4:30am wake-up's -- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

[Java]

Why is he waking up so darn early??

WHY WHY WHY??!!!!!

I have tried rocking, nursing, co-sleeping, butt-patting -- 20% of the time it works. He'll go back to sleep until 6:30am. But most of the time he's awake. Not crying, just awake, roaming around in his crib until he gets bored and calls for me. If I don't get him, he'll start crying and I don't want his day to start like that - how rotten is that?

4:30am is pretty unreasonable to start day, isn't it? I don't think I'm being selfish for wanting to wait until 6:30am, even 6:00am. As it is, he's up at 4:30, then goes down for a "first" nap at 6:30. By then I'm wide awake and can't go back to sleep.

His usual bedtime is between 7:30 - 8:00pm. We're kind of stuck because he wakes up so early that he needs 3 naps otherwise he's going to bed at 5:00pm. Naps are between 2-3.5 hours apart, 90 minutes to 2 hours in length.

We've tried an early bedtime (7:00pm) and a late bedtime (9:00pm) - he still wakes up at 4:30am. I should say the range is between 4:00am -5:30am, with the usual being 4:30am.

What kinds of thing have you done to delay early morning wake-ups?

[miki]

Drop a nap. We are doing this right now and Kael is about the same age as Lorelei. She started getting up at 5am when we had gotten used to 6:30-ish. She had been having 2 naps with about 3-3.5 hours between naps. I started pushing the first nap later. It sucks because she was already getting tired by the usual time. After a couple of weeks of doing this, her 9am nap has become her 11am nap. She will sometimes take a catnap in the afternoon but usually just the one. And sometimes the one nap is too short so I force a second nap by taking her somewhere in the car. Since dropping a nap, her wake up time has been shifting back to the 6:30-ish realm. Still early but I'll take it any day over 5am. Good luck.

[AngelaS]

Actually, I start my days about 4:30, without kids tho! :D It's very quiet this time of day and I can excercise, surf the internet, do household things or whatever, all without being interrupted!! :D

Of course, I go to bed a bit earlier than most too.... :D

[ginalc]

We generally start our days between 4:30 and 5:00 too. Took me some time to get used to an earlier bedtime, but DH has ALWAYS been a morning person and now the kids are too. By 6:00 I'm generally doing breakfast dishes, sweeping the kitchen floor, finishing up my "to do list" and putting my 2nd load in the washer. I swear I get more done before 9:00 than I used to get done all day! :)

I would suggest, however, that you put him on a "daycare" sleep schedule throughout the day. Delay the morning nap until 9:00 and let him sleep 1.5 hrs. Wake him up and play, feed lunch, play some more, then keep him awake until 12:30 and put him down again. If he's not up by 3:30, wake him again. Bedtime will probably come around 6:30 but hold off until 7:00 if you can.

Good luck, and I hope you feel more rested soon! :)

gina, mom to 3
new baby due 5/05

[Jen841]

Earlier bedtime worked for us at Dr W's recommendation. 6:00 is his wake up time now, and only 1 day (daycare). He gets to bed between 7 and 7:30 normally.

I tried 7:30/8:00/8:30 hoping for a later wake up and it got earlier and earlier.

You need to do this 3 nights to see if it works.

Putting Jude to bed earlier kills me, but getting up regularly before 6:00 and kills me too. The earlier bedtime is good for him (brain developement my SIL says) so that is what we do.

[slknight]

DS has been up around 4:15 every day for a week now. I can't take it anymore! He's grumpy when he wakes up and I have to go in and get him.

We're on only 1 nap. I'm thinking of moving his bedtime even earlier than 7:00. Have you had any success with that?

[Java]

Well, I wouldn't call this a positive change, but he has started waking up later. Unfortunately, he's started waking up in the middle of the night again for several hours. ugh.

The past few nights he's been up from 11:30pm - 1:30am or 12:30am - 2:30am. With this "new" schedule he does sleep until 6:30-7:00am. Sheesh - I need to be careful of what I ask for!

I don't think it's teething as his teething cry is different, plus the minute I walk in his room, he lays back down to sleep. He just wants me with him as he's drifting.

So no real improvements. I've put him on a 2 nap schedule - 9am and 2pm. And shooting for a bedtime between 7-730pm. Meaning he's in bedtime nursing at that time. He actually falls asleep between 7:30-8:30pm. Weirdly, he's been taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R to fall asleep when before it would take him 15 minutes tops. I blame everything on the time change!

[jesseandgrace]

DS always woke up early, around 5:30. We wanted about six thirty, but there were many obstacles. Now that he is four, I can speak from experience :). First, he wanted to go to bed at six/six thirty because he was tired by then. However, because he didn't sleep as long as many this bedtime encouraged early waking. What worked was to get rid of the morning nap, go to one afternoon nap - about 12:30/1:00pm. That nap was around 2 hours. He started going to bed at about 7:30pm. This worked pretty well for him during those toddler years. Every child is a little different, but one thing I have found to be true is that too much napping during the day will make for a much earlier waking time.

I think that babies over one sometimes only need one nap. DD is down to one nap in the afternoon between 1 and 2 hours, and then 7:00pm bedtime and she sleeps until about 7. For her this is perfect, she is not tired or cranky. With DS I was continuing the two naps a day well past one, because he wanted it, and finally his day care provider told me I should drop it. I was skeptical, but it was the absolute right thing. I think sometimes babies substitute night sleeping with long naps. The only way to avoid this is to drop that extra nap!

[diekatze]

My DS did that when he was 11 months old(now he's 14 months). He was such a good sleeper from 4 months of age but all of sudden, he would wake up 3-4 times at night and some nights he wants to play for 2 hours(like 2-3 am...)

I've tries all kinds of stuff...I even tried CIO for the first time...It got rid of night wakings and even though he was up, he would go back to sleep on his own...

His normal wake up time is 5, 5:30... Bit early for us so I am working on getting him up at 7am... I am putting him to bed late, like 8pm...not 6...No success yet... He would wake up at 4:30ish...like your baby.

But as alot of people mentioned here, if he skips afternoon nap, he would sleep from 7 to 6am!!!

So I guess that's the key. I think I would try to push the morning nap to 11, 12ish... He's actually staying up little late till 10am anyways.

Good luck and if you get any other tip, please post it.