How the hell do I stop my son waking early

gowayouttadat

My man is 11 months. He is a great lil baby but wakes early every morning! It doesn't matter what time or how long he naps for, what time he goes to bed at, he always wakes around 6am. I can't keep this up when I go back to work.
He's on two naps a day. I can't reduce it to one or he ends up completely over tired and fights sleep and wakes lots during the night. I've tried putting him to bed later and it doesn't work.
I've tried having an "up time" of 7am. It's now 25 past 6 and he's awake since 6am but I haven't picked him up even though it's breaking my heart. Nothing works with this child!!

Poly

In my experience you can't, my little girl is up at dawn, regardless of what time she goes to bed.

Qwerty?

Poly wrote: »

In my experience you can't, my little girl is up at dawn, regardless of what time she goes to bed.

+1 on that, even thou they had a bit of lie in until 7 this morning :cool:

Poly

Try some black-out blinds or curtains, you might get an extra half hour.

Tabnabs

Babies have an inbuilt alarm clock that goes off at 6am didn't the hospital tell you that?

The only solution is to go to bed earlier yourself.

January

Yep... to be honest don't think there's anything really you can do... some toys in his cot to play with while you catch an extra hour/half hour may be the best soloution...

I have one little girl (18 months) who likes to wake between half five and six every morning without fail and then my 4 month old wakes at 9... it's just their body clock telling them they have had their fill of sleep.

Khannie

Poly wrote: »

Try some black-out blinds or curtains, you might get an extra half hour.

Blackout blinds / whatever you call that stuff you put on the back of the curtains made a huge difference for us. Got us an extra 40 minutes to an hour.

Kimono-Girl

Honestly i do not think there is anything you can do! my baby sister used wake me up every morning spot on at 6am years ago and now my daughter wakes up at 6am, no matter what time bed is or how tired she is!

one thing im grateful for is better early morning radio this time around!

nanook

It should get easier ad they get older. I have that problem with a 2,5 yo. Six every morning and full of life.
It does get easier. Maybe going to be earlier will work.

littlebug

Now at the age of 5 my early riser occasionally sleeps til 7am. Nothing ever made a difference (black out blinds, earlier or later sleep times). It's just the way his little body clock is wired. 5.45 am was his waking time for a long time I just ended up going to bed earlier myself. I hope you get luckier.

pug_

Hate to say it but there may be nothing you can do. Our little man is 4 now and he still wakes anywhere between 5.30am and 6.30am. We tried everything over the years from blackout blinds, to going to bed later, tiring him out with exercise, changing the times when he eats, a fancy alarm clock that lets him know when it's okay to get up, trying to get him to lie in with us in the bed in hopes he'd fall asleep and we might get an extra half hours sleep, and probably a few other things.

Nothing worked, absolutely nothing, he's just an early riser and we've just learned to accept it. The only thing that works for us is going to bed around 9am so we can get a reasonable amount of sleep, which means we now have zero social life because we're knackered by 10 every night but that's another story.

The funny thing is he shares a room with his little sister and they both go to bed at the same time, she sleeps till 8am.

Tabnabs

I can pretty much guarantee blackout blinds won't work. Right through the deepest darkest winter mornings the 6am alarm call went off in his head and up he popped!

gowayouttadat

Ya blackout curtains didn't work. I actually have blackout curtain and blackout lining velcroed around his window frame! So it's not the light!

I actually don't feel as bad now that so many ppl have the same thing going on! All I keep hearing is all these babies who sleep 8-8 or 7-7 and this fella just will not do it. He sleeps a good 10+ hours at night so I know I should be very grateful for that!

I don't mind too much at the mo cuz I hop back into bed when he goes for his morning nap but dreading going back to work with such an early start every day! I go to bed early but find myself waking then around 4am and struggling to get back to sleep.

Also hate giving small man to my parents overnight when he's up at the crack of dawn like that

BostonB

Some just wake early. Thankfully ours don't.

I think its the day/night people thing.

Dublin_Gunner

What way was the baby fed? On demand, or the every 3 hours jive?

I have a 5 month old girl, and she sleeps from around 9 to 9 every night. (has done since about 7 weeks old).

I know thats not the norm, and we're extremely lucky. We fed on demand. Sure, sometimes it can mean 2 bottles in an hour, but she cut out the middle-of-the-night bottles herself.

However, my sis had a baby a little after ours, and she feeds him every 3 hours regardless. Needless to say, thats now his routine, and he wakes at 4.30 every morning, and I'd say he will for quite some time.

I'm a firm believer that feeding routines can help with the whole sleep thing.

Maybe I'm wrong, but worked for us

Khannie

pug_ wrote: »

Our little man is 4 now and he still wakes anywhere between 5.30am and 6.30am.

Oh.

My.

God.

itsasecret

we are in the same boat with our 11 month old son..

The one and only time he has slept past 6 was the night my husbands folks minded him and the lovely little dear slept till 7.... I could have killed him. My inlaws now treat me like i make it all up....

Dublin_Gunner

itsasecret wrote: »

we are in the same boat with our 11 month old son..

The one and only time he has slept past 6 was the night my husbands folks minded him and the lovely little dear slept till 7.... I could have killed him. My inlaws now treat me like i make it all up....

lol ha ha ha!! I know, they'd make a liar out of you!!

BostonB

We've found girls to be easier than boys. A boy is likely to be bigger, heavier, need feeding more, be more hungry and perhaps more wind. That said one boy was a good sleeper the other is brutal. Even at almost 3 he still has us up on a regular basis. Boys may also have a bit more fireworks in them. The one girl on the other hand slept all night pretty much straight from birth. That said other people I know have had the opposite experience.

They are all different.

January

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

What way was the baby fed? On demand, or the every 3 hours jive?

I have a 5 month old girl, and she sleeps from around 9 to 9 every night. (has done since about 7 weeks old).

I know thats not the norm, and we're extremely lucky. We fed on demand. Sure, sometimes it can mean 2 bottles in an hour, but she cut out the middle-of-the-night bottles herself.

However, my sis had a baby a little after ours, and she feeds him every 3 hours regardless. Needless to say, thats now his routine, and he wakes at 4.30 every morning, and I'd say he will for quite some time.

I'm a firm believer that feeding routines can help with the whole sleep thing.

Maybe I'm wrong, but worked for us

We've a 4 month old who sleeps 7pm-9am every night and she is fed 3 hourly in the daytime! So it doesn't always mean that a baby fed by routine will always wake for a bottle early!

Oryx

*This may not be good parenting*:)

I used to bring my kids into the bed with me when they woke at stupid o'clock. Bottle of milk and kids tv used sometimes get me another half hour. Its not ideal, but needs must, its funny how you end up doing the things you swear youll never do when the reality of children bites! I did sometimes wake up to find that the toddler had trashed the room, so youve got to decide which you want more, sleep or a tidy room.

gowayouttadat

Oryx wrote: »

*This may not be good parenting*:)

I used to bring my kids into the bed with me when they woke at stupid o'clock. Bottle of milk and kids tv used sometimes get me another half hour. Its not ideal, but needs must, its funny how you end up doing the things you swear youll never do when the reality of children bites! I did sometimes wake up to find that the toddler had trashed the room, so youve got to decide which you want more, sleep or a tidy room.

Totally!! I've done it with ds but he ended up waking earlier and earlier cuz he knew he'd get a bit of bottle and my bed! Got to 4.30am and I had to stop giving him the bottle and taking him into my bed when he woke!

20goto10

Put the cot in a different room and leave him unless he is crying in distress. My little lad (5 months) wakes up but all you hear is him playing with his stuffed animals or coo'ing. He usually falls back asleep. Nothing wrong with leaving him for an hour until you're ready to get up yourself. As I say though, I wouldn't leave him crying!

BostonB

20goto10 wrote: »

Put the cot in a different room and leave him unless he is crying in distress. My little lad (5 months) wakes up but all you hear is him playing with his stuffed animals or coo'ing. He usually falls back asleep. Nothing wrong with leaving him for an hour until you're ready to get up yourself. As I say though, I wouldn't leave him crying!

That only works if they don't have lungs like an elephant and wake everyone else in the house, other kids and babies etc.

Melion

Could he be hungry?
We were having the same problem with Caoimhe, she was waking at half 5. We started giving her a bottle (3-4oz) at about 12 o'clock. She sometimes stays asleep til half 8 or 9. Mostly its about half 7 though

Fittle

Kills me to tell you but my son still wakes at 6.30am on the dot every morning, rain, hail or shine. Has black out curtains from the get-go.

It also kills me to tell you that he's now 8.

However, nowadays he'll read a book or start playing with toys until he hears me stirring.....

Mr. Presentable

I don't know why ye have a problem with this. In my day we had two hours done in the mines by that time........

Actually, I'd imagine it's hunger.

KingMambo26

One thing to bear in mind is that when you go back to work you'll probably will have to get up early (or earlier than before you had the baby) in order to feed him, dress him and get yourself ready for work. Our 1 yo wakes up at 6:30 which is bang on for the morning routine. Not so cool on Saturday and Sunday but that's another story

Rinker

Gotta agree with king mambo. it takes quiet a while to get a baby ready for creche. you may need to be up close to that time. not yet lucky for you. We had same problem. black out blinds got us an extra half hour.

gowayouttadat

Thanks everyone for the replies. It probably is hunger. He's a big enough baby.
20goto10, he is in his own room and I've no problem leaving him whinge away but after ten minute he starts roaring the place down. I've actually tried leaving him and so go, he just roars.

Melion I happen to have the windiest/reflux baby ever so I can't feed him at midnight or even at 6am when he wakes because he will not settle properly afterwards. This morning he woke at 6 and I knew he wasn't ready to be up so tried giving him 4 ounces and letting him fall asleep again but he was so windy that he couldn't even settle in my arms and i'd to get him up. Once I got him up he burped twice and he was wide awake at that stage.

Fittle, please god tell me I don't have one of those! I'll be sending him downstairs with the remote control I'd say!

KingMambo, ya I think he'll need to be up by 7am when I'm back at work so if I could get him to that stage it'd be fine.

Martina05

My 8th month old is exactly the same, although I'm actually grateful for the 6am start, as until recently he woke 3/4 times a night, often inconsolable. What I've started doing lately is bringing him into bed with me when he wakes at 6. He cuddles in and sleeps till at least 8. Probably not the best idea but at least I get an extra 2 hours, & I enjoy the cuddle!!