is there any cure for an early riser??

[sjcmum]

DD2 is 20 months, only been sleeping through for the last 3 months or so. Now wakes up on a good day around 5.30am, sometimes even as early as 4.30..... I'm exhausted. Any suggestions to help get her to sleep longer?

Is she waking up with the light?
If so, a black-out curtain may help.
Otherwise, maybe she is waking for hunger.
Could it be that a drink of milk would fill her up enough for her to go back to sleep for another hour or two?
Is she waking wanting to play? Would she stay in her cot if given toys with which to entertain herself?
Some children if left in their cots, even if they're not happy about it for the first day or two, will learn to go back to sleep and then not to wake up so early in the first place.

Hello, we have similar with a 14 month old. 4.45am on a bad day; 5.50am on a good one (this morning - a personal best).

All I can say is we've tried everything and nothing works! That said, we've never left her to cry. The only thing that's starting to take effect is that my DP is having some success in getting her back to sleep - she managed until 7am one morning last week, which has been unheard of for the last six-odd months. She won't do it for me, though - possibly because I still give her a morning bf.

I'm assuming it's just a developmental thing with some babies. And be reassured by this: I met someone recently whose son woke up at 4am every morning. He's now 40-something and he still does it, as does one of his daughters. I'll take the 5am shift, I think!

Managed 5.50am this morning too! hurrah - might have been partly as I had been in to get her dummy off the floor for her at 4ish - (she will settle again if she still thinks it is night)

Don't think it is the light that bothers her - the room is quite dark - but she shares with DD1, who likes a light left on outside the door sometimes - so can't have it both light and dark anyway!

Don't think she is particuarly hungry - as will happily play for a good hour or so before having breakfast. Could be worth a try though I suspect she would just push it away - a biscuit might go down better than milk!!!!

Does already have toys in her cot - but unlike DD1 who would wake up gently and play, singing to herself, DD2 just screams and shouts - trouble is the main thing she wants is me. Have tried leaving her in the cot - but she makes so much noise that she generally wakes her older sister - so then I have another grumpy awake child to deal with. Generally it's easier to just bring her into our bed for a bit (she never goes back to sleep) until I can face getting up.

I was a terrible sleeper when I was a baby - so I do think there is an element of genetics about it.... but is is so exhausting.

Has anyone successfully tried 'Wake to Sleep' - I'm not sure I dare doing it... but would be good to hear if it works??

What do you do when she wakes? Do you offer milk? do you take her downstairs?

What seemed to help with Ds was making sure the room was as dark as possible (as the mornings are darker later now sunshine might be coinciding with the top of a sleep cycle)

Wake to sleep will probably work, but only if the room is dark, and you keep everything as uninteresting as possible.

I stopped ds2 having a daytime nap at this age - i think he just didn't need that much sleep. It did the job and he's 5 now and doing marvellously so it didn't do him any harm.

Oh, and what's your dinner/bath/milk/bedtime routing like?

Sadly IME nothing (and I mean nothing) works. My DD was designed to wake up early come what may (I blame the fact that she was a breech birth).

I laugh about it now (she's 10 and is almost over it) but by golly what a nightmare.

When we realised that we were never going to change her (approx 5) someone suggested we invest in one of those 'alarm' clocks with the bunny eyes that open at the time you want them to open, after accepting that if she's going to wake, she's going to wake, so lets encourage her to stay in her room. She came in 5.30 every morning proudly clutching the clock in her hands, shook us awake to advise us that the bunny's eyes were not yet open! In the bin it went.

We kept her awake late at night and gave up on that as she would still wake up at the same time but just be grumpy.

At about 7 just accepted the fact that actually she doesn't need much sleep (not taken after her mother then - 13 hours a night girl me) but when she sleeps nothing, but nothing wakes her up.

I'm afraid (and I really wish you every success) the best you can hope for is the hour change when she will be waking up at 6.30 instead of 5.30.

Good luck.

Jareth - when she wakes I try to lie her back down, give her her dummy, set off her music thing, pat her back for a bit and walk out again. In the night, this will work, but once it gets past 5am she just screams and won't even let me lie her down, just clinging on to my arms. I then bring her in our bed, and she'll settle for a little bit, then once she is properly awake get out and start running about, trying to pull me out of bed etc.

We have a good dinner, bath, bedtime routine (again no milk)... but despite being knackered she'll often take quite a long time to settle.

mellow - have thought about stopping daytime sleep - but she is exhausted by late morning - and on days when she has had a really short sleep she finds it hard to keep going and gets grumpy. Don't think she is quite ready to ditch it yet sadly.

I do think there is an element of being made like that - but doesn't make it easier..... roll on the clock change!!!