how we fixed the VERY early wakings

[Swirl]

Hi Lara,
If you don't feel comfortable doing the wake to sleep technique than
don't bother. Simply comfort your lo and make it a point to never
physically pick her up and leave the room. This way your lo understands
that its not quite time to wake up. I make it such a BIG deal when its time
to wake up for the day. I draw the blinds, start singing,smilles and kisses.
This way if I ever had to attend to him in the middle of the night (for what
ever reason) he knows the difference.
GOOD LUCK and stick with one plan.
Take care,
Diana

[LARA M]

Hi Swirl

Today was 5.45am so I feel we're making a little progress. Also, the hysterical crying has stopped... now i just get the 'I want to get up whingy cry'. I'm definately finding that by putting her down fairly early 7 - 7.15pm, and making her nap later is making her happier during the day. Lunch at 12 seems to give her that extra boost to take her mind off being tired and gets her through another hour awake before nap.
Thanks for advice & Take Care
Lara

P.S. I don't think I'll start singing in the morning because that will definately make her cry! 

[lucmom]

Lara M -- your posts totally describe my feelings about the early wakings!  (Isn't it funny how perspective changes from "6:30 is too early" to "6:30 would be heaven!"?)

We have been trying the same with a slightly later nap (12:30) and consistent bedtime, and our LO is upping the ante with earlier and earlier wake ups.  Does anyone have advice on what age is best for the later nap and bedtime.  Ours is just about 15 months.

Thanks --

[Carmela's Mom]

We had our first good morning in forever!  Last night we put Carmela to bed at 8:30.  She was really exhausted as her nap was short yesterday.  She napped from 12:50 to 2:15 ... we went to a Fair yesterday and I think it just totally made her tired.  But when she hit her bed, she was starting to play and get wild so DH went in and reminded her it was time for bed.  She fell asleep at 9p.m. and slept until 7:15 this morning   We are going to keep at it and see how it goes.  I am aiming towards a 1:30 nap today.  We'll see.

[powderdeb]

Unfortunetely for us it is just getting worse.  We haven't even really tried to start pushing her nap time and bed time back (maybe 15 minutes or so) but she has started NOT NAPPING all together!  We have had a few transitions lately (she has a new nanny since our au pair left) so I know that plays into it, but I can't believe she has just stopped napping all together the past few days (both for me one day and the nanny the other two).  Still waking from 5:10-5:40.  Sometimes at night now she is taking up to an hour and 45 minutes to go to sleep, which she never did before.  Now I  just want her to sleep, I don't care when she gets up!

I am hoping to try tweaking her schedule again once she is back to her old schedule (I hope).  It's so horrible her not sleeping at all during the day.  Does anyone have any advice on that one?  She just stands up in her crib and screams "Lucy want to come out now!  Lucy want to come out now!  All done with sleeping!"  We go in and do the same things we have always done, tell her "night night" time, never pick her up but just verbally comfort her, and she just isn't going back to sleep.  It's torture.

Anyone have any words of advice (or hope)?

Deb (mom to Lucy, 22 months)

[Carmela's Mom]

I went through this very thing at around the same age.  I moved Carmela's nap from 1 p.m. to noon and it worked wonders.  She'd go RIGHT to sleep and sleep for 1.5 hours.

[LARA M]

It's getting worse! I'm beginning to think that this is it for a while and I just need to get used to it (8 weeks now)! Ella has been having a good nap during the day about 1pm, a slightly later bed time 7.30pm - 8pm and she still waking between 5.00am - 5.30am. I just don't know what to do with her at that time. I've been going in her room to comfort her but until I get her out her cot she just screams. I sat by her cot till 6am today. Anyone got any new miracles out there???

How are you all getting on?

Lara

[Carmela's Mom]

Just wanted to update our situation. 

Carmela is now waking up at 7 a.m.   A few mornings she woke up at 6:45 because of her brother.  She goes in for her nap between 1 and 1:30 and wakes after 1.5-2 hours.  She goes to bed at 8:30.  She falls asleep at 9:00 (mostly on her own, but once DH went in at 9:00 and told her it was night time because she was playing too hard). 

I often wonder if she'd sleep later than 7 but that seems to be when her brother wakes her up. 

This seemed to have worked for us.  I was so afraid to try but glad I did. But Carmela seems to get used to change and go back to her old way of doing things (waking at 5 a.m.) so I am not sure how long this will last. I'm loving it for now though

[LARA M]

Finally it seems we’ve had a break through. For the last two nights Ella has slept 7.15pm – 6.30am.  I honestly don’t think it’s anything that I’ve been doing; I’m hoping it was just a phase and its run it’s course. One thing I have done is put her back to her normal routine of a nap at 11.30am and to bed at her old time of 7.15pm.

I hope by writing this I’m not jinxing the situation!

Thanks for all you views and advice I’ll let you know if it’s a permanent change or whether we’ve just been lucky for the last few nights.

Lara

[Swirl]

YAHOO TO Camerla's Mom and Lara!!!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for the both of you.
Take care and SWEET DREAMS
Diana

[josie k]

Hello everyone!

I have a year old DS who has just started waking at 5.00-5.30am, still cranky and tired, but won't go back to sleep, so i'm doing PD (put down, not pick up as he's too heavy!) for a good hour which didn't work yesterday but today it did. He finally went back to sleep around 6.00am and slept until 7.30 happy and refreshed.

So this could be something people can try. It obviously is hard work and is the last thing i want to be doing at 5.00am, but it does work for me. It just may take a couple of attempts for them to get the message.

I have always been more of a fan of PU/PD instead of leaving to cry methods, as they know you are there the whole time. However i think the end result is the same!

My DS is only awake for about 4 hours in the morning, before his nap- before lunch- which i'm not sure if i'm putting him down too early as he is seriously overtired at bedtime. I also tend to leave bedtime the same time regardless of what time he's getting up in the hope he will just adjust!

Anyway good luck everyone  Josie K

[Swirl]

I guess the key thing is consistency. Our children need to know that
we are serious in whatever method we choose and that we won't cave
after the first day of trying. Congratulations Josie for not giving up...he
may not always go back to bed but keep responding the same way!!
GOOD JOB
Diana