Question about starting the Day

[becky1969]

I know this is probably in one or both of the books, but I can't seem to find it right now!

When Owen was NOT sleeping through the night, it was so much easier to start the day at 7 am because I would just get him up at 7 am no matter what, since he'd have a feeding sometime around 3-4 am, and he'd still be sleeping then.

Now that he's sleeping thru the night I'm not sure how we start the day. He's waking up on his on anywhere from 6:15 to 6:45. He's not really crying out immediately but fuss-fussing, which is easy to ignore. But my worry is if I let him lay there awake then by the time I get him up to start the day he'll be overtired by the time I put him down for his nap. Does that make sense? But I also don't want every day to be starting at a different time! That's a little too loosey-goosey for me. So, do I just let him lay there and fuss-fuss until 7 am and I'm ready for us to start our day, or do I go in and get him up when I realize that he's awake? Or do I do PU/PD to try and get him back to sleep (that seems pretty ridiculous for a matter of 30-45minutes!)

[Lªuren]

Becky, thats a good question as my DS has started walking earlier as well (although daylight saving have helped so far).
How old is your LO?

My DS wakes between 0620 and 0700, and so far I have left him to lie in his cot, and I still feed at 0730. On the odd occasion we sleep in until 0730 and I feed him straight away - I always give my self 30min either way.

What time does he go to bed at night? my DS is 8pm and I don't want to make it any later. How much sleep does he get int he day? Do you want to post your routine?

Will he go back to sleep if you leave him to fuss, then wake him at 7am? He will then get better at waking at 7am.

[becky1969]

My LO will be 13w in 2 days. He doesn't seem able to get back to sleep. He woke this morning around 6:30 and I let him lay there until 6:45, but he just seemed to be getting more and MORE awake, not more and more sleepy! So I just got him him up. I'm fine with a 6:45 start to the day, I just want to be consistent! And I know this sounds dumb, but 6:45 is sort of an annoying start because it makes my math hard for getting my EASY right for the rest of the day LOL! Especially since right now we are trying to start a 3.5 hour schedule. That, in part, is why things are so confusing. We are just starting to transition to at least a 3.5 hour EASY if not 4 hour - depending on how he does. He clearly is not hungry any more at 3 hours (at least for the morning feeds).

So now my question is, so I start counting his awake time from 6:45 when I got him up, or from 6:30 when I first heard his awake sounds? Or, he may have been awake earlier, I just don't know! My worry is now I'll be trying to keep him up long enough to keep him on a 3.5 hour schedule, but he'll show tired signs earlier. I'm so confused!

[Lªuren]

I count it from when Calum wakes up.

What time does he go to bed at night? How much does he sleep through the day?

[becky1969]

He has been going to bed between 7:45-8 pm at night. However, I really don't like that schedule. We used to have him going to bed much earlier, before we started doing the 10:30 dream feed and he started sleeping thru the night. Last night, thru a series of errors, actually, I got him to bed at 6:45 and I liked that MUCH better. He actually went to sleep much quicker and woke up about the same time this morning.

His usual daytime sleep is around 4.5-5 hours. It's sort of difficult to estimate this right now as we're in the middle of a transition! Last week his usually GREAT naps all went to crap, and based on everyone's advice here it seems I wasn't keeping him awake long enough. We're getting our good naps back, so I think I can safely claim 4.5-5 hours of daytime sleep again. Yesterday it was only 4 hours, tho. The day before 4.5. Like I said, we're in transition right now, so I'm still trying to get a new routine in place.

[KellyC]

Hi

My DS's wake up time has never been consistent but tends to be between 6am and 8am and I adjust my EASY routine to begin at whatever time he wakes.  I seem to remember he was waking at about 6am at the same age as your LO though - I don't know where I found the energy but I'd just get up and start the day!  The varied wake up times suit us as I don't like to miss the opportunity for a lie in and I also think it's good for the whole family if DS's routine is a little flexible, trying to be too rigid only got me stressed when it didn't work out.  As Lauren said, it would help if you posted your routine so maybe we could find something which may help.  Otherwise I guess the only way to 'set' a wakeup time would be to make it 6am so you'd always catch him.  I'd also say that your LO is too young for PU/PD yet too, pat/shush is the method to go for at his age.  Just one last thought, do you use a paci?  We used to get a bit extra out of DS by inserting the paci when he woke early - he doesn't have one anymore though so it's not an option!

Kelly x