19 mo awake in the early hours laughing and chatting - any advice?

[Dorchies]

For several months, our 19 month old DD has been waking up in the early hours of the morning. We hear her laughing, screaming (joyfully), talking and playing. She is completely happy. This can last for up to 4 hours! We have tried cutting out her naps in the day, and this doesn't seem to make any difference. We rarely go in to her, but when we have, she lies down as requested, but the party resumes as soon as we leave!

Our walls are paper thin and it's keeping us, and possibly the neighbours, awake most nights.

Has this happened to anyone else? We thought it would pass, but has been going on now for several months.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

God don't complain. I regularly hear 'Bob the Builder' sung at 4am.

So long as she's happy it's her business what she does after lights out. Get yourself some earplugs. I'm sure the neighbours don't hear her but if they do - so what, she'll grow out of it in a few months.

I was going to suggest that if she is happy then just ignore her, but I see that is not very helpful, lol!
Not sure what more you can do really. Hopefully an experienced person will pitch up shortly...

My dd used to do that, would hear her saying 'mummy, daddy, grandad, grandma, daisy, iggle piggle etc etc'. Now she just screams 'mummy cuddle NOW'.

Make the most of it. LOL

My first ever Mumsnet thread was on this very topic!

DD1 did this for a while at almost exactly the same age as yours. I used to resort to sleeping on the sofa until I bought some earplugs. Then, like most other things, it passed (DD2 will be hitting that stage soon, hurrah!)

I think they are really gearing up vocally at that stage and nighttime is when they consolidate their learning. In fact I read something on kellymom.com recently that explained how there are particular developmental leaps (learning to crawl, walk, form sentences) that lead to sleep disruption for a short period.

The main thing is to keep up your sleep- get those earplugs, and don't worry about the neighbours, they will not be "tuned" to her in the way you are and so are v unlikely to wake up.