Another Early Riser

[Anonymous]

I’ve been reading both recent and past posts from other moms who have early risers. I also have an early riser and it has gone from being something I just accepted to something that is driving me stark raving mad .

Ethan started sleeping through the night at around 4.5 mos old. He would go to bed around 7-7:30 and wake promptly at 5 am. Actually, sometimes earlier, so once it became fixed at 5 am, I was grateful. At 4.5 mos, it seemed like a long time for him to go without eating, so I happily fed him when he awoke. Thankfully, after he ate and watched a Baby Einstein video (to keep him upright for a half hour), he almost always went back to bed for two more hours. Once he started going to his DCP, he still did this, but we had to wake him within 40 minutes of him going back to bed in order to take him there. Now, he just gets up at 5am and stays up. Often, you can tell he is still sleepy, but with the exciting onset of crawling, he is too wired to go back to bed.

I am not so much looking for advice (although I would very happily welcome it), simply because I feel like we’ve already tried everything to discourage this. Later bedtime, earlier bedtime, shortening daytime naps, focal feeding etc etc. His room is dark at 5 am and there are no outside noises. For one week, we did try holding off on his bottle for a half hour and that didn’t seem to have an impact either. What I really want to know is if any of you have experienced this with a child who just finally outgrew it on their own. I am holding on to that hope and am seeking others who can confirm it IS possible for this to miraculously end. If your early riser did start sleeping longer (out of the blue), at what age did this occur? Again, this 5 am waking is nearly about to kill me, as I’ve been living with it for six months. I am considering starting a new job, but am so haggard that I’m hesitant to do so.

HELP!

tillerlb2006-2-21 10:47:10

[Anonymous]

Hi Lara –

As you’ve probably seen some of my posts about Owen, we also have/had an early riser on our hands. He too goes to bed around 7/7:30 and no matter what we do, he was getting up around 5am. I’d say in the past month or so though, since he turned a year or a little after, he’s been sleeping later. Still not super late, but this weekend he slept past 7am both Saturday and Sunday – it was like heaven! This morning he got up at 6:30 – so he’s definitely getting much better. Owen was a 4:30/5am guy for a long time, but we don’t see as much of that anymore. It still happens sometimes, but we see more of the 7am wake ups than we ever had before.

I think it’s just been time that’s gotten him here. Of course now that I’ve told you that he’ll probably get up at 5 for the next week!!!

[Anonymous]

My little guy is 9 weeks olld and has been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks. He does however have a pretty late bedtime althpugh it is getting progressivly earlier, I put him in his bed at 9:45 and he grunts and flails his arms trying t o figure out how to go to sleep, he finally konks out betweem 10 and 10:15, wakes up at 5 to eat, then imeaditly falls back to sleep til 8 or 9…I know the bedtime is late, but I let him set his own schedule and he decided that’s when he wanted to go to sleep. My older son is 6, and has been waking up promptly at 7 since was around 18 mos old (except during the week, he gets up at 6 to get ready for school). They DO (usually )grow out of the 5 am waking thing (and I know that even though the little one sleeps good now his 5 am stage will come soon)Just hang in there!!!

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