EARLY WIDE AWAKE CLUB!! WANT SUPPORT? JOIN US!

[rinajack]

dd just fell asleep on my lap having her morning bottle.  Now I am scared to move   Housework will hve to wait .

Yep, but thaat just seems a lifetime away

[Katet]

Claire, I'd guess it is more related to the 5am bottle (in babies over 6mo that is often the case) once we stopped all early feeds wakings got later. Only to start this week after illness as he has gone back to 2 naps while he catches up)
Once I started no food before 7am, wakings moved to 6.30am & now since Breakfast is 7.30 or later, it generally is 7am +/- 15mins (except the last few days)

[Carys' mom]

Once I started no food before 7am, wakings moved to 6.30am & now since Breakfast is 7.30 or later, it generally is 7am +/- 15mins (except the last few days)

Kate - how did you get to the "no food before 7am"? Did you move the time later in 15 min. increments each day? Right now, my 19 mo dd has her sippy of milk upon waking. It's always the first thing she expects when we go downstairs.

Thanks!

[Katet]

No just did it cold turkey... he'd been feeding aroud 5.30/6am  was going back to sleep & then stopped & decided it was wake up time, so I just decided to try & resettle until ds#1 woke & he went back to sleep at 6.30am that day & slept until 8am, so I thought OK if you can wait that long I'm not feeding early again.

If she only expects it when you go downstairs, how about staying in her room with quiet play, stories until the closer to the time

[rinajack]

My early wakings are not food related - we never feed before 6:30, usually later and she still wakes early.  She is just an early riser. We are happy with 6am, but she is rising with the sun (despite a very very dark room) so it is now about 5:15 each day

[potlaura]

Only just found this post lol four thisty this morning ladies  and i could cry lol i wish his teeth would come through

[clairewillsmum]

hi all, absolutely knackered today! full days work at school and of course ds2 (9 and half months) was up since 5am as usual. On work days I don't really want to be doing the cold turkey technique but may give it a go 2morro.Only thing is I don't want to wake ds1 up by letting ds2 cry. settling techniques? going to bed now as the matchsticks that are propping my eyes open have just collapsed!

[MacksMum]

I have enjoyed reading everyone's experiences.  It's such a shame that there is so many of them! Early wakings seem so common and it makes me wonder if it is simply natural for them to wake when the sun comes up.  My 9 month old little princess has been waking early for many months now, especially when her dad gets up early for work.  We live in central Queensland and it gets sunny and hot early which doesn't seem to help.  Just lately, she has been yawning and rubbing her eyes more often.  She has 2 sleeps per day but still seems tired and still wakes anywhere between 5 - 6.15am.  She is in bed my 7pm and is usually exhausted.  Maybe I have to teach myself to go to bed early as well so I can cope in the mornings.  From the time she wakes up she is rubbing her eyes and obviously needs more sleep but there is not a chance in the world that she'll go back to sleep.   

[clairewillsmum]

hi macksmum, we seem to have similar experiences! my 9 and a half month old thinks that 5am is ok! i on the other hand do not! As I write this it is 7.35am and I have been up with ds2 since 4.15am. I left him until 4.45am when he started to cry more and went in to him. I gave him his bottle but his nappy was also really poopy and had soaked thru so he had a full chage and was still back in bed by 5.10am but he would not drop off again. he cried on and off until 5.45am when I could bear it no more and dh was getting up before his early shift anyway (he's a policeman). ds2 will be going back to bed at 8am but as ds1 got up at 7am there's no chance of catching up on sleep until I hopefully ask parents in law to look after the pair of them later.  sometimes i feel really down and don't know how much more of this i can take. he was in bed by 6.30 last night after refusing his bedtime bottle as he was so shattered. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[clairewillsmum]

ooh macksmum, also meant to ask u when mack's sleeps are? ds2 naps usually for 1 hr anywhere between 8am and 9am and for 1-2 and a half hours from 12.30 except on nursery days when he sleeps anywhere from 1 hr to 2 hrs in the day in total. when does mack have her milk?

[Katet]

Claire have you tried pushing that first nap back to closer to 9.30am... as I was reading in a book (when ds#1 was little) that the author thought naps before 9.30am were the 2nd biggest cause of early waking... feeding when they wake was the biggest cause. With both my boys that has held very true & fixing both those problems (evenutally - like 2 & 4 weeks later) solved the problem
I used to sit with ds#2 & read stories cuddle watch Tv to string him out going 15mins every 3 days or so

[clairewillsmum]

thanks kate I will try that but couldn't do any later than 8am today as he had been awake since 4.15am, refusing to go back to sleep at 5.15am after milk and change of a poopy nappy. he was bashing himself around his cot and getting himself all worked up!

[rinajack]

Macksmum where do you live?  I live in Middlemount, and you are right about waking with the sun and the heat.  We do too.  I never feed her early and we have block out curtains, but the birds - cockatoos, crows etc make soooo much noise when the sun is coming up.

I don't know if I can stretch her out to 9:30 or later when she is so young  - but I will see if I can work towards it.  Right now I am scared to fiddle with naps on days I am home cause she barely naps at all at daycare, and makes up for it when we are home.

Looks like early wakings it is for a while.

[Katet]

Rina have you tried "white noise" for the bird noises, I have a friend who did it & it worked a treat, the other is to get a CD with the sounds on it & play it at other times so she gets used to it.
Rina, for a 6mo I'd work on 9am to start with.

[rinajack]

Thanks for the tips Katet I will see how we go with 9am.  But I like to let her sleep alot when I am home. She has been at daycare the last two days with a total of 1.5hr naps each day and she is there for 11hrs.  No extra naps at home on these days either.  Today she only had 1 nap, was up 7hrs then nap for 1.5 then up again for 5 hrs.  If she wants to sleep more tomorrow I feel as though I have to let her catch up.   She often does 3hr awake times, but that lately means 1st nap at 8:30am...We put her fan on for white noise - are you from Aus?  Have you ever heard a whole flock of cockatoos?  She is not the only one who wakes to hear them (me and DH do too)