Help me change my dds early waking!

[jobrum]

Ok, I know everyone would like a bit of a lie in! My dd is 13 months and for a few months now she has been waking up most mornings anything from 4:30 – 6:00am but she isn’t awake for the day. I can sometimes settle her really quickly but usually it can take a long time (half an hour +) to get her to settle again and she will often wake up quickly, needing further settling.

It’s not really a problem before 5am but for example this morning, she woke briefly at 12:30am and then again at 5:20. I managed to get her back into her cot at 6:15 and then I had to go in and wake her up at 7:30 to get ready to go to nursery.

On days when she doesn’t wake up like this, she sleeps till around 7 and wakes up happy and ready for the day. I have tried getting her up and dressed when she wakes up very early but she is sleepy and overtired and then her morning nap is both early and difficult as she is too tired to get to sleep. And obviously its horrible for me – this morning I had my alarm set for 6:10 but have been up since before half five!

I really want to change this pattern. She naps well during the day and we recognise her sleepy cues. She goes to bed around 7pm, when I take her up for bed can vary by 15 minutes but she’s pretty much always asleep by 7:30. We have a routine of sleeping bag, book, feed, falling asleep. The only solution I can think of is to set an alarm for myself and wake her slightly at about 4ish (is this called wake to sleep?) to see if this would make a difference. Neither of us want to be awake at 5:30 in the morning!

Does anyone have any tips?

[BugPlaster]

I have tried the wake to sleep thing but that's to almost wake them shortly before they would normally wake so they can get into a deeper sleep and not wake at their normal time - if your child is waking at many different times, that won't help.