Morning Tantrums...

[Lizzer]

I have to write this down otherwise I'll pop. For the second time in as many days and the 4th time in a month dd (nearly 2) has woken much earlier than her usual waking time of 8ish. Its been more like 6am, but she doesn't seem ready to wake up at all. I often bring her into my bed for a cuddle which she loves, but on these occasions she starts immidiately having a huge screaming fit the minute she opens her eyes in her cot and bringing her into my bed or leaving her there doesn't seem to make the slightest difference. Today this tantrum lasted for over an hour and she certainly got beyond the point of knowing what she wanted. It ended up with us both crying our eyes out, probably through exhaustion. I really don't know what's causing these, please does anyone have any ideas or experience of this?

Incidently, she soon forgets them and today fell asleep for a couple fo hours, waking her normal bright eyed self. Its me who can't forget and I'm beginning to feel like zombie woman again...

Lizzer, my son has done this on occassion. God only knows whats upset him, but I'll bring him into our bed and suddenly out of nowhere a full blown tantrum erupts. I find it really difficult and it starts the day off on the wrong foot for all of us. dp & I both rush around, get him his bottle etc, and like your dd, sometimes it can really last a while. I'm afraid that I don't have any helpful advice as we've just had to grin and bear it really. It is most peculiar though and I've been putting it down to him not being ready to wake up/not woken up properly. I've never tried putting him back in his cot though perhaps thats an idea, maybe controlled crying techniques? Because its only happened occassionaly with us I haven't gone down that route yet.

HI Lizzer, You say this early waking has happened four times in the last month. The change in clocks - BST - may be partly to blame. Since the clocks changed, my 2 year old has switched his waking up from 8.00 am to 7.00 am on the dot. Sigh!

Also, do you think your daughter is sensitive to the darker mornings,and feels a little out of synch? And, is her room warm in the early morning - she could be waking up earlier because she has thrown her covers off and is cold.

Interesting...my daughter who is also nearly 2 (in fact I think your dd is a near-xmas baby too Lizzer, am I right?) has just started waking at 5.30 after normally sleeping through til 8am. Its a killer isn't it, especially when you're not used to it! For the last 3 nights she's woken around 5.30 and called for a cuddle and a book. The first 2 nights I did it as it was so unusual I thought she might be ill. After she's had a cuddle and a quick story she's quite happy to go back to bed. But she did it TWICE last night, once at 2 and once at 6am. At 6am I put my foot down and just soothed her and patted her back, said 'night night, its not day yet, its time for sleep' and left the room. Well, she went utterly hysterical, and I stood outside agonising for about 40 seconds before I dashed back in for a cuddle, after which she was happy to go back to sleep. my theories are: she might be having a nightmare, in which case I'm happy to cuddle. She may be cold, so tonight I'm putting an extra blanket on. Or, she normally has a 2 hour sleep in the middle of the day and I'm wondering if thats too much so she only had an hour today...will keep you posted. My little bunny is also jolly and bright eyed at 8am, unlike mummy who now looks about 103 years old.

Enid and Lizzer, similar here too. I have now decided to limit the afternoon sleep to 1 hour 15 mins and that seems to be helping. He goes to sleep better in the eve and wakes after 6.30am as opposed to much earlier! Still early days but so far so good. Lizzer we had a really bad screamy/hysterical night on Sunday, he ended up sleeping with us (something he NEVER does) and he now has a heavy cold. So maybe he had headache or was feeling generally unwell. Maybe the same at your end?

Ah-ha, I've been having a little investigation in dd's mouth and guess what?! Two back molars bursting to get through so I think that may have caused it, though she didn't appear to be in pain. I had a much better night last night (she slept til 8.45 - amazing!) and I did tell her that she has to be a good girl and sleep until the morning before kissing her goodnight (like she understood what I said )

I think you might be right Tigermoth, she is sometimes cold when she wakes up that early as heating doesn't come on til 7. That said and as she's a great duvet kicker-off I dress her in her pyjamas and then a fleecy all-in-one to try and combat the problem, but who knows...

Thanks for your responses Ems, Enid and Jessi, I'm glad to know I'm not on my own...
I was wondering about cutting down naps too, but sometimes she still seems to need a good 2 hours, sometimes she'll be happy with 30 mins. Still, I have my fingers crossed she won't do it tomorrow morning I suppose I'll have to wait and see. Am thinking of investing in some more teething gel (though I really thought I'd got past that stage) Do you think its worth giving calpol or the like? I'd hate to think she was suffering but don't like spooning it in her at every available opportunity, not sure if this warrants it...

Lizzer, we decided that ds was clearly in pain when many of his teeth were cutting through and started by giving calpol. However, at about the two years old stage, the calpol seemed so effective that he was almost buzzing for a couple of hours after taking it. my sister said she had found the same problem with her sons and had used other painkillers - we now tend to only use medinol when ds is in need of pain killer.

I agree that it is difficult to decide whether sometimes, we were giving the medicine to benefit ds or because we just wanted him to sleep. However, as ds went through at least two weeks of vomiting and colds with each tooth and was totally refusing to eat any food for a week with each molar - we decided that the primary reason for medication was for his benefit although we appreciated the benefits to exhausted parents too!

Anyway, I hope your daughter returns to her old sleeping pattern soon.

My ds 18 months does the same thing on accasion and it is an awful start to the day especially these cold mornings. Around the time of daylight saving it was awful as i thought I'd never get him back into a sleeping routine.I did consider waking him up durin his afternoon nap but then he's Really, really grumpy for the rest of the evening. the last time it happened at 5am I gave him chamomile teeting powders a big cuddle and the popped him back to bed and he slept again.