5am and wanting to be up for the day
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Topic: 5am and wanting to be up for the day
Posted By: naysgirl
Subject: 5am and wanting to be up for the day
Date Posted: 30 September 2010 at 7:35am
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My DS sometimes wakes at 5am and seems to be ready for the day. We leave him to talk to himself until he starts to get grizzly which is usually around 6/6.30am. But if he doesn't go back to sleep (which is usually the case) he is then by tired by 7.30/8am. And then the whole day just seems all mucked up since if I put him down at 8am he may sleep for an hour, so then his next nap might be around lunchtime until about 2pm. He then starts rubbing his eyes around 4pm but there is no way that I can get him to take a short nap at that time.
He goes to bed at about 6.30pm as he is so tired by then since having been up for about 4 hours. He doesn't feed during the night and he can self settle well. I just don't quite know what to do with these early wakings. I really don't like seeing him get so tired. Does anyone have any advice?? TIA ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 30 September 2010 at 8:23am
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How about just a quick 20-30min refresher nap (i.e. you cut it short) in the mornings if he has done an early wake up? Just enough to see him through and then his longer nap later on.
I have heard that early wakes up can be made worse by a good morning nap (as the baby treats this as an extension to their night) but it is a catch 22 at times. Others suggest making sure the room is really dark etc and not too cold/hot so that they don't stir so easily with the light/temp at that time. I know with my DS if we wakes before 5 then he will re settle back to sleep but if I hear him awake after 5 then I know that it's all over and he won't go back to sleep! I hate those mornings!! Hope it sorts soon - it will be like all the other things and it will eventually pass I am sure  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: naysgirl
Date Posted: 30 September 2010 at 10:21am
And then we will move onto the next thing to figure out 
We might have to invest in some darker curtains as we have light coloured ones in his room, though due to day light savings its darker at the mo but that is not going to last. He finally went to sleep at 8.30am this morning after me feeding him and trying to get him to go back to bed straight away (don't know if thats a good thing for me to be doing or not??) and then giving him breakfast as he was not going to sleep. He seems to only want to have 2 naps a day, no matter how early he wakes and how tired he is, 2 naps a day is it! ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 30 September 2010 at 10:52am
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Yep, my DS was on 2 naps by that stage too and we quickly went to one around 13 months. Might be worth trying to cut the morning one to be a bit shorter than what he usually takes and then hopefully he will make it up with his 2nd nap and have a longer one then which should last him til bedtime!
And you are right, you will figure it out just in time for the next thing he throws at you !! Like right now we are dealing with not wanting to go to bed at night despite months of him putting up very little protest! Keeps us on our toes! ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Jacobsmumma
Date Posted: 30 September 2010 at 7:56pm
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My DS has also been waking the last few days at 5am, which is fine as I'm usually up getting ready for the gym. So usually I just give him a quick nappy change/100mls of milk then back to bed and he'll usually go down until after DH shower, so 6:45am'ish. He'll just chat happily to himself until just after 7am.
Can you try doing the same above? ------------- 
(9lbs 6ozs) 
(11lbs 4ozs) |
Posted By: naysgirl
Date Posted: 01 October 2010 at 10:10am
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That worked this morning Jacobsmumma but yesterday morning he wasn't having a bar of going to back to sleep after a quick feed.
He has a top tooth coming through at the moment so I'm thinking that maybe that has something to do with it?? Or maybe I'm just hoping!! lol ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: millymollymandy
Date Posted: 05 October 2010 at 5:33pm
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I used to get this a lot at this age. Its very tricky, the trick is to avoid the morning nap being too early, which is hard when they are tired. The good news is that at 14 months with one sleep it mostly has sorted itself, unless teeth or sick. Good luck its a tricky problem.
Sleepstore have some great advoce on this. |
Posted By: naysgirl
Date Posted: 05 October 2010 at 7:10pm
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Thanks MMM, I'll have a look at the sleepstore.
So only another 4-5 months of early wake-ups then
------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: MyPeas
Date Posted: 05 October 2010 at 7:35pm
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We had a similar type problem with early mornings and day sleeps, the daylight savings change seems to have helped, however I've also heard that having the first sleep too early is why they seem to wake early in the morning!!!!
We have moved the first sleep til around 9 - 9.30am then down for another one around 12 - 1pm and a third at around 3 - 4pm. Seems to be working at the moment but will probably change again. It is hard to keep them up first thing in the morning if they are tired and grumpy until you get to the first sleep time but it may be worth a try. I can only suggest trying different day nap times and see how it goes! ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: naysgirl
Date Posted: 06 October 2010 at 7:15am
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I have heard that too about the morning nap and not been too early. He usually goes down between 9-9.30am as well.
He woke up at 6am this morning which I don't mind seeing as he slept through the night :) But every day seems to be different, so will just have to go with it. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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