My 3yo DD has started waking, earlier, and earlier, and this morning it was 4am!!

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

WTF!

Seriously, her sleep has been wack for a few weeks, all over the place.

Her routine is normally is not too strict, but works well from about 6:30pm-7pm, bed for 7:30pm-8pm, sleeps through until approx 7am. Sometimes she wakes once in the night, sometimes she wakes a little earlier.

It is now completely out of the window. She started waking started waking earlier in the morning, just short of 6am. She was exhausted in the day, would fall asleep, and then she would often not sleep until 10pm, but still wake at 6am, then need a nap, and onwards goes the spiral.

Somehow, we managed to break it the night sleep. Not even sure how to be honest, but somehow we managed to avoid her having a nap about 3 days ago. She was very tired, and was in bed by 7pm. But she slept until 5:45am. Wide awake. But no nap in the day, and the next time went to sleep at 7:30pm.

Yesterday she woke at 5:15am , in the day we had to go out in the car. She slept for about 45 mins, but this was at 11am or so. She did some activity in the day, and was in bed asleep by 8:15pm, a bit later than normal but we guessed this might happen as she slept in the day.

This morning - she woke at 4am . She was not upset, although she said she did not like the dark walking from her bed to ours! In fact she was lovely, she was talking about Tinkerbell and how she would grow wings like her and we would all be proud of her, she cuddled me, she was so lovely. In the end we went into the front room on the sofa so she could fidget without disturbing both me and DH and carried on being lovely.

I eventually got her back to sleep for 2 hours at 5:30am, with a bottle of milk. She only has milk before bed now, and this has been true for a long long time. She still asks for it occasionally but does not apart from the rare occasion when we are exhausted, but not often at all. This morning I have to and say I offered it to her. She said she was hungry (has already bee given some water) but did not ask for milk. I was just so desperate to sleep, she was pleased and it was like a comfort to her, and she slept.

So, any ideas what on earth is going on and how I can sort her out? She is, apart from this, an angel, although not surprisingly her behaviour towards the end of the evening is a bit fractious as she is tired. She is a lovely, happy, well behaved little girl who does appear to be having a brain spurt if that makes sense?

Sorry for the usual ramble!

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

at 4:30am, she was talking to my bump and telling bump how he was going to sleep in her room and she would leave it clean for him and that we were going to decorate it in sparkles for him!

And she is being very very adorable now. She is playing with her bears and being so lovely with them.

We did actually have a lovely hour or 2 this morning before she went to sleep again, if it was not for the timing of it

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

Does no-one want to offer me at least a strong cup of coffee (which I cant drink in rl) and a little advice? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease? I got to go to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off sick and it will be v difficult with so little sleep!

[Dominique07]

Can you try doing some exhausting activity in the afternoon like swimming or ice skating or going for a walk, and then try to push bedtime to at least 8.30pm?

See if you can get her sleeping through till daylight?

[nevergoogledragonbutter]

Oh poor you. Nobody has any advice. With any luck she'll snap out of it soon.

Sorry, that probably doesn't help.

[mejon]

Can't offer any advice - but I feel your pain. My DD who is just about to turn 3 has been walking early like this for some months now. She's gone from being a child who'd sleep through all night until at least 7 to one who is now waking in the night - sometime several times - trying to come into bed with us and getting up ready for the day at unearthly hours. I put her back to bed and have to sit holding her had until she is asleep again. She was up 4 times in 30 minutes earlier in the week until I gave up and brought her into bed with us. She slept until just before 7 that day. It must be the comfort of being close to me/DH I guess but its not something I want to encourage. Having said that she has also woken 'early' when she's been in bed with us too. Left to sleep in her own bed, she's been waking anytime from 4.50 onwards, usually around 5.30-6. We moved bedtime to 8pm from around 7.15 but it doesn't seem to have made any difference - in fact the later she goes to bed the more likely it is that she'll wake even earlier. She hasn't napped during the day since around a year old so I can't even drop naps though she will nod off in the car quite often if we're out and about. Blackout blinds haven't made a jot of difference!

We have had some upheaval since the spring which may explain things - moved house, DD has started pre-school and is now in a bed rather than a cot. I'm hoping it is just a phase. We're getting around it by taking it in turns to get up whenever possible.

[OrangeKnickers]

come and join us on the early waking sleep thread. Misery loves company!

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

Dominique - problem is, no matter what time she goes to bed, it has not affect on the time she wakes. Never has for some reason. She has never been an 8am girl, but only ever earlier than 6:30am on occasion, rather than being regularly . She does do quite active things in the afternoon, swimming, on her new bike, we take her to play with other kids for a couple of hours. Makes no difference.

Orangeknickers - could you direct me to the thread please. I am drawn to misery for sure

mejon sorry to hear you are experiencing it too . DD has blackout blinds too, and she won't sleep in our bed, she gets distracted and fidgets too much and just won't settle, I wish she would as I like the idea of it!

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

She now wont go to sleep [arrrgh]

She is coming up with lots of reasons, and again being very cute and soft and vulnerable. These are the reasons she is coming up with not sleeping:

Tinkerbell fell in the ditch below her bed, and she cannot sleep as Tinkerbell is upset. Tinkerbell wants to go into mummy daddy bed.

She cannot sleep in mummy daddy bed as there is a monster under the bed. DH looked and reassured her its not there any more.

She has a tummy ache.

She is a princess and princess' don't need to sleep.

Its not night time yet.

• she is not yelling, or getting upset, she just gets back out of bed once she has been put down. She fell asleep in the car on way back from trip out, but we tried to keep her awake, and she slept for 10 mins (at about 4pm).

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

[mejon]

Oh dear - I can't imagine what it must be like to be going through this when you're pregnant and not feeling well either. How I regret being so proud that she's slept through for getting on for 2.5 years - it sort of made up for the lack of daytime napping. That'll teach me!

Coming into bed with us is fairly hit and miss though - if its getting close to waking up time (i.e. after 5) she'll just come in and wriggle, lie on top of me, stick her fingers up your nose, try to play with the cat - anything but go back to sleep. "Luckily" (ha!) the previous night's getting in with us was at around 3am when she woke up screaming in terror as I'd forgotten to put her nightlight on (nightlight... blackout blinds...?) so it was quite a fluke that she went back to sleep and stayed sleeping until DH's alarm went off at 6.45.

We've been to a birthday party this afternoon, done lots of running around and gone to bed later - absolutely knackered but took ages to go off with me holding her hand until she'd dropped off. I'm hoping this may mean a later start tomorrow.

[whocaresaboutyourintellect]

Sounds just like my DD. She has always been a 7pm - 7am child but then we moved house and things are really bad.

She goes to sleep at 8pm and by 10pm she is up and about. Then up several times throughout the night which wakes the other 2 children and then up by 5am without fail.

I am also pregnant and finding this unbearable.

We have stopped letting her sleep during the day but the more tired she is, the more unbearable her behaviour becomes.

I am hoping it's the upheavel of moving but it has been 2 months now.

[dotska]

hi all =
have similar problem with my son 9almost 4).
GP recommended a book by dr marc weissbluth which 2 of my friends also said they think is good.
he says in a nutshell that the most common cause of waking up too early ia bedtime that is too late. he recommends slowly making the bedtime earlier - 20 minutes for 4 nights to see if your child will fall asleep earlier and sleep in later. if this seems to help a little, prepeat the process with an additional 20 minutes ealier for 4 mights, and you can repeat this process until it becomes clear that your child no longer falls asleep easily and promptly.
This did work for me very well once, when my son was going to bed at 8 and i ended up with this process putting him to bed at 7. The book also shows some graphs wtih average sleep times and average go to bed times, for children of different ages, based on a sample of 100 children.
If that all sounds too complicated, i recommend a place called millpond sleep clinic, you can find them online, they are really great.