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

[Carys' mom]

I wish I could embrace these early wakings like some of you, but I am so dang tired . Besides the early wakings, our dd has been having lots of nightwakings too lately. The night before last we were up for over an hour trying to get her back to sleep. She has a cold now on top of the teething and constipation issues. I think her 2nd year molars are making their way through - she's had her fingers in her mouth nonstop. Does anyone know how long they are supposed to take to pop through? Also, do you think it's cruel to do walk out/walk in with a toddler who's sick and/or teething? I can wait until she's done with her cold, but it seems that she's constantly teething.

Thanks...

[andibig]

Melanie
I can really sympathise right now. Sasha has got gastroenteritis (sp) as well as teething with her 2nd yr molars. fingers constantly stuck right down the side of her mouth. i think they take about 2-3mths to come through but i think it can vary with each LO.
in regards to WI/WO i was going to do this with Sasha last night until i realised what the problem was. i generally do what i can for her (except putting her in bed with us) when shes ill as she needs that extra comfort.
once shes better i then might need to do a bit of sleep training again but only once shes 100% better.

[Carys' mom]

Thanks Sasha's mummy. 2 to 3 months - ugh . Hopefully I'll still be sane by the end of it. Carys is constantly chewing/sucking on her fingers now too. She's never really done that before - she isn't a thumb sucker and didn't use a paci. So I know it's her teeth bugging her. These night wakings have been going on for a few weeks now, and she only wants me even though dh tries to take turns to soothe her. She's going through separation anxiety too, so she cries/screams until I pick her up out of the crib and freaks out if I try to put her back in. And during the day, she gets very upset if I have to leave her for only a moment when dh or anyone else is here - even just going into another room. I thought we were over this, but I guess not.

I hope Sasha gets over her tummy troubles soon - and may we both survive these molars! 

[andibig]

sep anx- yep we got that too . its really strange as me and DH share the childcare as we both work fulltime shifts. When i'm not there and DH is looking after her shes fine but if we are both there i can't even go to the toilet without her banging on the door. never thought i would actually look forward to the day when i can go to the toilet in peace

WI/WO i think is going to be the only way to treat the night wakings. if shes having meds for her teeth then i think its a case of getting tough.

TEETH-i'm really hating them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jacksmom77]

Hi! I'm so glad I found this board...I'm so sick of hearing from my friends about their babies sleeping in until 7 or 730 and going to sleep at 730 - maybe I'm not doing something wrong

I don't know if there are any past posts on this - but I was just wondering what some of your routines are ... I try to look on the EASY forum under the 13+ month area - but there are never any posts for those who have "early risers"...just curious how everyone else day goes..thanks if you dont mind!

Brandi

[Jacksmom77]

Just needed to share that we had a 430 wake up time this morning...yippee!

[Carys' mom]

Hi Brandi,

Welcome to the club . My dd is quite a few months older than your ds - she's just about 21 months, but I'll give you some sort of idea what our routine is if it helps.

-Wakes usually between 5am and 6am (but can be as early as 3:30am or late as 6:30am)
-Try to hold off on giving her sippy of milk until 6:30am, but it rarely works
-Breakfast around 7:30am-8am
-Sippy of milk at 11am, then lunch if she's not too grumpy
-Nap - goes down usually anytime between 11:30am and 12:30pm, but I've been trying to keep it consistent at noon lately (she'll sleep usually 1.5 to 2 hours - yesterday was only 1 hour though )
-2pm or so - lunch
-5 - 5:30pm - sippy of milk, then dinner
-7:20pm - start bedtime routine (bath, read books, etc.)
-8pm - bedtime

She also has snacks during the day, but not any specific time.

I hope this helps.

[Leosmama]

I am really glad to find this group; up until now I was beginning to feel like I, too, was the only mom up way before the crack of dawn!  My 13 mo. old has recently started sleeping through the night (I've night-weaned him from bf'ing over the past few weeks), but no matter what he wakes up every morning between 4:30-5:00!!!  I've tried the later bedtime, the earlier bedtime, tweaking his naps, feeding him more during the day, but his internal clock is just set to go off at that time and it's driving me insane.  I'm suspecting teething, because he's constantly chomping down on anything he can get his hands on, and on top of that I've been dealing with major separation anxiety for the past month or two.  All I can think to do is to go in his room, pat his mattress and tell him it's still nighty-night time, and then I assume my position on the floor next to his bed where I've got a pillow and blanket.  I keep hoping he'll get the message that it's time to go back to sleep but even when he tries he just seems completely incapable of settling himself.

Anyway, it felt good to get that out.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some hope here.

Jennifer

[james030405]

Brandi,

My lo, James is 19mths and we have always had early wakings. We are presently between 4:30-5am and I have just about tried everything.  Our routine looks like this

4:30-5am awake
7am breakfast/milk
9:30am morning tea
11:30 lunch/milk
12pm nap for about 2-3hrs (but usually closer to 2)
2:30/3pm afternoon tea
4:30/5pm bath
5:30pm dinner/milk
7pm bed

I can sympathise with you re: friends. I have friends telling me its normal but there kids don't wake till after 7am  .

We do sometimes have a 20-30min nap around 9am, usually in the car but I can still put him down at 12pm which is good.

Hope that helps

Lisa

PS.  Does anyone know anyone who has had early wakings and it got better?  Just curious

[wanderlustig]

I'm new here - have been just beside myself since October because of DD's naps and nighttime sleeping (she's 10 months old). We went on a trip to visit familiy, didn't involve a time change, but it was crazy - we changed where we slept 5 times! DD had been sleeping pretty well, but on the trip she was getting up every 90 minutes during the night and barely napping. I had been doing accidental parenting by breastfeeding her to sleep, altho' I was putting her down when she was still awake... Anyway, long story short, we returned home after three weeks and it seems like a constant battle since. And during the battle I've used cry-it-out and I think that made everything worse... 

Up to our trip I had her on a routine that depended on when she woke up (she was waking up anytime between 7 and 9) that was very similar to EASY. Basically, she went down for a nap every two hours from the time she woke up and she would nap about 1.5 to 2 hours and when she woke up from a nap, she'd get something to eat. But I would nurse her before her nap, followed by a book or 2, then it was into the crib. Very similar to our night time routine.

Since we've been back, I've stopped breastfeeding her at night and she's been sleeping thru the night more often than not, so that has improved. But she's only napping 40 min twice a day and waking up at 5:15 am! I know she's tired. I think one reason she wakes up so early is because I put her to bed to so early because she's so tired because she's not napping well. And now I've discovered I've been doing the wrong thing to get her back on a schedule - namely, after she naps 40 minutes, I tried PU/PD until it was time for a snack, but then I didn't continue trying. Instead we'd have activity until her next nap period, which I now realize has led to her being overtired. So now I have to correct that.

Ack! I just need support to keep going!

[rinajack]

Hi wunderlustig

If I were in your situation, I would try to follow cues to get a new routine going.  If you lo is 10 months old, I am guessing that 2 hrs A time is not long enough for her to require a nap any longer than 40 minutes.  then keeping her up til the next nap time may be too long, resulting in overtiredness.

Do you know the tired signs your lo shows.  Are you able to do the wind down when she shows these signs?  Like yawning, ear pulling, eye rubbing, red eyes/eyebrows, getting hyper/getting slow or uncoordinated.  Or getting whiney.

If these tired signs happen at 2 hrs, then try extending by a little bit each day.  If they are longer, see how it goes.  My lo is only 7.5 months and already has 3 hr awake times, and this is not uncommon for her age according to the birth club thread. 

Also, while your lo is short napping, you may need to offer more than one nap in order to prevent overtiredness - this may help your early wakeups.

There is also a support thread for short nappers in the napping area, feel free to check that out for more ideas, but I think your short naps and early wakeups are routine related and if we can tweak that, things should improve.  You are already doing well on the night sleep improvement, so lets see if we can fix the day sleep too.

Rina

[andibig]

wunderlustig-i agree with Rina that your LO needs longer awake time. its difficult when they are already overtired but if its done gradually you'll eventually be able to get longer awake time hopefully resulting in her taking a longer nap. if her nighttime sleep is already improving then it shouldn't take too long to sort out the naps.

Lisa-i can't really suggest anything as your LO routine is almost identical to Sashas (except she has milk B4 her brekkie). with DD it was a result of being able to extend her awake time so we could move her naps later (which can sometimes help with early wakings) but thats when she was on 2 naps still.

saying that some LOs are just early risers-at least we can get our own revenge when they are teenagers and want to lie in bed all day.!!!

[james030405]

well, we have had a minor breakthrough.  I know they say don't put them to bed later as this can reinforce early wakings, but we thought we would try it. We have tried later bedtimes before, but only by 30mins or so.  James' bedtime is usally around 7pm, so we decided to push him back to 830pm. I didn't do it gradually, which I know is a no-no.  So far we have done it over the last 2 nights and he has progressed by 15mins everyday.  He was waking around 4:30am, yesterday he woke at 5am and today was 5:15am.     I don't know if this will continue, (anti-jinx dance here) but it is worth a try. 

Dont' know if it will help anyone else.  I guess you can only try.

Chat soon
Lisa

[rinajack]

Grrrrrr.  Not an early wakeup here, but only because we were up from 2:30 - 4:20am.  Ugh.

[Leosmama]

We've had a mini-breakthrough as well.  After reading so much about this online, I realized that my lo was really needing to go to one nap a day, and needed for everything to shift a little later.  So like Lisa, I had him nap later in the day and then put him to bed later than normal.  We'll see if the early morning wakeups start to taper off (fingers crossed).  I've also found that he really wasn't needing a morning nap, and does so much better if I keep him up till after lunch.

But on the teething front, he's been acting like he's teething for weeks now, with his thumb and forefinger wedged way back on either side of his mouth all day long.  Last night was a nightmare, as he was awake from 2:00-4:00 in complete and utter agony.  We gave him teething tablets, Motrin, offered water, and finally picked him up and took turns rocking him, but he was screaming and crying as if someone was sticking a needle in him!    I sure hope we don't get a repeat of that tonight.