Won't sleep past 4am

[visitor2]

Since Eleanor was sick she has now started to wake at 4am sometimes it 4.30am. It doesn't matter how much sleep she gets during the day and what time she goes to bed she is always awake at that time.

Is there anything i can try before she goes to bed to get her to sleep longer again ?

She goes to bed between 5 & 6pm. When she wakes she takes around 2-3hrs to get back to sleep so that is my day started.
I don't want to try a dream because she is so hard to get back to sleep when she wakes.

If there is nothing i can't do for her to get her to sleep later is there something i can take to keep me going ?

[Cricket]

Oh that is frustrating isn't it! As if you aren't already short on sleep, with three little ones! I don't really have a great suggestion/solution, except to maybe try bumping her bedtime back a little (maybe 6:30-7:00) and establish a bedtime routine. I find my kids sleep the best if we finish supper, have a bath, put on their favourite cream (I think the smell helps), put on pyjamas, sing their bedtime prayer, give kisses, and say goodnight. It's not a elaborate routine, really, but it seems to help them settle and wind down for bed, so that they sleep deeply until the morning.
A friend of mine, though, had a little guy who got up every morning at 5:00. Nothing she did would change that, until he finally outgrew it, and started sleeping more "normal" hours.
I hope you find a good solution!

[krisp]

I agree with the bedtime routine idea. Our DS has always had a bed time routine, again nothing elaborate, just play with daddy, bath, bottle, songs and bed. He goes to bed at 7.30 now but it used to be 7pm up until about 8 months ago. He has just now started to sleep through the night (YAY!!!) but the trade off is he wakes a little earlier - it's now 6.30-7 whereas it used to be 7-7.30. We also put blockout blinds on his window under the curtain to shut out the light as he would wake at 5.30 as soon as the sun came up but as it's nice and dark in his room now he seems to sleep better.

I don't think there is any real solution, sleeping is something that babies just seem to change as they grow and maybe that's just what your little one needs right now. I used to tear my hair out that even at almost 18 months our DS wouldn't sleep through but he got it when he was ready.

Patience is very hard I know when you are tired but other than waiting for her to grow out of it I really don't have any other solution for you, sorry!!

[visitor2]

We do stick to a routine for all of them at bedtime. Eleanor has her bath first, then a little play, milk and then held until she is alseep.
She won't go down in her cot awake she always has to be asleep.

I'm used to the early wake up anyway but can cope better when it's 5 or 6am. The other two have always woken up early.

It doesn't help that she won't sleep much during the day the longest she has slept during the day is 3hrs and that has only happened a few times.

I'll change her to a later bedtime and see what happens but when she went to bed at 7.30pm the other night she was still awake at 4.30am. I have tried to leave her until she gets really upset but it doesn't take long for that to happen.

[Clarrie]

Hey there Michelle. Bonnie is the same age as Eleanor and we have noticed a similar thing lately, so maybe it's an age thing? We also have a watertight routine.

We're a little bit luckier, because about 70% of the time she goes back to sleep for another hour or so. But the rest of the time, we're in the same boat - I mean, Sunrise isn't even on the telly at that time!

Last week I did a bit of research on this early waking deal and here's what the "experts" say...

Ferber (yes, I know Ferber's stance on settling and scheduling is pretty hideous, but some of his general info on sleep is pretty good). Don't just move bub's bedtime to be later, but rather stretch out the entire routine by quarter of an hour each day (eg. stretch out the first nap to start later, stretch out feeding times and bedtime). Also - ensuring that daytime naps do not exceed 3 hours total. Honestly, I tried this and got some success but I gave up because I felt like such a meanie keeping Bonnie awake for over 3 hours first thing in the morning and making her have shorter naps- so I'm just dealing with the issue and waiting for the phase to pass.

Weissbluth (even more full-on advice when it comes to settling babies). He says to put your baby to bed earlier, but since you've already got an early bedtime - I dunno.

Generally, I'm finding that at this age (approach 8 months) that lots of babies start to have wacky schedules, judging from Bonnie and my mothers' group. She's sleeping a full 10 hours in a row at nighttime, but naptimes are going crazy with her and this early waking thing as well, something must be going in their noggins at the moment!

[shellbell3]

I'd also suggest pushing back bedtime maybe just a bit every couple nights til she adjusts. say 15mins or something?
If she goes to bed usually between 5-6 and gets up 4-4:30 then she has had bout 11 hours sleep so she prolly thinks thats enuff.