20 month old waking at 4.45am. Every bloody day. Help.

[Napdamnyou]

this has been going on for weeks.
What can we do?

Have you tried wake to sleep? It sounds mad but apparently works. Half an hour before she is due to wake up, set the alarm and wake her, then shush her back to sleep. Should break the cycle, and if not at least youve got revenge. ^^Hope you find a way xx

WRT wake to sleep, you don't wake your LO as pp says, your aim is make him/her stir, but definitely don't wake him/her fully or he/she may be starting his/her day an hour earlier than usual! The idea is to stir/rouse him/her gently from sleep so he/she starts another sleep cycle & so will sleep past the usual time when he/she would habitually wake up. To do this you need to stroke his/her hand, touch his/her leg or move his/her bedsheet, something that will cause him/her to make the slightest stir/sigh/roll over IYSWIM. (sorry I don't know if your LO is him or a her!)

It may be that the EW is being caused by other factors though, so it is worth eliminating those too:

too hot/cold?
blackout blinds?
teething?
gro-clock?

routine - in my experience this is often the cause of EW. With my DS, if his nap is too early in the day we get early waking, & at that age we had to push his nap from 12.30pm start to 1pm & this sorted things out. Can you please post your LO's daytime routine? wakeup time, naptime/length & bedtime.

When is bedtime?

Try a walk in the sun at 5pm- or as late as possible. Got us an extra 45 mins.

What time does he go to bed? Not all children sleep 12 hours a night - my ds only ever sleeps 10.5 hours so if I put him to bed at 7pm he wakes at 5.30am.

Thanks very much for responses. DS has always been crap sleeper but started to sleep from 7.15 - 5am or 6am at 18 months. Then had a few weeks of 3.15am wakings but chalked that one up to developmental spurt. I'm happy to get up at 6am but 4.45am is grim and evil.

Day routine is

Up and BF at 5am.
Breakfast 7am
Out swimming and running about 8.30 -10am
Lunch 11.30am
Put down for nap sometime between 12.30 and 1.30pm
Wakes 2.30-3pm, sometimes left til 3.3pm or even 4pm
4-5pm Out swimming and running about
5pm supper
6pm wash and stories and BF
7.15 Bed.

the long lunchtime nap is a bit of a lifesaver as we live in tropics and can't go out in heat of day.

Have you tried a later bedtime? If you put him to bed at say, 8.30pm he can have dinner with you.

What is your DS bed setup? I'm pretty sure at 20months we switched to a cosy pillow and duvet set and he slept much later... We also used to blates ignore any demands before 6am!

Later bedtime and dinner with me and DH won't work. DH works late and we are lucky if we get dinner on our knees in front of an hours television at 9pm, then I am in bed by 10pm. Most nights I just eat a sandwich. The nights DH makes it back, I am desperate for some us time and an adult conversation after being on myown with DS all day.

Bed set up is cot,in darkened room, wearing long sleeved tracksuit type cotton pyjamas, no pillow or duvet or blanket etc. Just him, on a sheet, with the a/c at 79 degrees all year round, day and night. Maybe he feels a bit cold when he wakes and I should try socks? But he is barefoot all year round, unless wearing sandals walking outside, and kicks off any kind of covering like a blanket or whatever, just hates it.

Wake to sleep sounds good, but DH would have to do it as once roused by DS I am utterly incapable of going back to sleep,especially if I go to is room and have to try to poke him, holding my breath in case he wakes fully...but we could try it.

likes idea of revenge on DH after I handled 18 months of BF night wakings and feedings and DH is able to drop back off easily. Except him getting up to do it would wake me up, so he would have to sleep on sofa while we did it. In which case I would worry that he would sleep through the alarm or pike out of doing it.