Since he was about 12 months old, my 18 month would go through phases of sleeping until 6:30/7am the go through a long cycles of waking at 5am screaming his head off. Just when we think we have “fixed” the problem, he goes back to waking up at 5am.
He’s currently in a 5am wake up cycle and has been for the past two weeks and it’s just too much. I’m going to use this thread to document what I do to try and encourage him out of it (and so I can refer back when the next 5am cycle hits.)
Background info:
he is 18 months. Room is pitch black at night, right temp. He wears a sleeping bag in a cot.
Nap time is usually 12-2pm (although he has napped for 20 mins at 9am then slept 12-3 for the past few days because he’s been so tired)
Bed time is usually 7pm.
Wake up today: 5:17am. Condition - screaming his head off. I know he’s tired because he wakes up upset. He hasn’t woken up happy and babbling in so long.
My other half went and got him at around 5:20am. Tbh I would rather we just left him in the dark room until 6am but he was really crying quite loudly and working himself up that we didn’t want to inconvenience the neighbours with a 40 mins screaming session. He is currently downstairs playing with his toys.
My future strategy for today/tonight is as follows:
No more mini naps at 9am
If he’s tired, main nap at 11:30 but otherwise strextch him to 12pm and no more than 2hrs
Bed time tonight no later than 6:30 (ideally aim for him to be asleep by then) to see if this makes a difference.
If he wakes anytime before 6am, leave him in his cot. This is going to be tough but I feel it’s the only way he will learn.
Re white noise - we’ve tried it so many times and I feel like it doesn’t make a difference with our DS as he still wakes up early with it so we’ve given up on it.
I’ll report back tomorrow. Feel free to follow my journey or share any tips!