5am starts.. I am losing my mind

[Syra]

My DD is 16months old and for the past 6-7 months has woken pretty much every morning at 5am.

I’ve tried everything, blackout blinds, adjusting naps time, co sleeping, stopping co sleeping, feeding, not feeding.

Nothing has worked. Every single morning she is bright and awake and just up. I am broken. I barely get through post bed and dinner clean before I need to head to bed if I want to not feel like a zombie the next day.

Any magic tips welcome. Or even just stories from people who’ve been here and it eventually stopped and their child slept till 6am or dare I even hope.. 7am!

If anyone had a child who woke up at 5am till they were 4 or 5 years old… please don’t tell me. I can’t handle that prospect!

[Jannt86]

How rough for you! I'm not sure you're going to stop her waking but could you get her a toy that she can easily play with in bed with you? The melissa and doug fiddle board worked quite well for us. Otherwise could you put her the TV on in your bedroom for 1/2 hour or so. At least you might get a bit of chance to wake yourself up then. You might find as she drops naps and does more at nursery etc that she naturally sleeps more and eventually you'll be able to insist that at the very least she entertains herself until waking up time as she gets older. Do you have a partner to share wakeup duties with too? Hang on in there. It won't be forever x

[Syra]

Thank you. I really appreciate the reply. Unfortunately we have to take her downstairs so she doesn’t wake up her 3 year old brother.

Me and my husband do take turns though which is good. I gave him a lie in for the second day in a row today because he was out last night which is probably why I was feeling particularly sorry for myself this morning.

I will get that Melissa and Doug toy though. Maybe he’ll sit still for a while on the couch with me while I come to! Thank you.

[Donhill]

Hi op, my ds was like this and it was exhausting! When it slipped below 5, and started being 4.30 I just had to sort it.

Two things - you may know already, but there is a sleep section of MN. I didn’t realise for ages, so I thought I must be the only one struggling. But if you look through the sleep section this issue does come up so you may find some ideas there.

Secondly, what worked for us was sleeping on a mattress on the floor next to my ds, or trying to wake up just before his usual wake up time, and then going into his room (lying semi asleep on the mattress) and trying to sooth him back to sleep the moment he started to sound like he was coming into lighter sleep/waking up. In the hope that he wouldn’t wake up fully. This was on the assumption that they come into lighter sleep every 40 mins, so we were trying to sooth him into the next 40 min sleep cycle at least.

[countydown1989]

I could have written this! The last 3 mornings my son (18 months) has finally 'slept in' to 6 ish after doing just as your daughter does! I tried everything and nothing worked, I am sorry I can't give any advice, itll get better. I think my son has been teething a lot for months! It is so hard. I actually changed jobs to less stressful job at christmas and I do think the sleep deprivation exhaustion had a part to play.

[NewToDarkSpaces]

My son woke at 4:30/5 every day for 6 months. It nearly killed us but I am not a fan of sleep training so we didn't do anything. The good news is he's now 3 and sleeps through in his own bed, with no problem (apart from going to bed but that's another story!). I recently unearthed this article www.google.com/amp/s/sarahockwell-smith.com/2015/11/05/how-do-you-stop-early-morning-waking/amp/ which you may find interesting. Sending coffee and stamina!