early riser

My 6 month old boy wakes up and would be quite happy to start the day at 4.30 or 5 o'clock, even though it is dark now until nearly 6.30am. His bedtime is usually 7pm, and sometimes he sleeps through, while other times he wakes the once and needs to be resettled. If we get up with him 5am, he happily feeds and plays for 2 hours or more before going back to bed for a nap. Only problem with that is that he is very grumpy by the end of the day, so he definitely seems to need more sleep than he is getting by waking up at this time. He only really has 3 naps during the day of up to 40 mins each, and we try not to let the last one go past 4pm. He is formula fed and starting out on solids. If we try to resettle him at 5 am it takes a long time to do because he is so alert! Sometimes to get more sleep we feed him and take him to bed with us - but i would much rather he get the extra sleep that he needs in his own bed! Has ayone had a similar problem and found a way to deal with it??

Hi, your not going to like my reply......our son is still a very early riser at 14 months. This morning he was up at 430am, usually he is kind to us and it is more between 530-630am. He is quite happy about it, chattering away to himself but of course we hear it through the monitor! He has also never had more than one nap a day since he was 3 months old, when i asked mchn/dr/sleep clinic for advice, they all told me he was just an alert and active baby. Once he is crawling around and more active he may sleep longer, or you could jiggle his bedtimes around a bit and see what happens? Sorry i'm not much help!
Jo

Hi
I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions on what you could do but just wanted to let you know that my son used to do the same. He used to go to bed about 7pm, then wake for a night feed about 2am then would wake again at 5am wide awake and ready to start the day ... was not good for mum and dad.

What I can say is that he is not doing it anymore - not because of anything I have done - he has just changed his pattern ... so you may find the same thing will happen for you - maybe it's just a phase your son is going through.

Sorry I don't have any advice ... but good luck.

Hi everyone,

Yes, my children are in this category too... sad

One little golden rule i try to stick to is, no out of bed till 5.00am. As long as there is not distressed crying, they stay in their beds till 5.00am minimum!

My 3 yo is pretty good now, never see her before 5am, but my 1 yo is about 50/50 as to this 5.00am mark.

Nice at least to know i am not the only one starting the day in these wee hours.

Tepe

My boy is 12 months old and always goes to bed at 7.00p.m. I wish his morning waking was that predictable though. He will wake anywhere between 4.30 and 7.00a.m. (He has only slept from 7 till 7 without us hearing from him about three times in his life).
Sometimes when he wakes really early, he has a bottle and goes back to sleep. Other times he has a bottle and will not go back to sleep as he is ready to start the day (even though we are NOT!!!). Occasionally I'll hear him grizzling at some ungodly hour like 5a.m. By the time I get up, go to the loo and start heading to the fridge for his bottle, he's gone quiet...so I tiptoe back to bed and don't hear from him again till later. I like it when this happens...it shows that he can wake and then resettle himself..and that he obviously does need more sleep.
Since he's been crawling / walking, he has been sleeping better & more soundly; his day sleeps have improved & lengthened heaps!
Sorry, I don't have any advice for you; just wanted to let you know that lots of us are up before the birds!!
It does make establishing a routine for the day quite difficult. Some babies are going down for their morning sleep by 7a.m. while other babies haven't even woken from their night sleep by this time (lucky parents)!!!

HELP,

after 4 mornings of 4.00am wake time....i still refuse to get him out of bed till 5.00am....


Help

Tepe

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Hi Toni, we have jiggled our bedtimes around but it made no difference to the waking time! I think Jack likes to be the one that wakes the cats up and boy do they have a peeved look on their faces some days! And as he only has one sleep during the day he's pretty tired at 6am. I decided to jiggle my lifestyle around and i'll get him back when he's 18!! (haha)
Jo

Hi Toni,

I am sure your tips will work well for some bubs, but not this family! I am not debating your ideas, just saying how they won't work for us.

Firstly, i value our adult time, which is few and far between as we are also self landscaping. So when Hubby isn't at paid work he is building our garden, which is a 10 year job for us. So as a result our children go to bed at 6.00pm each night. This works for US, not everyone, but they rise between 5-6, and No1 is now waking at 6.30am.

As for feeding to sleep, both of my kidlets had terrible wind probs. So dinner at my house is 4.00pm for the kids. That is what works for us.

On another note my son slept till 5.00am today, after 4 days of 4.00am wakings, but i didn't faulter, he never got out of his bed till 5.00am.

Just how it works for us,

Tepe

This post has been edited by the moderator.