We have been in a living hell for the last 2 months because dd aged three has started waking earlier and earlier and is now starting the day at 4.30 am. She shares a room with ds aged 20 months - we live in a 2 bed house and this means everyone is awake at 4.30. We have tried everything we can think of - the puttng her back a million times without speaking to her, a reward system, putting up a baby gate to stop her getting out, giving her more to eat b4 bed, no telly in the morning if she does get up too early. We have bought the bunny alarm clock to show her what time is OK to get up (6) and the kids bedtime routine is very established, bath, story, bed.
Both dh and me work, dh a musician and often gigs in eve as well all day work.
Things have been getting more and more desperate with dh bellowing at dd, threatening and giving smacks and the whole house bedlam.
While this has been going on I was pregnant but lost the baby at 12 weeks - altho' dd's probs not connected to this as when I lost the baby she has already started waking early.
On Thursday, completely at the end of my tether I went to the GP and asked if she could prescribe a sedative for my daughter to give all of us some breathing space. I don't think she has kids, she went all pink and said under no circumstances would she give sedatives and made me feel like a terrible parent for asking. As if I would if we weren't completely desperate. The Tania Byron book mentions sedatives for exactly this sort of situation so it can't be that bad.
GP went on to suggest buying a cot with higher bars (!!) and telling us that we needed to persevere and "break her will" (which sounded much worse than giving her sedatives) and that maybe we needed parenting classes via the health visitor.
I was really unhappy with this advice and rang the surgery to say so. Luckily another GP with a bit more empathy (and possibly also a mother?) agreed to give us a mild sedative for dd to help get some sleep before tackling the problem again. Health visitor also due to ring us to discuss prob so feel I am finally getting some help.
Has anyone else experienced this?
And why was GP behaving like a social worker? Who is she to judge me as a parent on meeting me once for 5 mins?
Am generally a bit worried that dd seems to have a will of iron and real probs with doing as she's told altho' she can be a real sweety too.