4.30am and wide awake ready for the day to begin....Help

[cakeandwine]

Please, please someone tell me what I am supposed to do with a 2 year old DD who just doesn't seem to need sleep. Her days start anytime from 4.30am to 6am - usually 5/5.30. She is wide awake, ready to go, and nothing will get her back to sleep. I have an older DS and a younger DD who sleep well. But I can't cope with the lack of sleep anymore. DD has a maximum of hours sleep after lunch and then in bed asleep by 7.30. Usually sleeps through until morning, if she does wake up earlier (1-3am) then we lie her down in her bed, don't talk to her and she is back to sleep in a second. Come 4.30 - lie her down, and she is out of her bed in second, asking for books, milk, our bed, slippers.

well either stop her napping, or give her a later bedtime, or both! :-)

dvd in her room?

DS went through a faze (lasting about 8 months) of waking at 5, tried everything- no nap,later bed,earlier bed,blackout blinds etc. Nothing worked. It was hell.
DH and I took it in turns to put cbeebies on and lie on the sofa groaning! It gradually got later and he now wakes at 7am.
Sorry thats not helpful at all is it!

Got 12 week old - same idea. After midnight feed up five-ish and yippieeeehhhh. If we skip midnight feed then wee dote is up around three. And even though feeding throughout day, havig short nap-times and plenty stimiulation - still up at night.

Sleep deprivation has me in tears most of the time.

Hang in there - think of all mums up the same time somewhere in the country... GOOD LUCK.

cakeandwine - I feel your pain

2 years and 3 months old dd is like this. Until recently she was napping around 11 or 12, getting up by 1 at the latest, but she'd flat pan refuse to go to bed at 7/7.30pm, come out of her room every two minutes crying or asking for something. Last weekend it lasted for 4 hours...

And then she gets up between 4 and 5am!!! Gets into bed with me and just pokes me or talks or unpacks my bedside drawers.

It's been horrendous, ds slept from 8 - 8 or 7-7 since birth, and still sleeps happily. I never imagined a child could run on so little sleep.

So last weekend we put her into big girl bed (built bunkbeds) and her nap is now always over at 12 at the latest. And so far she hasn't done the getting out of bed thing when going to bed.

Getting into my bed however... was 3am yesterday! I moaned and put her back in hers and she went back to sleep. Was back in mine by six though. It's still been 5 most of the week.

Argh!!!!

Later bedtimes aren't an option. Ds needs his sleep and won't go to bed before her, and they have to get up at 6am when I'm at uni and it's too early for a late bedtime.

Thank you for your advice. I was thinking of stopping her nap in the day, but she is so tired I think it would be almost impossible. A cranky tired two year old is almost worst than 5am waking. With two other children as well it is difficult to give her later bedtime than everyone else, and to be honest she goes down like a little angel. I am sure it will pass, but some days it feels completely unbearable and hence my desperate post....

Our ds is just 3 so a little older but we've had this trouble for months now and have just bought one of those sleep time clocks (an ITNG one!) from Argos so you set the time that they can get up. We've put it a bit later every day and managed a 6.45 am today - magic! Shame ds2 is ill and up most of the night atm though!!