waking at 4/5am

[popsycal]

Bizarre night to post this I know but here goes
Ds is 17 months and has always been a reaosnable sleeper for about a year..
wakes maybe once in the night then one of us goes to see him, and settles him then he goes back to sleep
Recently (6 weeks or so) he has been waking between 4 and 5 most nights. Soemtimes we go to his room and settle him but he is very unsettled from this point until he wakes properly between 6 and 7. Soometimes, due to sheer tiredness, we bring him into outr bed and he is still either unsettled or wide awake!!!
We ahev tried all sorts of variations......bottle at night versus no bottle; large bottle versus small bottle; lots of sleep in daytime versus very little sleep; kept a record of his evening food,.,no pattern, kept a record of what he wears for bed...no pattern (yes i am sounding neurotic)
last night i took him into the spare bedroom - double bed between me and ds at about 4:30 - felt sorry for dh having to work on xmas eve
anyway - we ended up all sleeping in until 8:30!!
dh late for work!
anyway. I wondered if anyone had experienced a similar thing and what you tried
Am sure someone will mentione controlled crying....not a fan i am afraid!!! he shouts for juice or milk. have tried leaving him to cry. he never gets milk in the night (not since he was about 4 mnths old) but sometimes get a drink of water
anyway - any ideas....?
sorry long post

anyone got any ideas...trying to get the thread back to the top again....

bringing this up to the top again since more people are now around

Hi popsycal
You poor thing. My ds is 16 months old and goes through bouts of the same thing - usually when he is teething! - we used to let him come into our bed as well - but then it got to that he was waking I think just to come in with us and snuggle.
So this is what I did (sort of baby whisperer) because I dont like controlled crying either. We moved a blanket, pillow and comfy chair into ds room. and when he woke at 4am we would keep settling him down (change nappy if wet, give a drink, resnuggle so he is not cold and so on) then sit on the chair - and keep doing until he is settled. In the end you may end up sleeping for the morning in the chair - but he is learning you wont take him out of his cot.

If we stick to this after a while our son is so tired the next day (we dont let him sleep it all off the next day - just one nap) that eventually after a week he sleeps through.

It can be tiring so my husband and me take it in turns.
Hope this helps xgood luckx

thanks lysney!!!
o thought that i had cracked it.
on xmas day night, he had a cot quilt on (4tog) instead of his sleeping bag (2.5 tog) and he slept til 8 am!!!
then did the EXACT same last night even down to same type of vest and exact same pyjamas
and he woke at 3:55
dh took him in spare room after he was restless in our bed for 30 mins....
then we all slept til 8:30
cant work it out at all
but will try to get a chair in his room...a very small room so will have to do some furniture moveng...will try it from tonight...i am off work for another week

i am also very paranoid about temperature so when he had the cot quilt on, i didnt sleep!!!!!

My ds nursey is tiny and the chair is in the middle of the room! so I know what you mean!

My Mum always explains it like this - as adults there are nights when you are so tired that you sleep no problem - but then there are nights you just cant get comfatable and you toss and turn. In the end you might even end up getting up early.
Well babies are the same!
If you think about it like this it makes sense.
my ds can be a nightmare - especially when cutting a tooth. You think he is asleep but as you creep out the room he starts moaning and crying. After weeks of this you do feel like you are going mad dont you!! I end up so tired sometimes. I know what you are going through. It can get so bad you think lets just have him in bed with us at least we will get some sleep.

What puts me off this is that my sil 3 year old always slept with them and now she has moved her bed into their room to get some sleep!! Nightmare!!

Just saw your coment about the cot quilt - I was the same!!
When he had his first grow bag I swear that I check his tempertature 10 times a night. So when I recently put in a quilt and pillow I was really nervous!! in the end I opened a window - which defeats the object.
I think that being a parent is the most stressful job ever! and we dont get paid for it!! lol

hhhhmmmm about sil's dd!!!
i will try your idea out tonight!
thanks

hhhhmmmm about sil's dd!!!
i will try your idea out tonight!
thanks

Hi popsycal, my older twin ds has gone through spates of this since the age of 13 months (they'll be 2 on Monday!). He wakes up crying, sometimes waking up completely, sometimes still asleep!

DH goes in to comfort him. Usually just a stroke on the head works, if not I go in. It is always between 4-5 am. I feel sorry for youngest twin ds who gets woken up and loves his sleep!

I kept their routine the same, always warm milk after dinner. So, I haven't been much help. Sorry!

i did what pauka said last night and he woke twice....settled him with water then he went back to sleep
slept til 6:50
not bad for a first attempt!!