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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

Waking at 4am ..... yawn

20 replies

Slave2Babe · 02/07/2005 11:55

DD is now eight months old and has recently started waking at 4am - sometimes 5am - at which time she is ready to get up and start the day!

I've tried everything to try and get her to go back to sleep but nothing works.

She goes to bed at 7pm and wakes for a feed at about 11pm ... then sleeps through til 4am.

Is this just a phase? Any suggestions how I can get her to sleep through to a more reasonable time of day? I'm exhausted.

OP posts:

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suzywong · 02/07/2005 11:57

many many sympathies, I know precisely how dull this is

a) it is a a phase all children are obligtated to go through IME
b) put her to bed at 7.30 and shif the feed to 11.30..you never know

Slave2Babe · 02/07/2005 12:05

a few days ago she was waking at 6am and for some reason for the last couple of mornings its shifted to 4am! i havent done anything different with her routine. she doesnt seem to be teething at the moment and in the daytime, we play lots to wear her out!

i'll try your suggestion suzy.

is she too old to be waking for a 'dream feed'??

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suzywong · 02/07/2005 12:16

I personally don't think she's too old no, but you could try and cut it out if you are feeling hardcore enough and this is something you want to do.

It's such a drag isn't it, hope she sorts herself out before you go bonkers ( I 've been sent bonkers by it with both my kids)

bandbsmum · 02/07/2005 12:34

My dd was 8 months yesterday and is doing exactly the same. She wakes for feed bet. 11.30 and 12.30, then wakes any time between 4 and 5 am. This morning I fed her at 4am and she did go back to sleep in her cot, but then woke again at 5am, so brought her into our bed where she did nod back off after a quick suck on the breast! (She won't normally go back off in our bed!), but she was wide awake again by 7am. I went out last night and got in at 12,when she promptly woke for a feed, but dh had already been up to her twice before that to settle her! We did cc at 6 months and that worked to get her to fall asleep by herself, but it hasn't stopped her waking up in the night. I want to stop the midnight feed, but we're going away in 3 weeks, so have decided it's probably best to wait till we get home again to get tough. I know I've not been any help, but just wanted you to know you're not alone!

Slave2Babe · 02/07/2005 13:33

Thanks!

DD has a spare bed in her room, so i did try snuggling up with her at 4am but she just wasnt interested in a feed ... and was just so active I was worried i'd fall asleep and she'd fall out the bed! So we had to get up!

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bandbsmum · 02/07/2005 13:51

Lets both hope it's just another "phase"!!

Slave2Babe · 02/07/2005 15:02

Her whole life is a series of "phases!"

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mum2max · 02/07/2005 21:04

I stopped the dreamfeed when ds was 6.5mth. I was waiting for him to wake but he didn't!!! I shifted the dreamfeed forwards by 15 min or so each day and reduced the amount slightly. Until the last one was at about 9.30 and only about 2 oz. Not really worth keeping it going then.

your dd should be fine to stop dreamfeed if solids are well established. and she finishes the day on a bottle (my ds has anywhere between 5 and 7oz milk before bed at 7pm)

as for middle of night feeds, ds hasn't had one for about 2 months now (he's now 7.5mth). He llikes his dummy so that kept him occupied long enough for him to fall asleep. I've heard water does the trick.

hope that helps

Slave2Babe · 03/07/2005 07:17

YAWN .... well DD slept better in the night. Was asleep about 8pm and woke at 2am for a feed. I tried water but she got and only settled after a proper feed.

She woke up again at 5am and I did get her to drop of again. But we were up again at 5:45am ....

OP posts:

suzywong · 03/07/2005 07:21

snap
we were up at 5.34

but only because ds2 has the chickenpox.

Glad it went better this morning

Slave2Babe · 03/07/2005 07:33

yeah. missing the 11pm feed did mean she woke at 2am rather than 4am but at least she then slept til 5am then ... and 5:45am is an improvement altho my body doesnt think so at moment!

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bandbsmum · 05/07/2005 09:31

Had a terrible weekend with my dd's nights but much better last night. Think her problem is usually overtiredness, but she had much more sleep in the day yesterday (only possible because didn't have to pick ds up from school as he was going to a friends for tea). Then last night she slept from 7pm till 3am. I fed her then, but things went a bit wrong after that! She woke again at 4am and at 4.30am, but was able to settle her again without picking her up, but then she woke again at 5am, so rather than bringing into our bed, which I normally do and she won't normally settle I gave her another quick bf and she went back to sleep till 6.20am (Heaven!!)

Slave2Babe · 05/07/2005 09:48

Glad you had a better night last night.

I dont remember how many times or when DD woke last night! She went to sleep really easily at about 7:30pm - she was so tired we skipped the bath and just had a quick wipe and brush of the teeth.

She woke as I was getting ready for bed at about 11pm and again at about 3am. I slept in her room on the single bed with her some of the night and at one point woke up to her helping herself!!

She woke at 4am and i too managed to get her back to sleep with a bf until about 6am.

I spoke to a girl at a toddler group we go to. Her DS is about the same age and she is going through this too ... so i'm still hoping the restlessness is just a phase!

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bandbsmum · 05/07/2005 09:54

I was prepared to take my pillows and sleep on the floor in dd's room last night if necessary, but fortunately it didn't come to that. I'm going to be out and about a lot today, so just hope she'll be able to fit in a long day-time nap at some point. DS has karate straight after school, and we have to hang around the school for half an hour waiting, she used to sleep in her buggy when he 1st started, but now she wants to play with the toddlers waiting for their big brothers and sisters - she's just so nosy!

Slave2Babe · 05/07/2005 10:01

haha ... i have a very nosey little dd too ...

she has to be involved in everything! i often have envelopes to stuff for work (we do mailings for car dealers and estate agents - the smaller volume ones we just do ourselves to keep costs down) which i bring home to do on my work-at-home days ... i end up having to do them when she has gone to bed else all the letters and inserts get baba'd!

haha so if you ever get a mailing from an estate agency with a gooey letter or chewed envelope - its probably one that dd has 'helped' with!

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littlerach · 05/07/2005 10:30

DD2 did this for about 6 weeks, now she has stopped and I look much better!

We tried to just leave her to it, as we felt that if we got up it would encourage her to keep doing it.

She was about the same age .

monkeytrousers · 07/07/2005 18:53

My nine month old ds has been doing this for weeks now. He lulls us into a false sense of security sometimes by sleeping to 6.30 but the next night we pay for it. Up at 3 or 4 and ready to play.

I stopped feeding him thru the night about 3 weeks ago and giving him some rice cakes immediately before bed as a kind of supper. He's a good eater and is a very big boy anyway, so he isn?t doing without. I'm going demented though. He's really bad a settling at 1st bedtime too. He seems to have just lost the capacity to go to sleep on his own.

Night before last I crawled into the cot with him!

Is it really just a case of waiting it out? Oh god...

Bensonbluebird · 13/07/2005 19:33

My DS is 6mo and currently waking at 4.30 am too - wants to play for an hour and a half or so and then back to sleep. I'm just considering trying to get him started on a routine of day time naps 'cos he is a bit all over the place during the day - rarely sleeps for longer than 3/4hr and is usually still a bit tired when he wakes up. I think this may be connected to his early waking. Problem is that he seems to wake up at a different time each day so I don't know where to start! Are all these other early birds on nap routines? do they sleep well during the day?

Calmriver · 13/07/2005 20:43

Dd started doing that too, but I refused(she was in our bed) to get up, or aknowledge she was even awake....she got over it really quickly!

monkeytrousers · 13/07/2005 20:54

Ds used to have 3 naps a day at the same time like clockwork. All gone out of the window since early waking. Just have to stay vigilant to the signs. He's on 1 or 2 a day now, sometime for 20 mins or today for 2 hours!

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