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

[Tor]

Hi

Thanks for putting that link in, I read it and it's full of good info.

After four nights of pu/pd I seem to have broken the actual night waking but he is still waking between 5-5.30 when I do feed him, I think if I did pu/pd for a few days it would work but I know by other LO would wake up and I am so tired I will be even more short tempered with him than I have been the past few days, he is also being very naughty but guess picking up on my tiredness.

Alfie is just coming up to eight months and generally follows the routine very well, when do you start to shorten the am nap?

He is still having the dream feed at the moment and I think I should phase that out too ASAP.

Off to bed now try and catch up on serious lack of sleep.

Tor
x

[LisaM]

Hi everyone

Tor - hope the early mornings go away again for you and its just a quick phase.  When you say your other lo woke early for 2 yrs - did they grow out of it in the end?

Well the 11 hr sleep hasn't lasted - I think we have only ever had about 4-5 of those at the most her whole life so far.  Been a bit of a mixed bag really, last night not too bad she woke at 3.30 but went back off really quickly for her by about 4.10 but then only slept til 4.50am - her usual wake up time now.

We had a great birthday weekend though and Grace was a good girl considering the amount of people round and being passed about etc.  Phoebe had a lovely time and was so excited - I really enjoyed it too - the house seems to be getting smaller with all the new things she has now!!

Better go, bath time for Feebs and shes cranly due to no nap today as we all went out for lunch - she can go without one now but does feel it by the end of the day.

Wishing you all a lovely late wake up - by late I mean anything after 6 would be heaven for me.

[texasmom]

Lisa,
Those nights are so awful.  I am truly sorry.  We had some pretty bad stuff like that going on around 7/8 months.  It was so hard.  Collin doesn't do the 11/12 h nights either.  I mean, on occasion, but that's it.  10.5 for us. 

Someone told me that if I shorten his first nap, he might add it on to the night.     Which is what you had asked, Tor.  Collin is almost a year, and a couple of times he has refused his afternoon nap.  That's when I was told to shorten the morning nap, starting with 1 hour, then 45 min, then 40, finally 30.  (Meaning if he takes a nap in the afternoon with 1 h in the morning, go with that.  If not, shorten.)

I have never understood PU/PD in that it will put them back to sleep.  Do y'all get it?  I do PD when he won't go to sleep for a nap or bedtime, but that is all I've ever done.  Mostly b/c I don't know why it works. 

[Tor]

Hi

Sorry not replied sooner, been so busy, time just whizzes by!

Alfie is sleeping a little later in the morning, thank goodness, he has been sleeping til about 6.30 which is really great by me! Five is just so early takes the fun out of everything!

He has his first tooth which really just appeared without much hassle.

Alfie still sleeps really well in the morning but lately has been shortening his afternoon sleep to between 45 mins to hour where as usually it was always 1.5 hours, it means sometimes he is awake from 2.30 until bed time at 7, I bath him at 6.30 and he is asleep for 7, do you think I should shorten the morning sleep so that he sleeps longer in the afternoon.  He is sleeping better at night and seems ok with the shorter afternoon sleep so not sure if to change anything.

I am going to start to phase out the df next week, going away this coming weekend so don't want to rock the boat now, scary to phase it out when he is sleeping better, any advice?

How are Grace and Phobe - any later getting up in the AM's.  You asked about my other one growing out of waking up so early, I don't know that he has grown out of it still, he never sleeps past 6.30 and he is four in August, he never stops all day long, always outside charging around into everything, he eats really well and is bright and cheery, he sleeps well at night but just always gets up early.  He only went past 6am really when he dropped his daytime sleep which was only about 6 months ago, it was a difficult one to solve he was so tired he needed his sleep during the day (or I needed him to have it)!.  Sometimes if he didn't have the daytime sleep he would wake up earlier which I now realise was over tiredness but I didn't follow EASY with him.

Hope things pick up soon for you.

Tor

[LisaM]

Hi Tor

So glad that Alfie is sleeping in a little later for you.  Maybe it was that tooth that caused the early wake ups? 

Unfortunately things are the same with us - Gracie definitely has an inbuilt alarm that tells her 5am is a good time to start the day!!!  That might just be tolerable if she didn't do the night wakings as well because I can go to bed at 9.30 each night and then if she wakes at 5am I still get a good few hours in, problem is she is normally awake for 1.5 hrs somewhen in the night. 

Never mind, today was an OK day because she had some slightly better naps so at least I didn't obsess about them all day long.

We are lucky that Phoebe is a really good sleeper - we had trouble in the early days with the short naps same as Grace but once I had trained her to go off on her own with pat/shush she was a star and pretty much since she was 4.5 months she has always been great at putting down for naps and bedtime (probably just jinxed myself there).  She still sometimes has a daytime nap - if she wakes anytime before 6.30am, if not she goes without.  This has been good cos she has had some really good lie-ins for her - the other day til almost 8am which for her is a record I think, she has never been as early as Grace though but I hold out hope that Gracie will at some point learn to sleep til 6am!

Good luck - hope Alfie continues with the 6.30am wakes or later of course!

[texasmom]

Hi girls.

Lisa,
I'm sorry things aren't better.  I still sometimes wonder if it was just a developmental thing and would have happened no matter what I did.  Then when he was through it, he was through it.  Who knows.  I know 6 is much better than 5, but it's still early compared to what I hear from most mommas!     We've had a rough couple of weeks.  Still teething, got a cold, and has been waking up at night and early.  Can't sleep b/c he doesn't feel well and then gets overtired.  Today he took a 3 hour nap, so I hope he is on the mend.  He needed that nap badly and woke happier than he has in a while. 

Tor,
I'm with ya.  Don't change anything if things are good!!!   

Happy Mother's Day!

[Tor]

Poor you, does Grace ever sleep past 5 am, not that I have tried it but have you tried when you actually wake them before the time they normally wake and feed them? It's supposed to break the 'habit'!

All to pot again this am for us, Alfie up for the day at 5.30!  Nice early start when working all day!

I know what you mean about getting to bed early, that's tough on you if she wakes during the night as well, I want to drop the dream feed so I can go to bed earlier otherwise it's nearly 11 each night, far too late!!

Colin sounds poorly too, 3 hour nap, what did you do with yourself!!!

Keep us posted!

Tor

[EllenS]

How's this one - when the night feedings and the early waking run together?  To bed 7:30 pm, up hungry at 1am, fuss at 3am (shush/pat back to sleep), and up at 5:15 hungry.

Of course, after the feeding, will she sleep?  Oh, no.  That would be too easy.  Hooting like an owl for an hour straight - and we live in a 1-room apartment!

Of course, my DH sleeps through the whole thing.

[LisaM]

Hi Ellen - sorry you've had to join the club!!  I still get NW's too but not for feeding.  However, she was like that when feeding she would stay awake for up to 2.5 hrs sometimes afterwards (sometimes still does stay awake now for about 2 hrs!).  Its very tough and I do know how you feel, I keep thinking it must get better, it must get better??!

We have had more of the usual really.  I have been putting Grace to bed by 5.30pm most nights and she has had a few better nights with no NW but unfortunately the early night may help her sleep through better (?) but she wakes after 10-10.5 hrs sleep and then of course its about 4ish and she probably thinks she has had enough sleep.  I mean 5am is bad enough but I cannot get her up at 4am can I?  I have been trying to get her back off to sleep but the last 2 mornings it hasn't happened and so end up feeding her at normal time (about 5.45am) and then straight back to bed because by that time she has been up about 2 hrs which is all she manages in the mornings. So I'm not sure what to do because I feel better about putting her down earlier when she has finished her last nap at 2ish cos at least its a bit earlier but then if she woke at 4am before but had only 9-9.5 hrs I would really be mosre positive that she needs more sleep - its so confusing - she is obviously a baby that will never sleep 12 hrs but maybe 10 is all she needs?   Naps are still not all that great - mostly there is only one longer one and that is only about 1hr 10 mins these days so we are not getting any nearer being able to get to a later bedtime or only 2 naps a day come to that!!  Mind you, to make myself feel better when she doesn't go back off and then I feed and off to bed again I count that as a continuation of night sleep not a nap then I feel we are almost 'normal'! 

Sorry for the massive outpouring I am sure I repeat myself on each post its just nothing much changes but I still feed the need to bore everyone with the details.

Brooke - Hope Collin is getting better now and getting good sleep in.

Tor - Haven't really tried waking her up before usual time because her times change so much, sometimes she NW's not always then can wake anytime between 4-5am really.

Hope you all have a good weekend x

[EllenS]

Wow, Lisa - sorry you've got to deal with that still at 7mo! Mine is only 16 wks.
Have you read "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weisbluth? It's about the science of sleep, not really about parenting methods, but I found it really helpful to understand her patterns. And it has info about all stages, up through teen years.

[Tor]

Bloody hell Lisa you have it tough.  I don't know what to suggest but it sounds like a circle going round and round, is there anywhere else you could post about it to get more varied advise, I am no expert at all and not sure what to suggest.  Somehow you need to get the bedtime later but you know that and me saying it won't help you, wish there was something to suggest.

How is Pheobe doing? Is she good for you?  Do you get any time away from the wee ones for yourself?

I have just been away for five days just with boys, staying with friends and family on different nights, night wakings came back due to teething hard to cope with in some elses house.

Take care

Tor

[LisaM]

Hi all - thanks for your support.  I have posted on the sleep board and have a few suggestions of stuff to try so will see how things go.  Part of the problem is I won't be able to be totally consistent because of taking and picking Phoebe up from playgroup twice a week so I guess will just have to wing it on those days if I ever get a good routine going!!

Phoebe is really good most of the time actually so we are really lucky - I think Grace is going to be the exact opposite of her sister as she is already much more inquisitive and 'naughty' (by that I mean she will be always getting things she shouldn't, pulling her food bowl on the floor etc etc) - she is a little monkey.

I don't get a lot a time away from them but so sometimes just take Phoebe on her own to my mums or to the park on a weekend because its lovely to spend some time with her on my own - plus at mums she goes off with mum and I get to read a paper!!

Tor - I hope things will settle back to normal for you now you are back at home.

EllenS - yes I have read that book but haven't picked it up in a while, maybe I'll have another look through it - I do remember that it said about problems when they are 2 or 3 or something and I thought I'd never need to be reading that bit....ha ha...serves me right!

Better go time to pick up Feebs soon and wouldn't you know it I will have to wake Gracie - Do'h.

[Tor]

Hi

Just realised I spelt Phoebe wrong again! sorry.  You are lucky that Phoebe is good for you, when you are so tired it would be still harder to cope with if she was naughty, mine are the opposite way around at the moment, Alfie is very chilled and good and Harry pushes every boundary laid down and never misses an opportunity to 'test' me to the limit, but equally he is full of character and is very funny.

How long has Grace been waking up so early, is there something which started it off?  How early on did you start EASY?

It's nice taking the time out to spend with the bigger ones eh, equally I like it if I get half an hour on my own with Alfie to play just with him.

Hope tomorrow morning is a later start for you.

Tor.

[LisaM]

Hi Tor

Don't get me wrong about Feebs - she certainly has her moments and I know what you mean about pushing boundaries - you can see her watching intently when she knows she is being naughty, waiting to see what I am going to do.

I honestly can't remember now how long the early wakes have been but she has never slept well really.  At first, usual night feeds that seemed to be going OK, then I think her overtiredness just got out of control cos at about 6 weeks the short naps started and she just didn't seem to be able to handle it.  She then started waking in the night a lot and then for AGES she would wake at anytime really (not always the same) but would be awake for almost exactly 2.5 hrs each night which was awful.  She still sometimes does this but mostly its less time now - more like 1.5 hrs.   Mostly now that she isn't in the room with me I leave her to go back off on her own but of course I don't sleep cos I am listening out to see if she is getting upset and am ready to go see her.

I did start trying EASY from day 1 really as I hadn't with dd1 and thought it would be easier this time around as I knew what to do - lol!  She did have colic though and first 6 weeks were a bit of a write off really poor thing, we went to a cranial osteopath and the colic went immediately - would recommend to anyone.  Did find EASY difficult though with the short naps but tried my best to stick to it as much as possible.

Anyway, this mornign was 4.30am but she slept 10.5 hrs with no NW so that was really good plus she did stay in her cot til 5.15 when she started getting a bit grumpy so for us that was a pretty good start.  How are things going for you?

[Tor]

Hi

You must be so tired all the time, do you get snappy with Pheobe?  That's really tough on you, can you share the getting up with your partner at the weekends?

Alfie had colic and I did the whole cranial thing it's so amazing I was really doubtful at first but it was such an instant change for the better, not cheap though.

Where do you live?  Do you work?

Alfie got his second tooth today so I am hoping the NW will stop now as I have not been strict with him because he is in so much pain, I have been giving him a bottle if he wakes about 4-5 but he does go back to sleep, thank goodness.  Harry has got up at 5.30 for the past week, gutted he has gone back to that, he is four in August, find it so draining as he gets tired and naughty.

Does Grace have any teeth? Is she crawling yet?  Alfie can't crawl properly he drags himself along but can go quite fast, he tries to crawl on all fours but doesn't go far, although he can go backwards!

Hope tomorrow starts later for you!

Tor