Early waking 16 mo. Beyond a joke! Tell me if and when it stops !

[Cnix]

I know it's a common problem but it's ridiculous. Today dd was giggling to herself in her cot at 5:10. We have tried everything to make her sleep longer and we were having some success. I think I've even been known to offer advice on here! Serves me right!

I'd love to know if and when she'll start sleeping more by herself?! I know we don't have crystal balls but I'd love to hear some stories to give me hope!

morning!! does she nap in the day? with ds1 as soon as we cut his morning nap at that age he started sleeping longer in the mornings. He just slept 12-2 and was in bed for 6:30/7

No advice hear my 3 year old still does it cutting naps hasn't worked just made him more grumpy and more likely to fall asleep on the way to school in the morning.

If she's happy in her cot and giggling can you not just ignore her until a reasonable time like 6am 6.45am in my house?

DM said she used to leave a few toys in the cot and a book at the end so we could play.

I feel your pain. My 1 yr old woke at 4 am ! Been watching tv downstairs since. She does go to bed at 6pm as sooo tired. Going to be a long day. To make it worse I only went to bed at 1 am. Sob sob.

Try pushing back her daytime nap. When ds does this I don't reward it by giving an early nap.

We struggled with DD, one of twins, for about 6 months - sorry - and then she started sleeping later by herself when she was just over 2yo. They're 2.5 now.
(She's just waking now!).
I don't think there was anything different, she just seemed to settle down. They both still have a good hour nap around 1pm and bed at 7pm. They are very active, always some fresh air in the morning, big lunch and lighter tea.
Could your DD be waking hungry? Or full nappy?

My just turned 4 year old received a gro clock for his birthday due to early starts such as this!
The longest both DC have slept in on the same morning is until 6.30 and that has only been a few times...

"reward by giving an early nap"

You make it sound as if they're deliberately doing it to pissyou off.

Mine have early waking phases. Sometimes they're hungry so a quick feed sorts them out. Sometimes it's the cold so I chuck an extra blanket on when I go to bed. Sometimes it's teeth. Sometimes I have no idea.

So I've given up trying, just make sure they both are warm enough and get to bed at a decent hour. Ds (4) wakes at around 6am regardless of bedtime (he was the worst for early waking) and dd wakes between 6 and 7.30. When I get the early wake up call, I weep a little inside, then stick the tv on!

Thanks for all your replies. I've obviously touched on a problem close to everyone's hearts!

Spacegirl81- yes she sleeps roughly 12-1:30 everyday so not getting too much daytime sleep

Essentialcoffee- yes we do try to ignore her and she is pretty good on her own fora while but I cannot go back to sleep just lie there listening and listening she loves babbling to herself. DH happily snoring beside me.

Cantthinkofagoodone. Yes I never let her sleep in the morning ( before 12) as I usedtobelive it would make her sleep in. It doesn't.

Twinsplusonesurprise- she normally doesn't have a dirty nappy. Don't think she's hungry either. Wasn't desperate for her milk. But you've given me hope that someday it might just stop!

Steamwisher- once she's awake she's awake I'm afraid. Feeding or blanket wouldn't help. And she has v cosy sleeping bag.

My other idea is to gradually put her to bed later. The problem with that is she is so shattered from nursery 3 days a week that she'd go to bed at 6 pm if I let her! She loves going to bed! Gets really excited! She is lovely btw just not a fan if a lie in!

What I mean by blanket is that the temp drops quite a bit after 3am which gradually wakes them. So even if they're well wrapped up at bedtime, I pop another blanket on top later on in the night (their rooms are quite cool - for some reason this works better than having the heating on all night)

Totally agree with that SteamWisher. I do same for DDs too now.
Cnix - my DD that was the culprit is quite cuddly and I think now, in hindsight if I'd perhaps tried a cuddle and putting her back to bed she might have settled down. Tho DH and I were totally paranoid about both being awake so we'd hoik her out sharpish!
We do also have a gro clock and it has definitely helped for example clock change time. Try it!

No amount of cuddling would do anything. Trust me. We've tried bringing her in with us but she just wants to jump on the bed. Will try gro clock when she's older. It's my last hope. 5:40 this morning but I've been awake since 4:30 when she gave out a cry/ whimper. :-(

Op - you mention your dd is shattered from nursery 3 days a week - does she nap there? For as long as usual?

Usually I would say slowly push the nap later by 15mins per week til it starts at 12.30. Aim for a 2hr nap & bed at 7/7.30pm & this should sort the early waking out (it really does work).

However, if she is actually overtired from lack of naps at nursery, this may actually backfire & she may in fact need just a few days of early & long naps (e.g. at 11am for 2-3hrs) &/or early bedtimes to get her feeling well rested again. Sleep begets sleep & she should start to sleep in later again then you can put nap back to a more appropriate time. Hth

What time is bedtime? My 16m DS needed bedtime of 7.45pm to wake at 6.45-7am.

No advice here. I've been up since 5.30 with 3.5 yo DS. Not fun when you're heavily pregnant! He's always been an early waker despite all attempts (blankets, nap tweaking, bed time tweaking, gro clock, rewards etc.) He struggles to get past 6am no matter what we do.

Thanks for the tips. I will try to push back nap time but it's a struggle to keep her up to 12 never mind 12:30 but I will try over Christmas since she won't be at nursery much.

She goes to bed at 7 ish but I'm trying to push this back too gradually. I would happily settle for 6 am wake up! But anything before that is night time as far as I'm concerned!

OP - you have my sympathies. My DD (now 2.8) did this for 10 months. I think she finally grew out of it when the last 1 year molar broke through at about 19 months.

after much trial and error I also realised she also only needs 10-10.5 hours sleep at night so a later bedtime helped (bath at 7-7.30 with sleep at 8-8.15). Everything I read said an earlier bedtime but with my DD she actually needed a later one. She has always napped well in the day though -1.5-2.5 hours regardless of how much or how little nighttime sleep she has.

So for us a combination of teething and slightly later bedtime. It's tricky as for us there was a fine balance between that and overtired hell. She's just getting her 2 year molars and we are back to earlier wakings.

Good luck but remember this too shall pass!

Yes I do also believe that she needs only 10-11 hrs per night and not the holy grail of 7-7 :-(
Had a good night and a lie in until 6 this morning ( if course I am now conditioned to wake up at 5 anyway waiting for dd to wake up )
Don't know if it's later bed time or just fluke.

I wonder what tonight shall bring...

How you getting on Cnix? Did a later bedtime help?