So I'm just looking for advise really as I feel like I've tried everything and I'm at my wits end.
I stopped bf my little girl when she was about 15/16 months and she pretty much instantly slept through from 7/7:30pm-6:30/7am every night- it was bliss.
Before that when she was up bf in the night she naturally woke around 7/7:30 from a small baby so I don't believe that she's just an 'early riser'.
So about 18 months she started waking up multiple times in the night again, I have to hold her hand and she'll go back to sleep. It was rocky at 18 months because we had some nights she'd be up for 2 hours at a time. But she had just dropped down to 1 nap so I figured it'd settle down on its own as she adjusted.
She has a really solid schedule- lunch at 11:30am followed by milk, a book and down for her nap at 12:30pm. She only sleeps 1.5 hours- very rarely 1hr45, I also quite often have to resettle her halfway through her nap. (This is bizarre to me as her older sister napped 2.5 hours everyday at this age)
So the 2 hour wake spells in the night went away, and was replaced by 5am wakeups. She's also still up 3-4 times every night and will call mummy until I hold her hand- she goes straight back off but it's knackering.
She then gets up at 5am like clockwork, we've had a few 5:45/6am days and I've thought yes we've cracked it! Then the last two days it's literally been 4:40am. (She's almost 21 months now)
She also doesn't ask for breakfast until gone 6am so I don't think she's waking hungry either.
Things I've tried:
Locking in 12:30pm nap even with the early start to try and shift her body clock- didn't work, made her pass out at 11am on the sofa some days
Moving the Nap to 11:45am- also didn't work
Bringing bedtime earlier (6:45/7) if anything made wakeups earlier
Moving bedtime later (8:30pm)- she was still up at 5:30am then absolutely hysterical by lunch
She's also quite sensory so I've adjusted her sleepwear- was getting frustrated by sleepbags, HATED the toddler quilt, she now sleeps in a wearable sleepbag with legs which she likes.
She was in our bed but a month or so ago I put her in a toddler bed at the foot of our bed so she wasn't disturbed by us. She likes it but I have to sleep at the foot of the bed ready to settle her back off all night.
The rooms fully blacked out, black out blinds with black out curtains on top which have been pinned to the wall. She has the same white noise machine consistently playing all night that she's had since a newborn.
She sits up in bed saying 'uppp' from 5am so I put her in with me hoping she'll dose back off (she doesn't) and we don't get out of bed until closer to 6am.
Thank you for reading if you've made it this far. I'm so tired and I literally have no idea what to do.. has anyone made it out of this phase??