Early waking

[sanibel21]

I'm at my wit's end. Every morning LO starts whiny crying at 5 am. She is still laying down, eyes closed, if anything a little squirmy. She continues every few minutes.
We have tried letting her go, just soothing, just diaper change, feeding, rocking. Nothing we have tried seems to make a difference. Sometimes she gets worse, sometimes she goes back down, sometimes she just keeps doing the same thing.
I have shut off the monitor, shut our doors, played my own white noise machine. I can't get back to sleep or sleep through it
I am exhausted and wondering if anyone else had this problem and had success with any particular method of dealing with it.
She goes to bed 730-8. She has two naps per day, mostly an hour each but sometimes more or less. I don't see a correlation. She has dinner 1-2 hours before bed. Nursing and formula at bedtime. It is driving me nuts.

[bsouls]

Have you tried an earlier bedtime? We are pretty much right at 6:30pm right now and we try not to mess with it. Months ago when we'd delay her bedtime due to being out with holidays or thinking she had a late nap, then she'd seem to have problems in the morning crying out.

I actually said last night that we might have to move to 5:30-6pm due to fussiness in the evening since she went down to two naps a day.

T gets a good 12 hours at night and 2-3 hours during the day.

[babycaps]

We had a little bit of this for a little while. He used to wake up to feed between 5-6am. Then for about 2 weeks instead of waking up to eat, he would do what you described for about 20-30min and then fall back into a deep sleep until 6:30am and then be up for the day starting with nursing.
I have no help to offer other than as long as she is still "eyes closed, laying down" leave her be and in time it will pass.
We found that going in and changing a diaper only made it worse. About the only thing that did help was dream feeding but he wouldn't always do it.

[jtizzay]

I would try an earlier bedtime as well. It's so counterintuitive.
Also have you tried ear plugs? I know it sounds nuts but I have good hearing and can't sleep through anything. I wear them because I can hear her panic crying through them but not just noise

[Deleted]

I would try to move to one nap before I fucked with bedtime.

Some kids just wake up at 5am and there is nothing you can do about it... at least for now she's contained.

[fish8412]

When does she start to get tired in the evening? Before 730 or 8? If so, then try an earlier bedtime. My LO gets tired at 6 so she goes to bed at 630 or 7. If that doesn't help then try for one midday nap.

[monster]

LO was waking up early for about a week. When he would wake up early we would leave him for 10-15mins and if he didn't go back down one of us would sit with him in his room. We would keep the room dark and were super boring. Just sit quietly.

When he sleeps until 7 we make a big deal about it. We go into his room, open the blind, and are super animated. We tell him what a great sleeper he is and how happy we are.

This was something my husband read and suggested we try. I was super skeptical but it seems to have worked.

We also do an earlier bedtime- 7pm.

[ellabee]

I could have written this exact same thing. DD does this about 80% of the time, but her bedtime is 7-7:30. I've started going to bed earlier so I'm not exhausted at 5 when she starts fussing.

Sometimes we leave her, sometimes we bring her into our bed and nurse her. Sometimes she falls back asleep in her own and sometimes she doesn't say a peep until 6:15 when she's happy and up for the day.

No advice here, just following to see what others suggest... I hope this passes.

[fishbulb]

J's been doing this lately too. I'm blaming teething. I may be creating more problems in solving this one but if I bring him into bed with me and dreamfeed/cosleep he usually calms down and goes back to sleep until 7.

[bennieangel]

Feb 20, 2015 10:13:53 GMT -5 monster said:

LO was waking up early for about a week. When he would wake up early we would leave him for 10-15mins and if he didn't go back down one of us would sit with him in his room. We would keep the room dark and were super boring. Just sit quietly.

When he sleeps until 7 we make a big deal about it. We go into his room, open the blind, and are super animated. We tell him what a great sleeper he is and how happy we are.

This was something my husband read and suggested we try. I was super skeptical but it seems to have worked.

We also do an earlier bedtime- 7pm.

This is kind of what we do too. If we have to wake him up or he sleeps past 7 we always are super animated, shades open lots of excited talk. If he wakes up early we try to keep quiet & see if we can encourage him back to sleep ASAP. Sometimes he even takes a bottle at 5am & then put him back in the crib. Sometimes he goes back to sleep sometimes he just plays quietly.


One thing to try might be the wake to sleep method? Try setting an alarm for 45 minutes before her usual wake time & go gently wake her enough that she has to go back to sleep & after a few nights I've heard that works well too.

[kimberpoo]

Luke has been waking up a bit early too - it seems most nights that he is uncomfortable bc of teeth.
I usually make sure I give him a bottle right before bed and I follow his cues - when he starts acting sleepy around 8 pm I change him into pj's/clean diaper, feed him, and put him to bed. if he wakes early, I will first try giving pacifier and laying him back in his crib. if that doesn't work, I put him in his swing (swing= magic! I swear). if he's up more than 20 mins early (like up at 6 instead of his usual 6:30) I won't get him out of the swing until 6:30. I never feed him before 7. I should also add that if he wakes MOTN, like 4 am or earlier, or if I'm up, I'l do a quick diaper change (no wipes unless poop) just so he doesn't wake up soaked. he can never fall back asleep if he's overly wet.
it seems like if I keep him in the habit of going back to sleep or at least not getting out of bed until 6:30, he tends to be a better sleeper.
good luck! share with us if you find something that works!

[sanibel21]

Thanks for all the replies! I could and should try an earlier bedtime I guess. A while back when we tried too early, she would fight it so hard, so we got scared of putting her down too early, and therefore probably put her down too late. It seems so counterintuitive but I've read it multiple places. I'm pretty sure she is not ready for one nap. She can't make it long enough in the morning to not have a super long awake time in the afternoon. But I will keep it in mind. Tonight was a disaster just from a crazy day so we will try it tomorrow.

[sanibel21]

Oh I also appreciate the animated morning tip. She went through a phase where she would only nurse in the quiet dark so that's how I usually start the day. So there's no real difference between that and whenever we decide to go in to her earlier than we would like.

[jjsmom80]

Feb 20, 2015 7:22:05 GMT -5 bsouls said:

Have you tried an earlier bedtime? We are pretty much right at 6:30pm right now and we try not to mess with it. Months ago when we'd delay her bedtime due to being out with holidays or thinking she had a late nap, then she'd seem to have problems in the morning crying out.

I actually said last night that we might have to move to 5:30-6pm due to fussiness in the evening since she went down to two naps a day.

T gets a good 12 hours at night and 2-3 hours during the day.

this. We were putting him down at 8 and he was up at 6. Switched to an hour earlier (even thought it means i literally get 45 minutes with him between pick up from daycare and bed) but now he sleeps 7 to 7 with 2 at least hour long naps. Much happier kid. 

[bandteacher]

I agree with PPs who suggested an earlier bedtime. Good luck.

[bennieangel]

I wouldn't jump her bedtime back dramatically. Just maybe 15 minutes for a few nights & then 15 minutes again until you think you've got the right time.

T just moved his forward a bit so now it's closer to 7 instead of 6:15-30 which makes me happy! Gives us just a tiny but more time at night & him enough time for a little dinner.

[babycaps]

Ugh. Early waking is back. Don't know what to do. He already goes to bed at 645.

[sanibel21]

Oh no babycaps!!
I don't want to jinx it but LO slept til 8. I saw her sitting up at 6 but she was not crying and went back down herself. We really haven't had a chance to do anything different. You know I have never been on board with the wonder week concept but I just posted last night that her clinginess and stuff has dramatically dropped and she seems to be doing more things. Sure enough it says she just ended a leap. I'm wondering if it was just developmental and there's not much that can be done. I hope this wasn't a fluke.

[kimberpoo]

Just an update - luke is back to sleeping through the night without any wake-ups! *knock on wood*. we do about 8:30 (down in the crib) - 6:30. I've been following his cues a bit more too - if he had a late nap and isn't rubbing his eyes I'll let him stay up 15-30 mins later before going to bed. if fussy, down earlier (but we never do before 8). When he was waking early, I make him go back down....paci in the crib if it's before 5:30 and into the swing if after 5:30. up anytime after 6:30 is fine to be up for the day.
he's also been getting a ton of stimulation during the day and that's helped wear him out more. I'm also following his cues more for naps...always one nap where he goes down somewhere between 8:15am and 9:30 am and will sleep for about an hour and a half. I wait for him to rub his eyes, get fussy, or put his head down. after that he usually does another hour long nap that he might go down for anytime between 12:30 and 3.
I hope everyone else is having some success in the sleep department!!!

[babycaps]

This early awake is not cool. And it's coinciding with a new long afternoon nap. He used to wake up at 7, nap 2hrs in morning, 30-40min in afternoon.
Now he's up at 5:50 and we are leaving him in crib as long as possible. But his morning nap has been one hour and then 2hrs in the afternoon. And he's pushed his fall asleep time at night to 730pm from usual 650-7pm.
He's just rolling around in crib now. We are letting him stay in there until 645am if he doesn't fall back asleep. That's another 20min. I hope he does fall back asleep!

[kimberpoo]

babycaps FX for you!!!!