There's early starts...then there's 4.40am

[Belle]

Anyone else's child getting up this early?! Even though it's still very dark at 4.40! I realise all babies/toddlers get up early or at least have a phase of it, my oldest was and is no different but youngest is currently up and raring to go at 4.40/4.45 each day. It's bloody knackering. I've tried everything - in with me, quiet feed then back to bed, leaving him for a bit, cutting down daytime sleep - doesn't make any difference. Feel I'm perpetuating a bad habit...and it does throw the day out a bit.

[reren]

Have you tried putting him to bed an hour later? We had same problem and doing that fixed the early wake-ups overnight - only problem is now we don't sit down to eat until about 9pm but most nights he's asleep around 8 which is preferable to being awake at 4! He had never really slept through the night and once we changed the bedtime he began sleeping thru every night...so it was actually the start of a really good sleep phase once we figured it out. Good luck

[Convex]

Mine goes through phases of this. I call it the crazy time.

[crystal7]

Urgh we have the same and little E is so loud he wakes up E and we have 4 in a bed. I don't understand as it's so dark as you day. Little E has woken at 3.30 the last few nights and been awake for an hour then up for the day at 5.30. He seems to think v early is getting up time...I bring him into our bed which doesn't work, he just crawls around and puts his fingers in our mouths and laughs. He's so tired in the day because of it but doesn't seem to catch up with naps. Who knows?!

[Ruth_Baldock]

Seconding reren's suggestion of later bedtime. OR earlier?

Seb: Woke at 4:20am every day, we put him to bed at 6pm one night and he went until 8am. He continued this way for months, until the 5am starts began again so we went back to 7pm bedtime (This was when he was about 15/16mo...)

Lex: Wakes silly early if we put her down before 7:45pm.

[DVnewbie]

Hello. I totally feel your pain. The term used in the baby/toddler books is "early morning waking". Our first child did this for the first 2 1/2 years of his life. It was incredibly stressful as he generally only went back to sleep at about 8 a.m., just as the nanny arrived and we headed off for a full day at work. (Also made more stressful by baby number 2 arriving when he was 16 months.) We tried everything - and we gave each "method" a go for at least 4 weeks before abandoning it.

The only thing I can suggest is keeping your baby/toddler in his/her room, in the dark, and not making it any fun at all to be up then. I'm a big advocate of total blackout blinds for early morning wakers (get those travel ones with suckers or put velcro up on the windows from this company http://www.easyblindsonline.co.uk/ ). They can't hurt anyway! (Yes, they mess up the look of your windows but I couldn't have cared less about that at the time.) And try to make sure that whatever method you try, you try for 4 weeks solidly, even if it kills you. If it persists, it's probably worth splashing out on a "sleep consultant", as long as it's somebody with proper experience (like an ex health visitor). Lots of my friends recommend Andrea Grace. We nearly used her but she was on holiday when we got to breaking point. She's based in North London but very good by all accounts and does telephone consultations. And she's medically trained, very nice, not Gina Ford-like in an extreme way although obviously keen on consistent routines and behaviours.

There are various methods you can try (including the crazy one of waking the child up half an hour before they wake normally and then putting them back to sleep to "reset their body clock) and I'm sure you've tried a lot of them. Somebody used to dealing with sleep issues on a daily basis might well have more of a feel about the best approach for your little one.

Good luck!

p.s. The suggestion to put my child to bed a little later used to drive me up the wall - only because OF COURSE I'd tried that and it hadn't worked. But I was incredibly bad tempered, ratty and miserable. Earlier is quite a good one though!!

[lucyA1308]

I'm with the early to bed, longer in bed philosophy. WHen I can manage to get supper, bath and bed for toddler and baby done before 7.00pm, they usually sleep much better. The later to bed they are, the earlier they are up, I find.

[patt1980]

We tried all the various methods too with our early waking daughter; wake to sleep, later bedtime, earlier bedtime, blackouts, coming into our bed etc etc and nothing really worked that well or consistently. She just finally grew out of it by about 14/15 months but will still wake about 5am when she is going through a 'wonder week' type developmental period. I have found i like to stick to an early'ish bedtime at 6/6:30pm as at least then she won't be as tired in the day and in a better mood plus i look at the sliver lining of having some time to myself in the eves!

Good luck, it is really tough getting up in the pitch black before cbeebies is even on!

[Belle]

ha - luckily nick jr seems to be on 24/7 Patt1980!

I can (just about) cope witih 5/5.30, but getting up when the clock says 4 something is just so depressing. But i'm not inclined to force himb ack to sleep when he's so clearly wide awake and raring to go. coming in with me he just shrieks because he's onto me now - knows I'm trying to get him back to sleep. We did try 6pm bedtime the other day with the same result but agree maybe need to persevere with one approach for a while before giving up and trying something else. Thanks all - almost just wanted to hear i wasn't alone! having had my fair share of early starts wiht number 1 I thought I was immune/used to it now, but clearly not! I've rashly put both boys in the same room now so that doesn't help matters, though thankfully his brother is has cottoned on to the pre 5am ruse yet.

[patt1980]

I might need to upgrade my sky subscription then Belle:-)

[Fmm]

I'm sure you've tried this, but one of the parenting books I read said that to deal with early morning waking you should cut down/ cut out the morning sleep specifically (as opposed to just overall daytime sleep). Obviously if your little one is no longer having a morning sleep or does not have regular sleeps then this is not applicable but this did help with baby numero uno when she had this problem. You are definitely not alone on this!