18mo's 2 hour dawn party!?

[Jam177]

Hello lovely ladies! Hoping someone can offer some insight or advice, I'm going slightly crazy here!...My 18mo has never been a good sleeper, but the last month or so things seem to have improved quite a bit during the night. She now generally does 7.30-1ish, quick feed and back to sleep, but then wakes around 4-5am and just won't settle. She doesn't seem ready to start the day, she is grizzly and obviously still tired. I have tried feeding her, rocking her, cuddling her in our bed, leaving her in her cot...She just tosses and turns, seems to drop off then wakes up over and over again. This lasts 1-2 hours, until she finally drops off to sleep for 1-2 hours and then wakes ready for the day about 7-8am. I have no idea what's going on or if there is anything I can do...Does anyone have any experience or suggestions please? Thanks so much in advance x

Personally, I just rolled with the punches. Fighting it took more energy. It's exhausting but it is a phase. I think, just prepare yourself to be up at the crack of dawn, but know that you can go back to bed for another hour or two once your little one's done partying. It will pass... though it seems to last an eternity when you're in the thick of it.

Aww thank you @TheVanguardSix I know what you mean, it's definitely easier to try to go with it. Unfortunately the only thing that stops her from grizzling at that time is rolling on and off breastfeeding and my boobs are pretty done with being suckled for hours at a time! I just don't understand why she can't settle back to sleep when she's clearly still tired, if it's something we've got wrong with her sleep schedule or something physically bothering her....Or just one of those baby things!

I think this is all to do with settling technique and not being able to self-settle.

Do you feed to sleep?
How would you feel about night weaning?

Thanks for your reply @FATEdestiny I do feed to sleep but I don't feel like it's a self-soothing issue, because other people can also put LO down to bed/naps fine & I've seen her on the baby monitor waking up in the middle of the night, playing around for a while then lying back down to sleep.

Also feeding her at that time still doesn't get her back to sleep. I have been considering night weaning though because it's driving me a bit crazy when she wants to stay latched for ages! What are your thoughts?

Do you use a dummy? Keep sticking a dummy in to stop the constant breastfeeding.

Haha, nope she's always point blank refused a dummy, since day 1!

Ah that is a shame as that was my solution with ds. I could put a dummy back without regaining consciousness.

Mine did this from about 12-18 months, when she refused her nap. We introduced a Gro Clock, which she really took to, and on the odd day she had a random car nap and thus woke up at 4am the following day she wouldn’t shout us until the sun came up.

Sorry, meant to clarify that dropping the nap helped the early mornings - but DD1 is unusual in that if she has any sleep un the day she is up at dawn the following morning.