How do you wake baby for wake to sleep?

[Little Dot]

Sorry Jennifer. Just seen your question!

My DD will wake anywere between 6.30 and 7 when we crack the 5.30 waking. If we are doing an earlier wake to sleep then she might wake earlier, say 6-6.20. I always try to start our day at 7 ish but if she sleeps anything past 6 I see this as an achievement for her and get up if she wakes happy! As soon as I see a pattern of early waking starting I do the wake to sleep that night and its usually sorted in a couple of nights.
How you getting on? You might not see results straight away. Tracy says in her book to do it for 3 nights to be sure I think.

[cata]

Hi ladies,
maybe you can give me some advice.
I'm in your same boat: ds wakes up anytime after 5am (today 4:45am  :shock: )
Anyway, after giving him some Tylenol for pain (teething), he was still crying so I tried a bottle...and he drank 8oz!!!
Then he slept for 1 more hour....could it (early wakings) be hunger some times??
Thanks for any advice!

[Tannis]

Hi Cata, I think that it could be hunger. My LO eats early in the morning too and finishes a bottle. I don't see why it can't really be that they're hungry by morning. Have you started solids during the day?

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi, just a question as I'm considering trying this. My ds is 5.5 months, and is getting 11hours sleep at night. Going down between 6.30 - 7pm and waking about 5.30 - 5.45am. If he's getting this much sleep should I still be trying wake to sleep to try to extend an extra hour or not? Or am I expecting too much?

[Colesmom]

Hello LBM!  It's me    Did you try putting him down 20 min. earlier?  Wondering if 6:30-7:00 is a new bedtime and it still didn't help?

Cole has had two great nights (last night went back to sleep after 4am feed until 6:15!).  Of course, right now it's taking him a long time to settle and I fear I put him down too late and he'll be up often tonight :cry:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi Colesmum, 6.30pm was the original time, 7pm was his new time and somewhere in between doesn't seem to make any difference. We've got daylight savings coming up when the clocks go forward one hour. So the first night on the new time will mean he's going down at his body clock of 6pm. So we'll see if that makes any difference.

As for the wake to sleep, I might give it a go once we change to DLsavings incase it's just the birds or light waking him up. But I'd be interested in knowing how easy it is or if it's worth us trying if he already sleeps 11 hours.

[Colesmom]

i forgot about daylight savings.  just when we think we've got the routine down :wink:   I think I read somewhere that with daylight savings you just put them down at their regular time.  I haven't read how Tracy said to adjust though.  But apparently all the cues that will mean bedtime will still be happening (how light it is out, people coming home or not, birds chirping, trains going by etc) that will set his clock to the new time.

I was right...I had to intervene last night for the first night in two weeks!  He was supposed to go down for 6:30 and finally settled at 7:00 with some patting.  then he woke at 9:30 (about 1 hour earlier than normal) 1:30 and 5:30!  fed at 9:30 and 1:30 but patted him until 6:00 then made a big tadoo leaving and coming back into room and saying good morning and turning on lights!

He had an hour am nap instead of 45 min and i'm hoping he'll have a 2 hour pm nap like yesterday.  So, I have pretty much confirmed my lo has to be asleep by 6:00-6:15 in order to make it through the night rested.  I just have to figure out now if I wake him from catnap (even if it's only been 15 minutes) or if I put him down for a shorter A time(seems to only fall asleep at the 2hr 25min mark)

okay, gotta run and enjoy naptime.  my folks are coming out in a couple of hours to see the little guy for the first time in a month!

Traci

[Little Bear's Mum]

So Jennifer, have you tried wake to sleep, and how did it go?

Traci, did you have to pat from 1.30am - 6am?  :cry: Oh I hope not! At least you know the best bedtie to get the wake time you want. I'm still trying to figure that out. :?

[Colesmom]

woopsy...huge typo!  he went back to sleep after 1:30 feed.  when he woke at 5:30 I patted him until 6:00!  sorry for the confusion :oops:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Colesmum, that was lucky, I was getting the coffee packaged up now and was about to ask for your postal address.  :lol:

[jswerczek]

Hayley- I decided to wait a few days because we put siding on the house this weekend and I knew the crew would be starting early and figured he would need to get up. But then he slept late both Sat. and Sunday without me doing a thing! There is just no rhyme or reason to it. He slept until about 6:30-6:45 a.m. without a peep!!!!! I was absolutley amazed.

But now I am dealing with going back to work a few days a week where he will need to get up at 6 a.m. I only work about six days a month but if I wake him early on those days am I hurting the routine of a later wake-up on the other days? I'm guessing that I may need to try the wake to sleep for a few days to get him back on track but by the time I do, it will be time for me to work again! I can't seem justify starting every day at 6 a.m. 'cause I like to sleep too  Any suggestions?

Did you have any luck with extending your little one's sleep?

[Little Bear's Mum]

Jennifer, would it work if you get yourself all ready first so you can just walk out the door and then once you're ready get your lo up? Or maybe that's what you'll be doing anyway and still need a 6am wake up. If he wakes up from your noise he might happily play in his cot until you pick him up? Alternatively, I've just learnt I can shower and have Daniel on the floor of the bathroom at the same time. Would this sort of thing save you time?

As for extending Daniel's wake up, he kind of did it himself thismorning. Well, when he woke at 5.15am I went to him straight away before he was too awake and fed him, then popped him back in bed immediately. He then slept thru until 7.15am. I like that idea, so am going to try to repeat it again tomorrow. I think when I left him to babble to himself he just gets more awake waiting for me, then he thinks he may as well stay awake.

I'm also going to try to make sure he's really well and truly awake when he goes to bed tonight, this is on Matthews Mummy's suggestion. Aparently this can help with the early wakings too.

[Arwyn's mom]

It sounds like everybody is using "wake to sleep" to extend wake-up time. Has anybody used it to get rid of a middle of the night waking?

I am considering it for my lo who wakes up between 3 and 5 consistently for a feed. I don't know if she can go without the feed as I have not tried.  :oops: She did put herself back to sleep two nights in a row about 2 weeks ago but then I started feeding her when she woke. I happens every night and I think it has now become habitual.

Hello Hayley and Traci!