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16 month old waking at 4.30-5am....

2 replies

stripybump123 · 29/07/2013 08:20

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on this...
My DS has been waking anything from 4.45am onwards for over 3 months now - he goes to bed at around 7pm and we are lucky that we don't usually hear a peep from him all night but he wakes usually around 5am, on a bad day at 4am and on a good day 6am (really not very often!).
To be honest we got used to 5-5.30am and just decided that he doesn't need more sleep at night but when he wakes before 5am he ends up falling asleep downstairs so he must still be tired!
He has always been a hungry boy so we give him his milk when he wakes so I think it could be the association between getting milk and getting up that we have created. The HV suggested just giving him water in the cot (i.e. don't pick him up) and lie him back down but if I think he is hungry I would be worried that is why he is crying/woken up.
His daytime sleep has always been quite erratic - as he wakes so early he still needs 2 naps a day - anything from a total of 1hr to 3hrs over the 2 naps. Sometimes he will only have 1 nap a day (usually nursery days) but this doesn't seem to make a lot of difference to the waking.
Sorry this post is now really loooong! Any advice appreciated! xx

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Suchanamateur · 29/07/2013 12:26

Not much useful advice I'm afraid as I have a 17mo early waker, and erratic day sleeper (and now horrible bedtimes but thats another story).

We have a 'not out of cot before' rule of 6.30 - she usually wakes between 5.30 - 6, and doesn't get milk till then. In her case, I don't think her waking is hunger, and we didn't want to reward early wakes with nice warm milk and then playtime. Luckily she mainly arses areound in her cot, rather than crying during that time. You could try something like that if you think there is an association? That said, she still wakes early so probably fecking useless advice. And my 3 yo habitually wakes at 6 (although I can happily live with that), so actually I REALLY shouldn't be giving advice..

stripybump123 · 29/07/2013 16:06

thank you - he cries as soon as he wakes which makes me think it is hunger... might try giving his milk in the cot and then lying him back down - I am sure that will be popular, ha!

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