Sleep lady shuffle for early mornings

[bananapancakes]

I'm back doing the SLS. I'm super committed to it and it is going pretty well. I've stopped nursing to sleep and night weaned. Two weeks ago he was waking up 4-5 times a night and now he's down to 1-2 and goes back to sleep fairly quickly MOTN but the early morning is still a bitch. He's been waking for the day between 4:00-5:00 for about 4 months now. Prior to starting the SLS, I was getting him out of his crib and nursing him in bed. He'd fall back asleep about 50% of the time and the other half he'd just be ready to start the day. It is/was miserable.

I've set 5:30 as our wake up time and haven't been getting him out of his crib until that time. The last few days, he has been awake around 4:15 or 4:30 as usual and I just resume my SLS position (I'm in the hallway outside his room right now) and just shush him. He sometimes nods off briefly but resumes fussing/crying after a few minutes. This can go on for an hour or more. Sometimes at 5:30 he is sleeping and sometimes he is not. If he's not, I go away for a minute, come back and do our grand production morning routine (turn off sound machine, open curtains, while singing brightly). I then nurse him and we start our day.

Today it was about 4:40 when he was awake and I was back in bed at 4:44. He woke for the day at 5:31. 

I think it's sort of starting to work. I know the book says that this is the hardest wake up to get rid of. I just wanted to hear from others how it went for you. How long did it take to get your LO sleeping longer in the morning? I would be thrilled with a consistent 5:30 wake up time, especially if he was STTN. I hope to be a success story like those in the reformed crappy sleeper thread! One day!

[zarapipe]

Following. Right now the baby gets up at 530 the nurse and I nurse her and put her back down for another hour. I refuse to cut that session!

[dcn]

I did this successfully with Ds. Keep at it! It took a few weeks but eventually he starting waking consistently at 6:30 instead of 5 or earlier.

[Deleted]

DS2 is an early riser, and we have been mildly successful at moving his wakeup time to 6:45 most mornings, where it was 5:30 ish. I do think some of it was age related for my DS, but we tried to be better about not going in when he first woke up. We would usually give it 5-10 minutes. When that time was up, I would go in and turn on his FP sea horse thing and go back out. Made sure that no lights were on when I went in, and I stayed silent. He would sit there and turn the seahorse back on and eventually it started putting him back to sleep. We also have him down to 1 nap a day, which helped as well.

[MNH2013]

Can I hijack for a similar question?

M goes down in her crib at night but wakes up after a few hours. We used to just bring her automatically to our bed. I have been trying to get her back down but she fights it so much that she wakes up all the way. Any tips to help her back down? H wants to move her to a toddler bed. We occasionally will get a fluke night and she STTN.

[bananapancakes]

panicfoot, that's a great idea and one I had thought of but our Summer Infant monitor doesn't have a talk back feature unfortunately. I much preferred our Motorolla one but that one bit the dust a few months ago.

[MNH2013]

Aug 14, 2015 12:26:58 GMT -5 panicfoot said:

Aug 14, 2015 11:18:01 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

Can I hijack for a similar question?

M goes down in her crib at night but wakes up after a few hours. We used to just bring her automatically to our bed. I have been trying to get her back down but she fights it so much that she wakes up all the way. Any tips to help her back down? H wants to move her to a toddler bed. We occasionally will get a fluke night and she STTN.

If she's waking up and is upset, I definitely would not move her to a toddler bed. Ds is still in a crib and will be until he's 5? 7? Lol. Maybe there is some logic behind the theory that I'm missing?

We did the same thing for the first 20 months (crib then co-sleep / night nurse at first wake up) and I will say, nothing ever worked until we sleep trained :/ I tried SLS, night weaning, etc and nothing worked until we let him cry. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I would talk to him over the monitor when he woke up and after the first night, he STTN pretty consistently. 

When ds wakes up too early now (has to be a minimum of 10 hrs of sleep), I talk to him over the monitor and tell him it will be morning soon and to lay back down and I love him and he'll usually go back to sleep for another hr or so. Would that work for you bananapancakes?

Thank you! I have been thinking recently that maybe we try sleep training. While I would love for her to just STTN, I think it's that I put her to bed every night so she can't self soothe in between sleep cycles. These last few weeks we have been driving back and forth to the hospital, I forgot her pacifier twice. She cried herself to sleep on the way home. While it was hard to do I think it would be similar to how ST will be. (Though she wouldn't see me like in the car). Ugh feelings

[MNH2013]

Aug 14, 2015 13:48:13 GMT -5 panicfoot said:

Aug 14, 2015 13:42:57 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

Thank you! I have been thinking recently that maybe we try sleep training. While I would love for her to just STTN, I think it's that I put her to bed every night so she can't self soothe in between sleep cycles. These last few weeks we have been driving back and forth to the hospital, I forgot her pacifier twice. She cried herself to sleep on the way home. While it was hard to do I think it would be similar to how ST will be. (Though she wouldn't see me like in the car). Ugh feelings

It was not a fun few days, but we are all SO SO SO much happier! H and I have morning sex again! I make my bed and go for walks in the morning! Ds loves when I bring him back to bed with me when he wakes up in the morning and we cuddle and play. Above all, ds is better rested and much happier! I can't believe we didn't do it sooner!

Ahh morning sex, I had forgotten all about it! Do you still put him to bed at night and just ST the wakeup in MOTN? That sounds like a nice compromise if possible. We do bath, bottle, teeth and then I hold her until she's mostly asleep, then crib.