Author Topic: Early bird at 4am, but not hungry  (Read 964 times)

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Offline rosie and joe's mummy

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Early bird at 4am, but not hungry
« on: May 10, 2006, 15:29:56 pm »
rosie is back on the 4am wakings AGAIN!

she's 5 months old on friday.

i can't figure it out so here goes her current routine, including the waking!

4am - wake up, chuckle to self for a while in crib, then call for attention (squeals and shouts - not crying)
4-6am - attempts by me to get her to sleep again but she just lies in  her crib talking to herself, playing with her hands and feet!
6am - finally hungry, breastfeed
6-8.30 sleeps
8.30-10am washed, dressed, play with mummy
10am feed
10.30 sleep for half an hour or so
11am- 12.30 activity
12.30 another half hour or so sleep
1pm/1.30ish activity
2pm feed
2.30pm quick sleep
3-4pm activity
4-4.30 another quick sleep
5pm feed
6pm bath and bedtime routine (quiet roll around on a mat in dim room whilst i run a bath, then a bath and massage with soft music on)
7pm feed and then bed
10.30pm dreamfeed

now I know we still have the stupid short naps, and i can't get those extended. I've tried W2S but once she's awake she is just awake, and afterwards she's pretty happy and cheerful so i don't know if she needs longer daytime naps, though i'd like to amalgamate them and have less frequent longer naps if i could.

she's breastfed, usually both sides, but i wait until the first one is empty before going onto the second, which she doesn't usually totally empty, and then i start on that one next time.

she never wakes in the night other than this 4am business, she settles to sleep like a dream after her routine and sleeps right through. she rarely wakes when i get her up for a dreamfeed.

when she does this waking she's perfectly happy, and giggles when you go in to her. she doesn't cry if you leave her again either, btu she will squeal and shout once she's had enough of playing on her own.

like i said i've tried W2S but that i can't seem to get the hang of that one and she just wakes up rather than going back to sleep!

when we are doing A time during the day a lot is play between me and her, reading, singing etc, taking the dog for a walk (she doesn't sleep in the buggy or the car, and if she ever does she wakes as soon as you get home), or she has a little while on the playmat on her tummy, or with her whoozit toy.

quiet play is usually lying on her mat in a dim room, playing with her own feet, or watching the light show on the lullaby machine.

she's not teething yet as far as i know, or anything else important like that.

she does have a pacifier to fall asleep but not at any other time of the day, and she doesn't have it put back in when it falls out, nor has she ever woken up for it.

when i try and get her back to sleep at 4 am i put the lullaby machine on and the pacifier in. this is what worked when she was little and we weaned her off night wakings to sleep through in the first place, but it doesn't seem to be working now. she seems to be wide awake and wanting to play!

HELP ME!! I'm going mad with all this! one week she sleeps all night and i get a good 6-8 hours, the next week i only get 4 hours.
rosie - 12/12/05
Joe 17/03/08

breastfed angel babies!

Offline teezee

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Re: Early bird at 4am, but not hungry
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2006, 17:25:45 pm »
have you tried just leaving her and seeing if she will settle herself? some lo's will wake between 4-6am for 'playtime' and as long as they arent' calling out for you that is fine..if they are waking and needing attention it may be your routine that needs tweaking.

i do imo think that she is getting way too many naps - if they are short they aren't quality and that's why she needs so many naps to get 'good' sleep in and is more than likely interupting her night sleep / causing the early waking.

when you tried w2s how did you do it? you are supposed to just kind of stir lo's in their sleep not wake them per se..maybe you want to try it again. if that doesn't work i would just make sure she is 'tired' and had a decent A time before trying to actually put her down for a nap and if you still have short naps maybe try pu/pd?? you may want to check in and post on the nap board or pu/pd board for more info though. i do think if you got A times and naps better that the early waking would disappear. if she is getting too may naps/too much day sleep she won't have a need to sleep at night.

also it seem that if your lo is waking at 6 am that maybe you should keep her up for a proper A time as she is probably just 'making up' for the lost sleep in the early wake up at that time kwim?
Tawnya
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June 11, 2005




Offline rosie and joe's mummy

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Re: Early bird at 4am, but not hungry
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2006, 17:33:28 pm »
i know. ::)

if left to herself she doesn't really do anything much until 6am. but she has an earpiercing squeal that she uses when she's playing and it's really difficult to ignore!  I don't think she's waking for real attention like feeding or anything, she just amuses herself until she's had enough and then wants someone to come and see her. Which is when the squealing starts, followed by shouting, followed eventually by crying and tears after about 1 1/2 hours.

when she wakes at 6 am she is up properly. the sleep then is ONLY when she's woken at 4 am, and then wants to sleep again at 6.  The trouble is we have some days with 4am and some with 6 am. i prefer the 6 am ones myself.  If we have 6 am wakings the routine is pretty much the same from 6am, with a feed and then back to sleep for a bit.

for the rest of the day she has 4 30 minute naps or 3 45 minute ones, depending on how she feels (some days she seems to want more frequent naps than others). so only a couple of hours sleep in the day in total.
rosie - 12/12/05
Joe 17/03/08

breastfed angel babies!