Previously good sleeper. Top tips for dealing with continuous early 5am waking in the 2 - 3 year old please !

[herbgarden]

DS previously has been a good sleeper since he was little other than what I would call the usual hiccups - illness /teething/ just because waking which usually passes . He's now 2.4 months and for about 4 - 5weeks he's been waking at 5-5.15am.

I'm pg with no 2 and it's driving me bonkers. I work 2/3 days a week and I am like the living dead. We've been through the scared of the dark /door closing thing so we now leave the door open at night slightly with the landing light on.

He always goes to bed at 7 after a bath around 6.30 followed by some milk and a short story....

The 5am is pretty much on the clock now and I've started going to bed at 8.45/9pm so that at least I've had a full nights sleep (other than when I wake in the night and then can't get off again so that's a killer).

Anyone got any good suggestions? I've bought a little light today to maybe try the magic light thing but wonder what other things people have tried?

I've tried cutting out his sleep altogether in the day to see if this helps - this is proving v.difficult with such an early wake up but I'm doing what I can - the poor kid is knackered ! !...and some days I just feel like letting him sleep for 3 hours so he doesn't look so tired !

many thanks

HI - we had this problem when our DD was the same age. She's now nearly 3. In the end, we started putting her to bed between 7.15 and 7.30 which works well when number 2 comes along as you can't do them both at the same time anyway. When she woke up at 5, we'd go in and tell her it was still night time (do it now and it's so dark anyway) and to lie back down. We then went away and if she cried a bit she cried a bit. (obviously, if it was howling we'd go back in). Keep repeating every 10 mins. After a few days, they can't see the point of it and learn to role over and put themselves back to sleep. Just don't crack and get up or they learn that is getting up time.
She now usually wakes at 6.30 which is ok.
It's the baby who's the problem - going to post a query of my own!
Good luck,
J

Thanks for that - I am worried we've got ourself into a habit of bringing him in to our bed to get him to lie down for a while and let us all have a sleep. We're dropping his nap, but this week is my "operation sleep deprivation" so with dropping the nap I'm about to get tough on the going back to sleep thing. I don't care if he doesn't go back - but he will sometimes suck his thumb and lie quietly. 6.30 would be a dream.

I noticed a difference with dd who is 2.3. She was sleeping really badly, waking during the night, and waking early in the morning. I dropped her lunchtime nap and it worked wonders. She will sometimes wake in the night but after a quick cuddle, she goes straight back to sleep until 6.30am-7.00am. Still early but better than the 5am's she was doing before! If she looks to be getting tired, we just have a bit of quiet time on the settee with a dvd. Last night she slept from 7pm until 8am! Pity she was staying at her grandma's so I didn't get the benefit! I was wide awake myself at 6am!

I'm trying to drop the nap at the moment but the transition is quite hard- he has nursery 2 days a week and is knackered there but I manage it at home with lots of quiet time. I really need a couple of hard weeks with him to get through it. He doesn't really wake at all in the night. Today we had a 5.30am but I managed to persuade him to stay in his cot til nearly 6.30am when he got hysterical rather than just a bit whingey....

I was awake from 2.30am til 4.15am and then dropped off - so am feeling like the living dead today.

I'm hoping Janjas that the dropping of his lunchtime sleep will work.