17mo dd waking between 5-7am, help!

[titferbrains]

Is this normal? She is waking at 5ish (4.45 today) and crying for a cuddle, I go in and either lie her down and rub her back or pick her up if she seems quite upset and after a few mins, lie her down again.

She then proceeds to rest for a bit and then just as I'm drifting back to sleep, she usually starts crying again and I do the same thing all over again, so I don't get much sleep between 5 and 7 and she spends a lot of time crying.

However, I know she needs to sleep at this time, if I hold her she is sleepy. She was going till 7 before xmas but being away from home for 2 weeks messed her up pretty badly (don't get me started on the irritation of having to visit family the whole time when it provided exactly NO rest for me or Dh, grrr.

I am very careful to do the same things and make nights "boring" but have no idea how to help her sleep longer and am really struggling with the pain of not knowing how much sleep I'll get each night...

She does a 2hr nap around 11 ish each day.

bumpo for you
Naps sound about right to me - if she was ok before will prob settle down if you keep doing what you're doing. poss offer a bit of water if she's woken up and being crying she may need a little but be careful hopefully another week will sort you out

presumably going to bed around 7pm ish if not try blackout blinds, or is poss heating waking her?

thanks don't think it's heating, that's almost constant due to recent cold.

very painful at the mo but as you say I hope that things will settle.

If she is awake throughout this time she needs " catch up" sleep eg she was awake for about an hour this am and then slept till 8. So as I say she needs to sleep at the time she is waking.

Will plod on. Feeling a bit gutted that another mum with a 16mo non-sleeper is asking about millpond....

If persists one thing you can try is postponing bedtime for 1 hour later, then may encourage her to get past 4/5 am then once shes going through to 7 again reduce back down every 3/4 days by 1/2 hour, to get back on track similar to what you would do with a time zone change.

thanks henrietta - funny enough we got in a bit later than expected tonight so she went to sleep later - so will see how she does.

I've just given up trying to anticipate what time she'll wake....

Have just been visiting a friend who is still breastfeeding her 1yo twins and they are still feeding thru the night... so grateful for small mercies, like the fact that I've only got ONE!