I am so F***ing fed-up with getting up at 4.15am

[artichokes]

DD is 15 months and has always been an early waker. She used to be a good sleeper other than the fact she rose at 5.30ish.

For the last week she has been getting up at 4.15 . Nothing will entice her back to sleep and if we leave her in the cot she screams blue murder. She has also started waking around midnight (unless given Medised before bed - Calpol does nothing) and refusing to go back to sleep unless bought into our bed.

The night waking would be bad enough but it adds insult to injury if I have co-slept since midnight (meaning I will have slept terribly since midnight) and STILL get woken at 4.15.

[RoRoMommy]

ffs.

I am back!

DS went down at 7:30 and it's been a struggle since then. I think it's the teeth, he just cut two on the top and now the other two are cutting. That's what I get for not giving him nurofen before we went to sleep!

Erm, so...anybody out there? I hope not!

[artichokes]

4.40am today. Despite only having one 40min nap yesterday. She is toptalling about 10hrs sleep in 24. That cannot be good for a 15 monther. She was having 13 6 weeks ago.

Ruby - how clockwork do the wakings need to be for your method to work. DD wakes between 4 and 5.30. Is that too much variation? I am also worried that if I woke her at 3 she would never go back to sleep! She is a bugger to get back in her cot if she wakes in the night .

[RubySlippers]

he was just over a year old ...

You can do it with older children as well

it really is good for clockwork wakings

[upallnightagain]

Rubyslippers - how old was your ds when you did this ? My dd wakes at anytime between 3 and 5 but usaully about 4isH .For quite a while we were able to resettle her with her bear but the last couple of weeks she has decided it is time to get up.

[upallnightagain]

I know the feeling ...430am is a such depressing hour . I will see if later bed time works again tonight. Usually she likes to be up early (??) at weekends !!

[RubySlippers]

with these sorts of clockwork waking (ie same time each morning) you can try something called wake to sleep - you wake them one hour before their usual wake up and then leave them to re-settle. This disrupts their old sleep cycle so they sleep through their usual wake up time

I did it with DS when he had a phase of waking at 5.00 am

it was hideous getting up at 4.00 am to wake him, but in a funny way it was better than knowing he was going to wake anyway

you do wake to sleep for 3 nights and then you leave them on the fourth. If they wake at their old time, then you do WTS for 6 more nights

it worked for us and perhaps it is worth a try?

To wake them initially you untuck them, stroke their face etc so they are nearly fully awake and then leave them to re-settle

[artichokes]

How fantastic UpAllNight. Congrats. I bet you feel a million dollars.

DD work at 4.03am and has been awake ever since . That is the earliest yet (by 12 mins!. There is nothing we can do to get her back down. It is so depressing and feels like it might be never ending.

[upallnightagain]

DD woke at 5.30 today and stayed in her cot for half a hour after dh gave her fav bear ... we had a sleep in til 6AM ...Hooray !!. She went to bed at 8pm ,& I tried 12 hr super strength nappies . Will try this again tonight .fingers cross ,it was not a one off !

[RoRoMommy]

Nappy change at 4:30am waking, sometimes able to settle him until 6pm (at which time it is no longer "night", but has passed into "day" and DH must take over care of DS "HOORAY"!)

[dosydot]

can I join ds 20 months 5.10 am precisely for last 10 months??? no diference dependant on bed time

[upallnightagain]

Hi roromummy , what time did you do the nappy change ? I feel so spaced out today . DD of course is bouncing around full of beans after having a half hour nap at 9 !!!artichokes - sky plus rules !! It has kept me sane ....

[RoRoMommy]

Hello lovelys,

DS made it to 5:45am this morning. That feels like an accomplishment after nearly a week and a half of 4:30ams. I tried a nappy change for a few nights, and that seemed to settle him a bit (I guess I wouldn't want to sleep in dirty pants, either).

[artichokes]

We were up at 4.40 this morning [i am suggest mumsnte introduce a yawn emoticon]. Looking on the bright side it was a 25 mins improvment on 4.15 and she slept through to that point so no co-sleeping last night.

DH wants to engage a sleep consultant. Our neighbour used one with great success for night wakings. However that lady said early waking is the hardest habit to tackle . I am therefore worried it will be a waste of a lot of money.

UpAllNight - it is our Sky Plus recordings of In The Night Garden that get us through the early hours too.

[upallnightagain]

ps it is nice to know their are others in same situation .

[upallnightagain]

please can I join this group.... My dd - 13 months is waking anytime between 3am and 5am . Then refusing to go back to sleep. Tried bongela , capol, warm milk , bringing her into our bed. I have given up this morning and brought her downstairs . Tried hard not to put the tv on before 6am but gave up after she started screaming the house/street down(waking dh ?????) and put in the night garden (sky plus) on !!!!I think its her teeth or she has just decided sleep is for wimps !!
ps will try a later bedtime tonight

[mmelody]

Oh I completely sympathise.. been up since 4.21am here. Am gonna wreak revenge in his teenage years!!!

[Wallace]

Ds2 didn't wake at 4.30 this morning...

He woke at 4am instead! (that is a sick with tiredness emoticon btw)

[tonysoprano]

later never helps for me unless it's 9pm (if we have been out for example) and I can't bear tonot have my evenings. also, he never ever eakes at that time if he stays at his grandmas, which is at least once every three weeks!! he saves it just for us

[oremstango]

I'm not alone- yay! (or really boo for us all) Was going to post on this and saw everyone else on this. Was so very happy when sleep training finally got ds sleeping through at 10.5 months, but now he's waking between 5:00-5:45 on a good day. Seems fairly rested but a bit grumpy/tired for sure. I try to stretch him to normal nap at 9:00 which makes for a very long morning for us all. Also sometimes waking 4:00-5:00 and leaving him; after an hour falling back to sleep. Who knows. Has keeping them up later helped?

[artichokes]

I wish milk would do it for DD. I have tried. I would do anything if it got her back to sleep. Sadly milk only excites her more.

[tonysoprano]

my ds 18 months wakes between 4 and 5 and i give him a bottle of milk in his bed and he goes back to sleep until 7.30am. it is a terrible habit I know and i would never have done it with my dd who is now 4 but i just want some sleep.....

[Piggy]

Every sympathy. We are generally all awake at 5. Have been for as long as I can remember. We only survive by going to bed ridiculously early (9 pm).

[RoRoMommy]

I don't even bother keeping up with my childless friends anymore. Too depressing to see the glow of youth and plenty of sleep in their faces.

[artichokes]

Oh dear, how depressing for us all.

DD woke at 2.30am and would not settle so went into the spare bed with her Dad (I have a cold and really wanted proper sleep). She then slept to 5.40am. The horror is that we were so excited by this. 5.40am! It felt like a luxurious lie in.

At 8am I called my childless best friend to check on plans for the weekend, and she told me off for calling so early...

[Wallace]

4.30 here too since clocks went back have had a couple of 6am mornings which get my hopes up, but then always back too4.30 (or before like this morning)

Ds2 is 15 months too. He is also still up a lot in the night.