Name: M
Cambridge, MA
Number of kids: 2
Ages of kids: 11 months, 3 years
Problem: Our 11 month old baby wakes us up every morning at 5:00 AM. It does not seem to matter when we put her to bed so we stay with 8:00 PM--her 3 yr. old sisters bedtime. When she wakes up she cries very hard (waking her sister with whom she shares a room) until I come and get her to nurse. We have tried Dr. Ferber's technique of not letting her take a morning nap until late morning, and we have tried not going in to her immediately (though this is harder so we haven't done it as much since it involves moving our 3 year old to our bed in the middle of the night so the baby's crying won't affect her. We have also tried getting her to drink more during the day. All to no avail. HELP!
Solution submitted by "Lori" from Middletown, NJ: I can sympathize with you completely!! My 11 month old daughter has been getting up between 5 and 5:30am since she has been sleeping through the night at 4 weeks. I thought I was lucky at four weeks that she was sleeping through the night, until I realized that 5am was the time she would get up everyday!! We tried keeping her up later, but we found out that no matter what time we put her in, she was up early. We also tried covering her windows with navy blue sheets, and not going in to get her for awhile, thinking that maybe she would fall back asleep. I felt seriously depressed that she was doing this every day, and everybody else was telling me that their babies sleep from 8pm to 8am, etc! That does not make you feel any better, I know!! So what we found out was that there was basically nothing that we could do about it! The good news is that in the last few weeks, she has been vigorously crawling and pulling up, and really tiring herself out. She has been sleeping until about 6am now, which is much more reasonable than 5am! Hang in there, and just thank God for a beautiful healthy baby! And don't be afraid to take a nap with him during the day!!
Another solution submitted by "Shaylah" from Columbus, OH: Hello. I know how you feel--my baby likes to go to sleep between 6-7 p.m. and gets up at 5 a.m. We've tried everything to keep her awake later, but we have been unsuccessful. Therefore I try and limit her naptime during the day so she sleeps longer at night. So my suggestion is to try and keep your baby up later or try shortening his naps during the day so he sleeps longer at night. Good Luck!
Another solution submitted by Jackie from Niagara Falls, ONT: I would have to agree with "daDee" that keeping the room dark helps a child to sleep later in the morning. My son would wake up early too (even if he went to bed at 10:00 p.m.) until my aunt bought some material and make some curtains for his room. She made them from a dark green heavy material (it may be brushed cotton) so the fabric and the colour combined help make it very dark. Now on most mornings, I have to wake him up!!!!! Worth a try?
Another solution submitted by daDEE from NJ: We have the identical problem! Only our 11 month old sleeps to 5:30 every morning giving us an extra 30 minutes. Ha! Think positive. Sleeping from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am for an 11 month old is great compared to some alternatives. We’ve played with the following to no real success, but perhaps you’ll fare better:
Good luck!
Please submit any more solutions.