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

[andibig]

J & Js mom
this is really werid.its 6am and DD is still asleep . i put her to bed at 6.30 last night as she was soooo tired and haven't heard a thing yet!!!
Of course i was still up at 5.30am . think i need to use PU/PD for myself !!!!!!

[Katet]

Ok I'm not saying these ideas will solve the early wakings but they may help

* Don't feed before the time you think it is "socially acceptable to be awake" OK within reason I don't think 9am would cut it with many children... but in this house no food before 7am is the rule (now Liam is 1)... the reason being that the body starts to wake up "waiting for food about 30mins before the first meal"

* from the time they wake up to the time you'd like them to wake up keep things very low key, stories etc & try not to take them out of their room... I have actually sat in Liam's room with him having toys in his cot when I couldn't get him to go back to sleep.

* keep morning naps to the minimum & stimulation levels higher in the hours before noon... if you want 7-7 sleep then they need to be more stimulated in the am, so minimise car/walks/tv & increase physical activity, toys that require concentration... theory being the night hours from midnight to 6/7am are influenced by the day hours until noon & then time from noon influences the hours from bedtime to midnight

* make sure that the day sleep isn't too long eg a 12mo average sleep is 13.5-14 hours, so if you want 12 hours overnight then you can really only expect 1.5 hours of day sleep... that said some babies can need less than that.

* Don't let your baby be overtired at bed time...this was the biggest reason when we just had our spate of early wakings, I tried to get Liam on 1 nap & he was overtired by bed & would wake early... when I started trying an earlier bed time we got later wakings... after much trial & error I switched to a am catnap & longer pm nap to fit with ds1.

* Early waking take a long time (I think I read up to 3 weeks) to change, so don't expect things to change totally with 2-3 days of adjsuting.

HTH

[J&Jsmom]

Sashas mummy - it's so typical isn't it 

Well this morning my elder child woke at 6am - pretty good for him and my little one who wakes at 5am on the dot usually slept till 7. Woohoo! No idea what made the difference as we did nothing different to normal.

Thanks for those tips KateT - question, re the no meals before an acceptable hour - does that include a bottle? My toddler in particular asks for a sippy cup of milk the first thing after waking up so we'd have a long fight on our hands holding this off

[Katet]

Yep Melissa, milk is not good as the stuff I was reading says it can often be worse than anything else because of the protien & fat that the body needs to fire up to digest it.
One thing we have done with Aiden since he was 2 (not for holding off food, but I know someone else it worked with for milk) was to have a light on  a timer & Aiden can't come into our room until that time. My friend was weaning off a night bf, so she set the timer for 15 mins later every 3 days & gradually got the 5am feed to 7am... somehow by it not being the "parent in control" they cope better... the first few times are hard, but my friend used to sit with her lo & say "hey lets sing a song until the light comes on etc.

[cazza92]

Hello would like to join please! my little girl had been up at 4.45am for the past couple of months. Now trying to shorten naps! I feel i have no life as i go to bed at about 8.30 pm each night so that i am able to cope with getting up so early!

Megan just chats in her cot with the occational cry... my freind last night was saying how there boy sleep till 7.00 am i am so jelous.. does it get better?

I know what you mean about being quite in the mornings i normally creap to the toilet early morning but then my husbund rolls over and seem to make lots of noise!!!!

Its all such fun..... i am cultivating dark circles and bags under my eyes!!!!!!!!!

[andibig]

WOO HOO
excuse me while a have a woo hoo moment!! past few days DD has been sleeping for 12 hours!!! not waking till 7am. we're transitioning down to one nap cos she was fighting her naps.

Katet what is your routine for your 1 yr old LO. trying to work out mealtime at mo BTW i've been implementing early b/times whilst doing this as i don't want her to get o/tired.

[Alia's mum]

I want to join too!!!

My lo has been waking at 4.30 the last few mornings and i just cant cope anymore!!! Id kill for a 5.30 am start now!!!  Will try the food thing and do usually keep her in her room but her daddy who I might add has got up to her only twice has taken her out of her room and starts to play with her!! and you guessed it, im such a moan and then if i even mention the noise he makes when she is asleep he goes into a huff!!!  Arent men great!!1

[Katet]

Katet what is your routine for your 1 yr old LO. trying to work out mealtime at mo BTW i've been implementing early b/times whilst doing this as i don't want her to get o/tired.

6.30/7 wake up
7/7.15 bf
7.30/45 breakfast
9.30/10am  Morning tea followed by 20-30min cat nap... timing depends on the days activities - I have to work around a 3yo
12.30 Lunch
1/1.30 Nap - 1.5 -2.5 hours (occasionally 3 if we have a stimulating morning)
bf & snack on waking
5.30/6pm Dinner - depends on afternoon activites dh being home etc
6.45pm bath, PJ's bf, goodnight to brother/daddy/stories, stories in bedroom
7.15/7.30pm  in bed asleep by 7.30/7.45pm
Sometimes night waking due teething & mornings like today woke at 5.30 & I resettled back until 6.20, but no longer... he stayed in the cot with books & nightlight (winter here so dark) until 6.55am

[james030405]

Well, I am not sure what to do about James now (15mths).  I thought he was overtired the last few days so I put him to bed at 6:30pm (normal bedtime around 7pm).  Doing this has meant that he has woken at 4am .  I have kept him in his room till 6am with all lights off until around 5:30am when I put the night light on.  A couple of times, I have thought he has gone back to sleep, but I think he is just dozing because as soon as I open the door, he is awake.

Last night I put him to bed at 7:30pm and he didn't wake till 5:30am.  He whinged on and off till 5:45am when I took him out. 

I know he needs 10hrs sleep - we very rarely get longer than that.  We have on occasion got 11-11.5hrs, but not very often.  So my question is:

Do I put him to bed at 7:30pm rather than earlier?  I know they say that earlier bedtime means later awake time, but is this always true?  The early wakings make it difficult for us to go anywhere in the morning as he falls asleep in the car if it is longer than 15mins. 

Our routine looks like this at the moment:

4-5:30am awake
6am get out of bedroom
7am breakfast
7:30am shower/brush teeth
8am milk (240ml cows)
10am morning tea
11:30am nap
1-1:30pm awake and lunch
2:30pm milk (240ml cows)
3:30-4pm snack
5:30pm dinner
6pm bath
6:30pm milk
7pm bed

Sometimes bath is before dinner depending on what we have done during the afternoon.  I too have friends whose babes sleep from 7:30pm-7am or 6:30pm - 6:30pm (they are the same age).  I realise that James probably only needs 10hrs and 1.5hrs-2hrs during the day and I am okay with that.  Just wondering what I should do about bedtime.

Thanks for the help ladies

Lisa

[jumblebox]

Can you top this??? How about a wake up at 5:30 and only 40 minute naps throughout the rest of the day! Do you know how many times I have to do the darn nap routine!!! AUGghhhh

I may not be able to top it, but I think I can match it. 3.5 mo DS who's been waking between 4:30-5:30am for about 2 mo. We have a 1 bdrm apartment, so his crib is in our room. He wakes around 5am, entertains himself (noisily) for about an hour (I hear him the whole time, and doze off & on, or get up and start coffee), eventually calls out to get our (MY) attention. He usually isn't hungry until at least 6:30am, so he's already had at least half his A time. Wants a nap by 7:45am... but cannot/will-not sleep longer than 45 mins for most naps. Today, he had FIVE naps! I've tried shortening/extending A time. Nothing makes a difference. IF he takes a long nap, he wants to take it at 4:30pm!!

To make the whole thing worse, his dad (my DP) works a combination of 2nd & 3rd shifts, and can't get it changed. W,Th,Fr he works 3-11pm, Sa & Su 11pm-7am. So my DP's sleep is 1am-9am 3 days, then a late (8-10pm) nap on Sat, then 8am-3pm Su & M. Which means that almost every day of the week, I not only have to get up at 5-5:30am, but wait up for the DF at 10-10:30pm. I can't go to sleep early Sat, because DP's impossible to wake from his nap - and can't use alarm with DS sleeping! On the rare occasion he's offered to get up with DS, I still have to wake up to wake HIM up and kick him out of bed.

I don't think I've had more than 3 8-hr stretches of sleep since my 7th month of pregnancy! If I DO happen to get to bed early, there will be some reason that DS wakes even earlier than normal and has to be tended to... tired of wet diaper, soaked through, gas... always SOMETHING.

[Alia's mum]

Honestly - I think they do somehow know what we post here!! especially if you plan an early night because our LO always wake when not expected!!!  I long for a whole nights sleep!!!  Id even pay for one now!!

Tanya x

[milliesmaw]

I'm in the club too! So glad to have found this thread. Ds is nearly one and if he sleeps through then he wakes at 5am. If he wakes once during the night and I b/f then he will go to between 6 and 6.30am which is probably why I haven't dropped that last night feed yet lol.

We are going on hols next week so when we get back I am going to drop night feeds and will definitely work on keeping him in his cot/room and no feeding till acceptable. I don't know how easy that will be as ds is very vocal.

My biggest problem is that I'm hopeless at going to bed at a reasonable time. My eldest is taking forever to settle at night and I really value some grown up watching rubbish tv time!

[andibig]

I realise that James probably only needs 10hrs and 1.5hrs-2hrs during the day and I am okay with that. Just wondering what I should do about bedtime.

hi lisa
are you still having the early wakings? you could try and push his b/time later.maybe do it very gradually.
some LOs seem to need less sleep than others
or is there something waking him early?

[james030405]

HI Sasha's mummy

funny you should post about putting to bed later.  I have tried this over the last week, putting him to bed between 7-7:30pm and he has been sleeping till 6:30am . Sometimes he does wake around 4 still, but he has either been putting himself back to sleep or needs a little help from us.  He then sleeps till 6:30am or so. 

I had been strict about a 7pm bedtime and was taking him in at 6:45/6:50pm to make sure he was asleep by 7 and I think this was the problem.  Even though he is probably only in bed about 15-20mins later, this is helping him be more tired and falling asleep easier and sleeping longer.
I hope I haven't jinxed anything by saying this, but so far so good.  Maybe this might help some other mums as well. If putting them to bed earlier is not working, then maybe later by 20mins or so might be the way to go.

Thanks again

Lisa

[andibig]

yipee!!!! james mum!!!
funny cos we had the same problem. DDs b/time was 7.30 but we've moved it to 7pm and she sleeps longer!!werid!!!