Early early wake-up

My guys (7 months old) go to sleep at 6:00. I've tried to make it later but they are sooo tired by then. So they wake up at 5:00...well...they used to. Now it's more like 4:30 or 4:00. They are just awake at that time. I have tried to let them cry themselves to sleep but they just cry for the half hour or hour until I say it's morning and take them out of their cribs. What good is that? They aren't learning to put themselves to sleep, they are just learning if they cry long enough, I'll get them. But, sheesh, these 4:00 mornings are killing me! And none of the suggested schedules in sleep books and such work for us because they've already finished their first nap by the time other kids are just waking up. I know HSHHC says to try to get them to bed earlier if you want them to sleep later but they are getting 10-11 hours of sleep and I can't imagine establishing a bedtime before 6 - plus I wouldn't even see them by the time I got home from work.

Any suggestions,
Amelia

 

Are they waking b/c they are hungry? Mabye a quick bottle and they will go back down??

 

Mine would do this too.. the problem is its a vicious cycle. they wake up early, take a morning nap early, take all their other naps early and are ready for bed early. Can you try to keep them up 15 minutes longer and gradually work toward a 7pm bedtime which might result in a 5 or 6 am wake up time?

 

QUOTE(Leighann @ Jan 16 2008, 11:05 AM) [snapback]574898[/snapback]
Mine would do this too.. the problem is its a vicious cycle. they wake up early, take a morning nap early, take all their other naps early and are ready for bed early. Can you try to keep them up 15 minutes longer and gradually work toward a 7pm bedtime which might result in a 5 or 6 am wake up time?


hmm mine wake up at 5 and it kills me, when they do a 4pm i just bring em in the bed keep binkie in mouth and tryto sleep.. they wake up causethey hungry i like the quick feed idea pp gave

 

My guys have always woken up around 4 or 5 hungry, but if I keep it dark and quiet - don't even change the diaper usually, I can convince them to go back down. (I'm sure I just jinxed something) It's new for them to wake only once, and they still usually wake around midnight, too.

Do they wake at any other times in the night?

 

This may sound out there, but at 7 months one of my guys was waking up at 5 AM, 5:30 like clockwork and it turned out to be teething. I was going out of my mind trying to figure out what the problem was and then one day he opened his mouth and there were 4 new teeth coming in on the top. He did this again a few weeks ago and he got another tooth. If you can stand it, just leave them in their cribs until it is time for them to normally get them up. I would stick to your normal schedule as much as possible and it should even out. It really stinks in the meantime, though!

 

I am bad - mine are 7.5 months and still wake around 5:30 or so - I feed them quickly, only a few ounces and back to bed they go. THis morning they did that and woke at 7:15 for the day. I am starting to feel like I should rule out this one nighttime feeding but I find it much easier than listening to all of the moaning and groaning and fussing on the monitor.

Amy

 

Actually, mine wake up for a 3:00 feed and they go back to bed. When they wake up again and I take them out of their cribs, they often won't eat again for a couple of hours so I know they aren't hungry. It's been going on for well over a month and it's consistent so I don't think it's teething (one has 2 teeth with a possible 4 more coming by the looks of it but the other has no signs at all). On occasion they take a late nap and may stay up until 6:30 or 7:00 with no change to their morning wake up (darn it all anyways). I guess I see as I write this that 4 or 4:30 is their wake up time. Hopefully they'll grow out of it. It's nice to know that some others share my pain (although if anybody does have any other suggestions, bring them on!)
Thanks

 

Amelia,

My 8.5 month old daughters are on the same schedule as yours. They're always asleep by 6pm and they wake up sometime between 4:30 and 5. Like a PP suggested, I'm almost always able to do a quick meal (we do a full bottle), a quick diaper change, and then they go back to sleep within a 1/2 hour and sleep until 7 or 7:30. They only take two naps during the day, for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 10ish and 2ish. All told, they get between 14 and 15 hours of sleep a day, which I think is pretty normal.

I'm not a fan of the super early wake up time, but I haven't figured out how to change it. I tried keeping them up 15 minutes later one night, then 30 minutes later the next, but they still woke up at 4:30 and all it did was mean they got less sleep. So I gave up and we've been on this schedule for about three months.

 

Trish, I would kill to have them go back to sleep until 7. It sounds like heaven to me. today they slept until 4:20 instead of 4 and I was happy all morning - pitiful!