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Early rising - is there really a cure?
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Anonymous
| My son (who is almost 16 months old) has always been an early riser (5:45/6), but lately he is taking it to a new level. For over a month now, he's been waking up at 5:15 and, on a few occasions, as early as 4:50 (like this morning). Nothing has changed in his routine. He still takes 2 decent naps during the day (at 9am and 1:30/2) and goes to bed without a peep around 7pm. Why is his morning creeping earlier and earlier? I've tried earlier to bed and later to bed and neither seems to make much of a difference. Is there anything I can do? I already go to bed early and I can accept an early riser who wakes at 5:45/6, but 5am is just too much. Advice??? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| I just want to say that I feel your pain. My eight month old is exactly the same. I can handle the 6am wake-up but not the 5am wake up. I would love to hear suggestions as well. |
Anonymous
| I feel your pain too -- my 3-year old DD still gets up between 5:30 and 6am every day. She's in bed at 8 sharp and usually takes a 2 hour nap after lunch. Sleeping in to her is 6:15am. After 3 years of this I know it's just how's she wired, unfortunately. Now I hope once she gives up her afternoon nap, perhaps we'll make it to 6:30am! DD 2, who's 10 months old, seems to be on the same path. She had a span where she was getting up at 4:30am or 5 -- thankfully that passed and we're now back to 6am. Can't wait for the teen years when we have to drag them out of bed -- that will be bliss!!!! |
Anonymous
|
For OP -- maybe your 16 mo old is ready to transition to one nap a day. Maybe his early wake-up is just a result of having had enough sleep! Weissbluth says most kids have transitioned to one nap by 15 months, so he's definitely the right age.
I have a 16 mo old, too, and his transition is manifesting itself in giving up the AFTERNOON nap instead of the morning. Ugh! He's a beast by 7pm! So we're trying to push the morning nap later and later.... Just a thought. |
Anonymous
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And for the younger babies, we had some success with DS with not going to him right away if he wakes up in the wee hours. He'd often go back to sleep! And after a couple of days of this, it was like he got the hint and slept in later!
Good luck to all.... |
Anonymous
| no. They often grow out of it-eventually. |
Anonymous
| I know this is bad, but we'll bring 10-mo-old DS to bed with us on those really early mornings, like 5 a.m. he usually wakes up between 5 and 6:30 a.m. If he gets up on the later side, I'll just change/feed him and start the day. but 5 a.m. is just too early for either DH or I will change/feed him then and bring him to bed with us. even if he doesn't fall back to sleep, DH and I can get a few more minutes of snooze time with him between us. this is not an ideal solution, but you do what you can! when he's up, he's up. no getting him back into the crib. |
Anonymous
| I'm with 10:52 -- outgrowing the morning nap. Same thing happened with my daughter at about the same age. She was waking at 5 which was just too early for us, and really, for her too. We cut out the early nap and decided that we wouldn't get her from her crib until 5:30 (CIO). She cried every morning for several days and it was tough. Eventually she adjusted to the 5:30 wake up. Over the next few weeks, we pushed it back a little more until we got to 6 (where we are now), a time that works well for everyone. Good luck! |
Anonymous
|
When my son was 9-10 months, he started waking up around 5:30 am, which was just too early for us. What worked for us was:
-Room darkening shades -A slightly later bed time (used to be 7:30, pushed to 8 pm) -Limiting naps to no longer than 3 hours per day. At that time he was taking 2 naps per day, so we just made sure the two together were no longer than about 3 hours (exceptions applied of course during illness). It took a few days, maybe even a whole week, but soon he was back to waking up around 6/6:30 am. I definitely recommend trying to move your son off the two naps if possible, but I know it'll be hard to give up that morning nap when he wakes up so early. But when my son transitioned down to just one nap around 14 months old, his morning wakeup got much later-- like around 7/7:30 am where it still is at 20 months. Hope that helps! |
Anonymous
We do this too with our 4-month old. It works like magic. He wakes up at 4:30am or 5am, and when I put him in bed with DH and I, he immediately falls back to sleep for a couple more hours. I will also (sometimes) change and feed him in the transition. I love bringing him to bed with us, and I actually look forward to it every morning - even though i'm probably setting the stage for a bad habit. |
Anonymous
| We do the same as 11:05, and so far, our 5-mo-old DS has been very adaptable - he'll nap with us or happily start the day. (On the days he naps early, he'll nap less later in the day, but it doesn't seem to affect that night's sleep at all so I guess it evens out...) |
Anonymous
|
No cure.
Just prayers. And lots of coffee. |
Anonymous
| did you try light blocking shades? |
Anonymous
|
My DS is another early riser...but, (knock on wood) he's been better lately (wakeups around 6am not 4:30/5 which was incredibly painful). We tried bringing him to our bed, room darkening shades, later/earlier bedtimes. I think what actually helped is when he migrated to 1 nap a day on a regular basis. He was around 12 months when the painfully early wakeups started and about 18 months when they stopped. Maybe it;s the whole migrating to 1 day a day thing that causes it? Anyway, there is hope that yours will outgrow it too! best of luck.
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Anonymous
| I agree w/ eliminating the morning nap and going to one nap a day. Also, try pushing the bedtime later. Around 7:30 or 8. My son goes to bed at 9 and gets up between 6:30 - 7, and that's early enough for me! |