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

[legend_018]

My LO has been consistently waking up between 6:30 and 7am. however, this morning and a few other mornings it's been as early as 5:45am. I think it's the LOUD BIRDS in the trees. That makes me so mad. I don't even know what trees, there is a bunch of them in this neighborhood.

 

[texasmom]

That is almost funny, although I know not to you at all!!!  Sorry.  I bet he/she will get used to the birds.  We have a very nearby, loud train, and it doesn't even phase us anymore. 

I just wanted to say hi. 

We are having early wakings AGAIN.  BUT this time I think it is due to him being ready for the 2-1 nap switch, rather than overtired.  I've been chatting with ladies in that thread, and many have agreed and gone through it.  So I got some advice, and I'm on it.  Let's hope it helps. 

What is it with these 5 am wake ups?   Don't they come programmed for 7?  I seriously every day pray that this next baby is a good sleeper!  7 am would be a dream.  But I guess I'd still be up with Collin. 

So Lisa, you said you got some advice.  What did they say?  (I'm filing it all in my brain.)

I am sorry Tor and Lisa that it has not gotten better.  One thing I always think is that this will not last forever.  It makes me feel a little better.  I dream of the days when my kids don't need me when they wake up and I can sleep (I love sleep way too much)!  Of course then they won't be my babies anymore.  So...good and sad. 

[LisaM]

Hi Brooke nice to hear from you, sorry though that the early starts have returned for a while.  I remember that 2-1 switch, I just thought there was no way it would ever work but of course it did.  I do remember that for a little while she would only sleep an hr or so and so was really long days for her but soon enough she started taking 2 hrs most days - she still has a nap on days when she wakes early and I now have to wake her from them as I think she would sleep all afternoon if I let her!!  Don't think I will get the same problem with Gracie though!  I hope it goes smoothly for you.

Advice has been to try and shift her routine to get bedtime later (Which I wanted to do) but does mean trying to get her to stay up a really long A time in the morning.  They said to try get her to last til about 9am - the problem is that for the last 3 mornings she has woken between 4-4.30 and I just can't see her doing that.  The other problem with it is plyagroup days just won't work as we leave the house about 8.50am so she would have to wait til after 9 to go down.  Gonna see how it goes.  We have had no NW for last few nights so that is an improvement anyway.  I think I will try to slowly increase the time up first to see what happens.

I know what you mean about thinking when they grow up will be able to sleep again but also want them to stay the way there are now forever.

Have a good weekend everyone - its a Bank Holiday in UK so of course its going to rain but have fun anyway!

[2Pam]

Hi
I am wondering if I can get some help.   My lo is almost five months old.  Forever it seemed he would wake up at 5:00am, 6:00am, then 7:00am crying till about 3 months but then for awhile he was great at waking up at 7:00ish.  He is a chronic 45 minute napper, (another thread I am always on!. but he is improving.  For the past 2 weeks I have moved him to a 4hr. schedule.  He usually is getting 3 naps a day 1. 1/2hr maybe 2hr, 2. 1 1/2 hr. and then a catnap of 45 minutes.  He averages about 4 to 5hr. of nap time usually closer to 4 1/2hrs.  When he has a 45 minuter nap I can usually get him back to sleep.  I heard that getting him on a 4hr. schedule would help the night wakings and early wakings. . .it hasn't!  He is still getting up at 3:00am, 5:00am, 6:00 and then 7:00am.  He is happy when he is up, I can usually get him back to sleep with a re-swaddle and his pacifier but sometimes with the 6:00am he won't go back to sleep.  Our day is suppose to start at 7:00am, and it does if I can get him back to sleep.  His bedtime is 7:30-7:45ish, he goes down great!  He also still has a dreamfeed at 10:30pm.  His A times are almost at 2hrs. and I feed about 3 1/2hrs. depending if he sleeps 2hr. or 1 1/2hr.
My questions:
is this just a stage or do I have to adjust his naps or bedtimes??

Do you feed early and start your day earlier??  I have always waited till the 7:00am feed time but that messes up the A time and the whole schedule!

When they wake early how do you get them back to sleep?  I have just left him at the 3:00am one and he falls back to sleep on his own, but I am not sure he would do it by himself at 5:30 or 6:00.

Thanks,
Pam

[Freya'sMum]

First post here, but dd#2 has never slept later than 7am, and for more months than I can remember has not slept past 5.30am - her grizzling/standing in the cot shouting 'mumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumum...' until I get her out, usually wakes #1 too, so the family party starts - hooray!

Dh is on seditative night medication, so you could hold WW3 in our house and he wouldn't notice - mornings I am a single parent until he drags himself out of bed, it is soooooooooooooooooooooo hard to survive a day at work after being up from 5/5.30am!

Anyway, this is my life, there is much to be grateful for, including the attractive bags under my eyes that might oneday disappear!

Keep smiling,

Ax

[jennyh]

well yesterday i bought a blackout blind.worth a try?i might as well have saved my money ,the only difference was i couldnt see where i was going to get her out of bed .you have gotta laugh or you would cry iukwim....jenny

[LisaM]

Jennyh and Freya's mum - I noticed that your lo's are older than mine - help!!!  I had thought things were going to improve by then!

We have black out blinds plus black out curtains PLUS tinfoil over dd2's windows but she still wakes about 4ish most days and never later than 5.

[texasmom]

Lisa,
I would be scared to push her A time too much too.  Yikes.  Has anything gotten any better?  I do think you are going to get later wakings - later than 4/5ish!  That is SO awful.  Are naps any better?  If naps could get better, you could start shifting her whole routine in 15 min increments over a couple of days.  I know I've said that before.  I keep thinking her naps will get better.  Have you gotten any good advice on getting those naps extended?  The good thing is no more NW and she's getting a good night's sleep.  I cut Collin's naps for 2 days in a row, and we paid last night.  He woke at 10pm and then at 4:45, screaming, and it took 45 min to get him back to sleep.  The GOOD thing is that he slept until 7:45, which he has not done since he was like 4 months old.  Of course now just one nap today, so it's messy, but I have got to be careful.  He is still so succeptible to getting OT, causing night and early wakings.  

2Pam,
That is great that naps have gotten so much better.  As far as the early wakings, I'm not sure about the 3am (although that would be considered a night waking).  The good thing is that you don't have to do anything.  I bet he will eventually not wake up OR wake up but just go back to sleep - babies wake up at night - it's just a matter of them learning to go back to sleep independently.  I can't remember what average hours of sleep are for a baby that age, but I'm almost sure it's not more than 15 hours - I think at that age mine did 14-14 1/2 (he's slept less than others, though).  If yours is sleeping 4 1/2 hours during the day, 10 1/2 is actually good at night.  Mine usually does 10 1/2.  If he is happy during the day, easy to put down, then he is not OT, and he may be getting the rest he needs.  I'd say start the day at 6.  Observe and see if he can go his normal A time after waking and if he's in a good mood.  If so, he's well rested.  If he wakes at 5:30, I'd leave him in the crib till 6 if you can.  You could ask the Naps board about cutting them to get more nighttime sleep.  I'm not sure about a LO at his age.  I'd leave bedtime alone.  If 6am is acceptable to you, I'd leave naps alone, but if you'd like 7, maybe taking time away from naps would help.  I just don't know the way you go about doing that.  I do know that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  

Jenny and Freya's Mum,
It's good that you're not getting too upset about all this.  I used to stress about it ALL the time.  Wish I had taken it a little more lightly.  

[bobblesmum]

Dear all,

Thought its about time i joined this club. I will read through the posts for any tips, but would appreciate any advice from people who have been able to overcome early wakings!

LO is 13months old. He used to sleep 12 hours a night from 6 weeks old to about 6 months old and then it all went wrong (waking at least 5 time a night)-at which point I implemented BW. This helped enormously and although LO sleeps 10 unbroken hours a night , he wakes between 4.30am and 5.15am withough fail, is tired during the day, takes ages to go to sleep and nap times vary alot.

Here is our approx routine:

Wakes 5am
Cries about 5.45 am at which point I give milk (7oz)
Plays in cot till 7am
Breakfast 8am
A
Nap 9am-10.30am
Lunch 11.30am
A
Nap 1pm-2.30pm
Dinner 4pm
A
Snack 5pm
(cereal)
bath, bottle, asleep by 6.45pm

I have tried altering his bed time from anywhere between 5.45pm and 8pm, but he still wakes at same time.


He is usually very tired during the day (screaming, rubbing eyes) and often take a long time to go to sleep (up to 1.5 hours these days). He needs a lot of sleep, but is just not getting it.

Hope anyone can offer some advice,

Thanks

Gouri xxx

[texasmom]

Gouri,
Is it possible that his A time in the morning is too long?  (5am to 9 am)  The morning A time is usually the shortest.  My LO is not a big sleeper, and his A times are 3.5 h or less, usually.  Can you read his sleepy cues?  If so, I'd put him down for a nap at that point. 

He sounds overtired, which can take days or longer to recover from. 

I also might just go ahead and start his day at the point at which you feed him.  I wonder if he is getting frustrated at being in the crib so much.  (just from what you said about him taking so long to fall asleep)

It's hard for me to read my LO's sleepy cues, so that's my main question for you.  If you can read them, put him down as soon as you see them.  Even at bedtime.  You might be putting him to bed early at first, but then you can move back bedtime slowly, with the hopes that he will wake later. 

Hope that helps. 

 
Brooke

[bobblesmum]

HI Brooke,

Thanks for your post. Yes, I can defo read his sleepy cues-they are blatantly obvious with him!! I used to out him down at 8am, but then he fought so much I started putting him down later and he fell asleep more easily. Today he just refused his morning nap completely (played in cot, refused to lie down, eventually screamed and screamed...) so I gave up after over an hour of trying and put him down at 12pm. So his A time was 7 hours!!!! He slept from 12-1.40pm (a bit disappointed). I am about to give him his bath and will put him down by 6pm as he is defo overtired.

I used to just start his day at 5am, as you are suggesting, but he was so exhausted in the afternoon and wouldnt even eat properly- even if he had 3 hrs sleep in the day! So my conclusion is that he needs 12 hours at night instead of nine or ten...the question is HOW do I do that???

What time does your LO wake? is he overtired?

Gouri xxx

[LisaM]

hi Brooke

I haven't pushed it that far yet - the most we have done is 3 hrs in am and that has only been twice because she woke but went back off to sleep til 6am so those days we had 2 naps only.  The problem with that is that unless she sleeps til 6 (so rare and one of those days was because she had woken lots in the night I think due to teeth) we cannot just get 2 naps so are not being consistent.  I'm sure we will get there in the end.  Naps are OK - sometimes we get a good long one, afternoons are still always 30 mins only and wakes not happy so I know she needs more but it just never works and if we try about 3ish or later its normally not gonna happen at all!!  I don't know whether its cos she has been awake since 4ish usually and so its almost 12 hrs since she has been up and so perhaps she thinks it should be bedtime not nap time!?

Anyway, hope the transition goes well for you and Collin is soon back to normal, sleeping through and hopefully later in the mornings as well, that would be a bonus eh?

[Tor]

Hi Lisa
 
Have the very early wakings changed at all for you?

Does Grace have any teeth yet, could it be that?  Do you ever give her medised?

Alfie has in the past three weeks got two teeth, had a cold, got a chest infection and conjunctivitis he looks awful, the doctor put him on anibiotics which seems to have worked wonders in just two days, NW aplenty for us!  Demoralising to try and get back on track at night.  I find it hard to decide when they are totally well enough to do pu/pd or shsh pat thing, what have you found works?  At night you just think ah bless them they are poorly!


Tor

[¤ Efka ¤]

We are back in this club.
It been 5.15-5.30 am wakeup for almost 2 weeks now, withoccasional sleep in til 6 or 6.30.
Just cannot figure it out.
He gets his 2 naps and is happy as can be.
But it is getting to the point that around 5 I am starting ot wake up before he does. No good.

[texasmom]

Gouri,
You were saying that you thought your LO needs 12 hours at night and that no matter what time you put him to bed, he wakes at the same time.  Is that right?  If so, I would put him to bed 12 hours from when he wakes, do that for a week, and then start shifting his whole schedule later in 15 min increments.  You can move it 15 more minutes every 3-4 days depending on how he is doing.  So I would still start his day from the time he wakes for the day, and then if you put him to bed early, he will get over the overtired after some time. 

Collin wakes usually b/w 5:30 and 6:45.  He gets OT from time to time.  Right now he is b/c he's been really sick.  We're going through the 2-1 nap switch, so we don't have a consistent wake up time, but it's usually around 6.  But mine only sleeps 10.5 hours at night usually. 

Lisa,
Collin does that strange thing too - if we try for a late nap.  Not gonna happen.  Because sometimes he needs a nap so bad, and even if I can just get him 30-45 min, I know it will help.  I'm with ya.  It's weird.  I wish there were something I could tell you to get that good nap in the afternoon.  So is that the 3rd nap?  You say you can get a good 2nd one?  Is that right?  What about the 1st?  Sorry, you're probably sick of talking about it, so you don't have to answer.  Really.  I'm just still trying to figure it out! 

Tor,
I always AP when Collin is sick!!  It's like he cannot sleep w/o it when he's not feeling well, ya know?  Anyway, we rock him.  I mean, I'll try laying him down, but if he cries for longer than a minute or so, I know I'm going to have to rock. 

Peike,
Don't you hate that YOUR body clock is being reset?  Urg!  Collin started waking early again too, and I got advice in NAPS to start shortening the morning nap.  I was told to wake him after 45 min/1 hour and to let him take a longer afternoon nap.  Then to keep shortening it as problems arise, until you just have one nap.  As far as the afternoon nap goes, I think sometimes you have to keep it the same length, but shorten the morning nap b/c they start to need a little less sleep, and to get it at night, you take it away from the day.  You may already know that!