Early waking, 15 / 16 month old... heeelllpppp

[CharlyH]

My little girl has gone from waking around 7 to consistently waking at around 5am.....

She has one nap per day (between 1 and 2 hrs). When she wakes she is not hungry or thirsty or dirty. She won't go back to sleep in her cot or in our bed. She has a black out blind.

Whilst my husband and I are knackered, the real problem is that she is exhausted and struggles to make it to lunchtime somedays - she clearly needs more sleep. We are really struggling .... has anyone got any bright ideas?

We had that problem but seems to resolve itself... saying that, more like she had winter bug and that seems to reset her 'biological' clock.

I read up in some forum that you can try 'stirring' her an hour before she wakes up, so in your case will be 4am! It's something to do with just raising her sleeping pattern from deep sleep to light sleep. Just stir her enough like turn her to her side or reposition her and NOT waking her up. Apparently you should see result after 3 to 4 nights, I know sound harsh... but it's better for a long run.

At least yours sleep through the night, mine still waking up up to 4 times a night!!!

Good luck

Hiya

We have had many months of early waking too & it truly sucks! Although we seem to be on a run of 7am wakes this week & I'm waiting for the bubble to burst!!!!

PP is right in that you can use the 'wake to sleep' technique to reset their bodyclocks when they are waking habitually. However, in my prolonged experience with EW I have learned that it is usually caused by routine issues eg too much/too little day sleep, too early/late a bedtime, nap being too early etc.

So can I ask what time does she usually take her nap & what time is her bedtime?

Also is she teething at the moment?

For us, overtiredness is the biggest culprit & second to that the nap being too early in the day. We've just tackled this over Christmas & I'm hoping this is why his wakeups have suddenly improved.

It happened to us too. And it was dead annoying because DS was not ready to get up either as he was ratty as hell when waking so early.
So in the end we decided to come and see him and tell him that it was too early and to go back to bed. Well clearly he was pissed off about that but it took just two mornings before he got the message.
The second time it took only one day. Now he sleeps from 7 to 7 (even 8am last sunday, bliss!!).

Try the 'wake to sleep' method as suggested above. Treat the 5am waking as you would if she woke in the night. Make sure she is warm enough sounds obvious but its sometimes overlooked. Try tinkering a little with her nap, over lunchtime would be ideal and not for more than hour and half. All this combined should make a difference.Good Luck!

Thank you very much for your kind words and advice.

Omama - She normally naps for an hour an a half at lunchtime, normally 1215 - 1345 and her bedtime is 1900. I think she is teething (seems to be a bit of a permanent affair...) I think we may try pushing her bedtime back to 1930 also, see if that makes an difference.

Thanks for the advice on the 'wake to sleep' method. Has anyone got first hand experience of this?

Forgot to ask in my last post - how long has she been on 1 nap??? Is it only a recent thing?

If she is teething at the moment this may also be playing a part.

You could try pushing BT out a bit but I must say I have found with my DS that if I do too long between nap & BT he will go to bed OT & wake early the next day. This is especially true if he does a shorter nap of 1.5hrs or less. I would be doing no more than 5hrs between nap & bedtime & possibly even less. It may be that a slightly earlier BT might help her sleep in later.

Another thought - have you considered letting her have an earlier nap for a day or two - just incase the teething has caused the EW which has caused her to get a bit overtired?

We had to do this last week with my DS. Before Christmas he was EWing due to his nap being too early (11am-1pm) & so over the last month I gradually pushed it later to 12ish & pushed bedtime to 7.15/7.30. However, he kept waking early, and I finally realised it was because pushing him from the early waking until after lunch for his nap was actually making him overtired, as was the long day. So I've stuck like glue at keeping him up for no more than 5.5hrs in the morning before his nap. So he did a couple of days with a much earlier nap (11/11.30am) and a really early bedtime (6/6.30pm) & he suddenly started to sleep longer at night because he wasn't overtired from the long mornings anymore. For the last 6 days we've had a 7am wakeup & thats unheard of in our house!

Hi charlyh.

Sympathies, our DS has been up between 4.30 and 5.30 am for about 8 months, he is now 18 months. Extended sleep deprivation is a special kind of torture. In the last week or so we have seen quite a few 6am+ mornings, so huge improvement. What seems to be working is:
-a groclock, the 'sun' comes on at 6
-like dialmformummy said, I spent a few long mornings going in every 5, 10, 15 mins etc telling him 'mummy sleep, you sleep' and then leaving him to complain. Also explains that when the sun comes on it is time to get up. He understands this well now.
As I said, he results are good, I hope it lasts.