My 10 month old wakes up in the early morning and cries, often escalating into full on screaming (details below!). Normally this happens at 5.30/6am which I haven't found toooo bad, but the last few mornings it's been 4.30-5am. Looking for suggestions about what to do!
After waiting a minute, I go to her room, put the dummy in and encourage her to lie down, sometimes stroke her back or shush. It seems she can't get off to sleep again quickly like if it happens in the night, and she keeps sitting up, taking out the dummy, crying.
There will then come a point during this (with her still in the cot) where she begins refusing the dummy and won't lie down and the crying gets more intense. If I try to offer her the dummy once this point has passed, she goes totally ballistic and things can escalate into screaming. I take her out to try and calm her (to stop her disturbing her older sister too much more) - this sometimes works for 5 mins and she'll take the dummy and relax on my shoulder, but sometimes it doesn't work at all and she keeps screaming. It's not just complaining, it's angry. Sometimes this angry cry continues and keeps escalating as soon as I take her out. I try rocking, walking, jiggling, even opening the curtain to distract her, but nothing soothes her.
If I try to put her back in following taking her out of the cot, she totally loses the plot.
In my opinion she does need more sleep as she seems so grumpy and tired and does relax down in a sleepy way onto my shoulder sometimes. But it's like she is determined it will be morning.
The only thing that will stop her crying - but it's only temporary - is breastfeeding. So to avoid disturbing her sister any more, I eventually feed her. This takes maybe 10 mins each side. Sometimes after the first side I see if she is more relaxed and dozy. One day she was nearly asleep but when I put her in the cot she immediately turned very angry and screamed again. Once she's done with both sides she'll maybe relax for a few mins but then get fussy and agitated and it escalates to screaming again.
THEN the only thing that will fully stop her is to put the light on like it's morning and distract her with a random object/funny noise. As soon as she's distracted she'll accept the dummy again. I have tried to hold out until 6am before putting the light on and doing this.
The history with the morning feed is that I've always fed her when she wakes, which since 5 months old has been in the bed lying down, and it's usually been v early. In summer she'd be wide awake and not go back to sleep. This started to shift later with the darker mornings and I thought we'd cracked it.
I've tried lots of changes to nap routine like making morning nap later, adding or avoiding a 3rd cat nap ... but nothing is working or making a difference at the moment! All ideas welcome ...
We moved her into her own room a week ago which is a bit lighter with street lamps instead of total darkness out the back, but she sleeps through till the early wake up so I don't think it can be that ...