12mths old and driving us mad!!!!

[Toothache]

Dd is 1 next week. She's always been a very good sleeper (compared to ds-4), but in the last month or so she has started waking up at 5am and singing really loudly!!!! They share a room so ds wakes up too so is shattered by 5 or 6pm.
We just let her sing away until about 6.30am when we have to get up anyway.

BUT... the last few mornings she has been waking up at 5am and pooing!!!! Since she hates having a dirty nappy she starts crying. Once you change her nappy she will NOT go back to her cot, she just wants her breakfast and to play.

She goes to bed at 7.30pm and sends herself off to sleep by about 8pm(VERY lucky, ds didn't do this until he was 3.5yrs).

We tried keeping her up later, but she's just SO crabby and cries to go to bed.

Help??

Bump anyone?

Argh!

How dark is her room? DD started waking at 5am when the bright mornings came, once we got it darker, she slept longer.

Other than that, no helpful suggestions I'm afraid.

I don't know what to suggest someone who has been through this will be along soon. My DD goes down at 8.30pm (so her Daddy can see her during the week) she then sleeps in her cot to 12 or 1 when she comes in with us and sleeps through until 8-9am. Not ideal I know but it's the best we can do in the circumstances.

will she come into your bed and lie quietly after her nappy is changed? then she won't disturb ds.

Sounds grim. When does she have her dinner? Could you feed her earlier to see if she'll poo before bed instead? Maybe switch her main meal to the middle of the day if you usualy do it at night and see if that changes her bowel movements?

Definately second the black out thing. We currently have a piece of MDF in ds's window to make the room very dark. This stopped him waking at 5.45am.

Hopefully it's just a wee phase...
Happy Birthday to your dd for next week.

Thanks folks.
FS - She has black out blinds.

Ds used to come into our bed all the time, he would just snuggle in a drop off to sleep. But not dd!!!! Noooooooooooooooo, she wants to: climb over you, poke your eyes, kick the covers off giggling, scratch your face..... and pull hair. No way will she sleep.

Just hoping this is a phase!!!!

You could try the 'Wake to Sleep' method which I found worked. (Baby Whisperer) This means you have to gently stir her an hour before she normally wakes up. The idea being that you wake her slightly and she goes back into a deep sleep which should result in a later wake up. I found it worked after 3 days. A pain to get up so early but I'd say worth a try.

agree with experimenting with moving her main meals around to try and change her bowel movements. Ds has his main meal at lunchtime and 99% of the time will have a poo about 6.30 - just before his bath.(phew).