help me sleep later than 4.45am!

[Cappucino]

my dd (16months) has always woken quite early - 6ish, but now she's creeping forward to as early as 4.45am

this is too early

and she is crabby and horrid as a result. I try to breastfeed her back to sleep with us but she starts kicking about and wanting to run round the room and play with our shoes

I'm quite happy to leave the little brat in her cot to cry (in a controlled and loving manner obv) but wondered if anyone had had any success with this or other ways.

she doesn't wake in the night otherwise

as to whether it's the morning light, she has blackout blinds and to be honest sometimes she wakes before dawn so it's still BLEEDING DARK

please help

My eldest did this and the only way we broke the habit was to stuff towels all the way around his blind, so it was really dark, leave a drink in his cot and left him, also gave medised for a few nights to make him a bit drowsy. Sounds harsh but the more we went in the worse he was. Takes a few days - get some earplugs.

Don't give her any attention, or she'll think it's playtime.

Is she teething? in pain? I do sympathise, sleep devrevation is awful. Is her window open? Maybe the birds are waking her. Is she having too much sleep in the day. Good luck

I find that if I leave ds to cry at that time he does go back to sleep most times,though the first couple of times I leaft him I did have to listen to quite a lot of crying. Now he usually settles down within 10-15 mins though I do tend to go and get him if he cries longer than that now - (probably shouldn't I know )

okay

got my earplugs

got my whisky

I'm going in

Just a phase - she'll grow out of it. Leave a bottle of water/milk in her cot and she'll suckle herself back to sleep.