too.  Persistence is half of it!  Oh, that's good for you that you roll your clocks forward.  I'm in the US, and we go backwards.  I never knew it was opposite - but hey, we are on opposite sides of the world i guess!
Sarah

[Lu_C]

Hi Chanasleigh

Spotted this thread and thought I'd share- we had a very similar problem at about the same time; it went on for a while until I decided I didn't want it anymore!!

DS had always been on a solid nap routine and had been an excellent night sleeper - still not sure why the change happened!!

Initially we would leave him when he woke and waited as late as possible before picking him up - AWFUL! We made some major mistakes, like picking him up, watching TV and cuddling on the sofa, giving him his bottle.. hardly a surprise it didn't work!

What we found worked was Gradual Withdrawal. We would go to him as soon as he stirred and touch him on the back to let him know we were there then 'shhed' him if he grizzled. We'd stay with him til he was asleep again, then walk slowly out. Over a few days we'd start moving further from the bed whilst he put himself to sleep; then we'd slowly leave the room before he was asleep. If he woke again we'd do the same until it was 'time to get up'.

When he knew we were there, after a few days, we would leave going to him by a few more moments and quite often he'd settle himself. Now, if he wakes early at naptime or nighttime, I just have to walk in, put my hand on his back (or PD) and walk back out again and he'll settle usually within 20 seconds. IF he doesn't settle after a few WIWO (walk in walk out) then I'll go back to Gradually Withdrawing, which works for the most part.

It takes a bit of time, like anything that's worth it, but it's fantastic when you get to sleep til 7 or even 8!!

Hope you find something here useful, if you have any questions about this let me know and I'll see what I can do x