Wake to sleep advice needed

[hillbilly]

Brief history: ds (23 months)wakes at 5am for milk and then usually sleeps another hour afterwards. Last week I decided I had had enough of this so left milk in cot for him however he will NOT get it by himself so I have to go in and hand it to him and then he yells for me to take it from him when he's finished. (What a mug I am!)

So.....last night I began the "Wake to Sleep" method. I went to rouse him at 4am but he kind of woke and started calling for his milk which I gave to him. Of course then he started yelling when he had finished so I still ended up being awake for at least 20 mins trying to settle him. He did sleep until 6am after that though. I know I need to continue with this but should I ditch the milk altogether?

bump anyone?

TRicky
If it were me I would be ditching the milk altogether- it might take a few nights but your ds should stop waking up for it pretty quickly.

My ds is 18 months and hasn't woken for milk for at ages so I am probably giving crap advice but I would think that he is old enough and eating enough during the day not to need that 5am feed now.

If you want to break the cycle then I would say yes, you need to ditch the milk. I would also say wake him a bit earlier than 4am. DS goes through phases of waking at 5am, I always go and wake him at 3am and (shh, don't tell anyone this bit) I give him some Medised. I only have to do this for 2 nights before the waking at 5am thing stops. The Medised keeps him asleep until morning and after 2 nights the cycle has broken.

Or could you try a completely different cup? That might be enough of a distraction to make him drink it himself or leave it alone.

As I say, I usually give useless advice

you could try leaving water instead of milk and a night light so he can see the water when he wakes, he can drink it and go back to sleep - ok this might take a few nights of crying, and you might not agree with leaving a child to cry, but works. please don't tell me off for leaving a child to cry, I have just gone through this with 25 month old, decided to ditch milk as bad for his teeth, took 4-5 nights of crying/shouting, now we don't hear anything, assume he is having a drink and going back to sleep. but for 4 nights I listened to him cry/shout/chat and finally go back to sleep after hour. Not for everyone but after 4 months of waking every night decided it was just habit and getting his own way so that's why took drastic measures, now he is so much happier as he is sleeping better and so much cheerier in the day.

have you tried one of those clocks that goes dark at night time then light when it's time to get up? and try and get him to understand he can have milk when it's switched? - or, could you leave him 5mins before taking his milk and keep adjusting by 5 mins every few days? (I don't know how loud he will yell and if you have other DCs to disturb tho!)

DS is 2.7 and took ages to give his milk up - we started diluting it in the end - we'd take a flask up with cold milk in, but leave water in the bottle and add the milk to it. I don't know if this is what worked but he gave up waking eventually... then DD arrived, but that's a different story!

Also, DS got much better when we swapped him to a bed - we swapped round about 22months but he's always been crap sleeper, so it was to help everything really. Don't know if this might suit your DS if the change would be too disruptive, or might be exciting and big boy, oh and big boys don't need milk in the night...?

good luck whatever you try!

Thanks everyone for your comments and sorry I have taken so long to respond.

This morning went like this: he was awake and crying for milk around 1am which we gave him (he had not had much tea yesterday - something I must make sure does not happen again). Anyway I tried to rouse him at 4am but not sure I went far enough as he woke at 5am crying. I left him to it occaisionally going in and telling him to go back to sleep which he eventually did until around 6.45am. He probably cried on and off for 45 mins.

Haylstones - absolutely not crap advice! The milk must go! He is definitely too old to need milk and when I look at this situation objectively I realise how ridiculous it is. Regarding a different cup - he will hate it but may do as pattymc suggested and just leave water instead.

pattymc - I don't mind leaving him to cry when I know he is safe.

Giddykipper - I will try waking him a bit earlier and am not averse to temporary drug therapy to help break the cycle!

bethdivine - I don't think he would understand the bunny clock yet and def not old enough for a bed. I think he would be in and out of it all night!

Anyway as from tonight, no milk and no getting up at 5am either.