Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Sleep

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler. Need more advice on your childs development? Sign up to our Ages and Stages newsletter here.

3.30am internal alarm clock- any suggestions?

2 replies

joa · 23/11/2007 20:32

DD is 4m on sunday. Since about 10 weeks she has stopped asking for food during the night after a last feed at around 10pm. However, she now seems to have developed the habit of waking at (give or take 10 mins) 3.30am every morning. I listen to her wimpering but it gradually becomes more of a cry until I get out of bed (I am sleeping in her room with her as not enough room for cot in our room and so that dh gets enough sleep for work); she will then settle pretty easily with her dummy, sometimes if I have taken some time to get to her she is more awake and it takes shusshing etc as well. She then can sleep through to 7am, although some nights she then starts waking a couple of times again before 7- again will settle with the dummy. Whilst this is in no way as bad as some of your LOs, it would be nice not to have to get up! I thought she would gradually stop waking because she wasn't being fed but instead it seems to have got worse.
During the day she will only nap for 45 mins at a time and I do tend to have to give her a dummy to get her to go off- which she does very quickly; if I time it right I can sometimes get her to settle for a longer sleep at lunchtime (again have to use dummy). In the evening she settles herself to sleep without the dummy after our bedtime routine.
Any suggestions for how to cure this 3.30am wake up call? I think that as it is the same time every night it must be a habit, and I guess she isn't any good at self-settling. I'm just not sure which bit to work on next and how to tackle. I would love to get rid of the dummy (she only ever has it to help her go off to sleep) as I suspect this is the route of her problems... but I have also read suggestions that if she isn't getting enough daytime sleep this will be making her wake at night, and I don't know that I can get her to sleep longer in the day without the dummy!. I have also read about 'wake to sleep' which seems to suggest I should go and wake her at 3am to set her into a new sleep cycle? Has anyone tried this? Or have any other ideas?

OP posts:
ivykaty44 · 23/11/2007 20:38

I read this post as I thought it was about adult sleep! silly me...

My dd's both had dumies in the night and it was wonderful, they both had them to go of to sleep in the eve and then if they did ever wake in the night a dumy would have them settled in no time and peace for all.

I would be tempted to give your dd the dumy before she wakes at 3.30 to get her out of the habit of actually waking and also take her swimming a couple of times in the late afternoon so she is active as this often helped my two to a good nights sleep.

santascRUMPELedsuit · 23/11/2007 20:42

Hi my DD and nearly everybody elses LO's on my post natal club went through a stage of this from 4 - 5 months. Eventually your LO will be able to put her dummy back in and will be able to get herself back off. Why don't you try putting a few dummies in the cot beside her so she can find one close at hand.

I also found that when my LO went into her own room she and I slept much better - they know you are close at hand! It will settle down soon so don't feel too disenheartened.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page