Will anything help DD to stop waking at silly o clock??

[MadameJ]

DD (nearly 12 months) has never being a "good sleeper", she sometimes sleeps 8 hours straight and then the next night she will wake every hour [fhmm). No matter what type of night she has had, she wakes religiously at 4am and I am exhausted, I have recently returned to work so I have therefore lost the ability to nap in the day when she does. Is this something that she will eventually grow out of or is there anything I can do?

All I can do is sympathise I'm afraid - I just answered on another thread that my boy was one of these and I was at work too - I was only present physically, my eyes were like saucers! He only grew out of it very slowly, all I can suggest is a very early night once a week and try to make the mornings as nice as possible, we used to snuggle on the sofa and he would watch telly while I closed my eyes!!

What time does she go to bed. Some kids never do the 12/13 hour sleeps. 2 of mine never did. 10 hours max so they went to bed at 9. I found this preferable to getting up at 4 or 5 but shifting bedtime has to be done gradually to give them time to adjust.

In time she will eventually sleep longer or at least be able to entertain herself until you are ready to rise. Could you put her to bed later? Not yet 1 year old is still very young. You must be v tired, especially being back at work now too.

Oh blimey that sounds awful. It used to be 5.30 here, quite bad enough.

Now you're at work I'd agree with the going to bed later. And stick with it - it will take quite a long time to change IMO. You are likely to have a very tough period with no evening and still getting up at 4. But being prepared for it might help.

Thanks ladies, I have being trying a later bedtime for about a week now and its hell because she is so tired by 7pm even though she has being napping later in the afternoon, I have managed to keep her up until 8 but she still woke at 4am both times. I will keep trying because she doesn't even want to snuggle she wants to play - Oh how I wish she liked TV!!!