I'm so desperate, 4am starts everyday.

[Mamdoingherbest]

My 15 month old baby has been waking up between 4 and 4.30 everyday and will not go back to sleep. She's up for the day. And it's been like this for the last few weeks. Everyday and it's slowly killing me. She goes down in her cot between 7-7.30pm, her dad lies her down in her cot and she goes to sleep on her own but with him in the room. He sits next to her cot. She'll often wake up a few times before the early start to the day but she goes straight back to sleep once her dad goes back in and lies her back down. Each time she wakes up she stands and bounces in her cot. I swear to god if I hear the sound of that cot squeaking as she bounces in the middle of the night once more my head will just explode. I'm absolutely exhausted. She's an amazing baby and tbh she doesn't even seems that tired. But I am. Please give me your thoughts...

what are her naps like? feel for u op, sleep deprivation is the pits

Thank you. She was down to 1 nap at about 12 each day for about and hour and a half. But she's so tired lately that I've had to give her a mor but one for a little while, just 20/30mins around 9 o'clock to see her through. Her pm nap is a bit later then, about 1pm. Always got 1.5 hours, never longer, sometimes shorter. I'm just really down and emotional lately due to such a lack of sleep. I don't t want to sleep train as it breaks my heart but maybe it's the only way to break this shit cycle we're in? 🤷‍♀️

Could you put her down later? Full disclosure, I have no children of my own (yet!) but my sister had this exact problem and delaying bed by an hour seemed to nail it. Good luck!

In my experience you just have to ride it out.
I tried all the usual things when my 2 yo was waking every day at 4am - reducing naps, later bedtime etc - Nothing made a difference.
Over the past year he has gradually moved from 4am to 6ish which feels like luxury!
We also introduced a gro clock as soon as he was old enough to understand the concept.

Oh god I’m dreading this , can your partner get up with baby one morning a week so you can lie in? X