Why is she waking at 4 or 5am???

Well I am in desperate need of some advice or ideas here...

DD has never been a fantastic sleeper but from about maybe 10mths she was consistently doing about 10-12hrs at night, often with a wake up or two where she'd either just chat for a bit then go back to sleep or a quick cuddle/drink of water required from me after which she'd go straight back to sleep. She'd go down some time around 7pm and wake some time around 6 or 7am.

When I went back to work when she was 11mths, we had to start waking her earlier (6.30, sometimes 6.15am) to get her up and ready. She seemed to adjust to this ok and we sometimes would pull her bedtime back to 6.30pm if she seemed overly tired.

She's now approaching 14mths and for the last probably 2wks she has been waking every morning between 4 and 6am and is unable to go back to sleep. She starts out grizzling, I tried giving her a quick drink of water but she'd just get more worked up. I tried leaving her and same thing, more worked up. Tried rocking, same thing.

The only thing that has settled her the last three mornings (3am, 6am and 5am respectively) has been booby.

DH thinks she is hungry and has suggested I start doing a rollover feed - but I'm reluctant to introduce this when she hasn't been fed overnight or even before 6am since she was about 6mths old. I see this as a bit of a backwards step.

She eats pretty well during the day - toast and fruit or yoghurt before her first sleep, then something for lunch (roll, veges, pasta, whatever I have) and then snacks like more fruit, breadstick, museli bar before afternoon sleep, then something when she wakes up (maybe a banana smoothie or some cheese) then generally whatever we are having for tea. She drinks stacks of milk during the day too but only two BFs, first and last thing.

She can't be cold - we are dressing her at the moment in a singlet, l/s no leg bodysuit, two piece PJs (flannelette), 2.5tog sleeping bag, two cotton blankets and a polar fleece blanket (polar fleece only added this week as its so freezing in Melb at the moment).

She's not hot - I feel the back of her neck when I pick her up.

Any other ideas why she would be waking at this time???? DH and I are struggling with these early mornings and so is she...

Hi

Im with your DH she is waking cause she is wants milk .... try her on a bottle of cows milk and see if that helps ...

My DS is 22 mths and still waking at times overnight and i give him a bottle on occassions.

In my experience it doesnt matter how much the bub eat during the day at night the use up alot of energy sleeping and if she is having a growth spurt then she probably needs a feed.

cheers

Thanks for the response and suggestion - he was basing that on the fact that he gave her a sippy cup with milk and she did chug it down straight away.

The problem then was she didn't want to go back to sleep and still seemed to want a BF.

Maybe we try warming it up a bit and giving it to her in her room - he had to take her out to the kitchen which might have woken her right up??

:dunno:

OP - she might be hungry but I would give her warm milk in the bottle in her room, even while she is in bed. If she woke right up then she may have wanted a BF to help comfort her back to sleep. Maybe get a bottle ready and have it in the fridge so if she wakes up you can warm it quickly and get it to her in her room before she wakes herself completely.

Could be just a phase.. If booby settles her back down, is there much harm in that? give her booby and put her back to bed. It could just be a stage. Also keep in mind it would have been (6-7am, 1.5 weeks ago from daylight savings).

She might be ready for just one day sleep. We have transitioned slowly to one day sleep between 11:30am and 1:30pm (in fact I am boobing her to sleep now).

During the transition phase she had some days where she had two sleeps and she either wouldn't go to bed till 9pm or we would be up at 5am!

Try pushing back the first sleep by ten mins each day and the wakng her from a second sleep a bit earlier each time...so eventually the arvo sleep is a catnap and then nothing, while morning sleep becomes a middle if the day sleep.

HTH! I too would refrain from introducing more milk feeds!

Thanks for the replies girls...

I hadn't thought about one day sleep - usually 3hrs is the most awake time we can get out of her, in fact today (after the 4am grizzle, 5am wide awake) she was down by 9am and slept til noon apparently (at my mum's house).

Dh just picked her up and she had a 45min sleep in the car on the way home, so maybe I'll see how she goes tonight.

Nai - that's a great idea about having a bottle ready and giving it to her in bed. We will have one on hand tonight...

MM - the only problem with re-introducing booby is we worked so hard to stop the night feeds, then the early morning feeds, I don't want to go backwards. I had thought of the time change but I don't think its to blame as the time isn't consistent, it isn't 5am every night, varies between 2am and 5am...

We'll see how we go tonight.

GL hun, let us know how you go.

Dd was pretty grumpy while transitioning to one sleep but it's been so worthwhile. Sometimes she even sleeps in till 8 am. Bliss!

GL!!

:hug: Just thought I'd put it out there that the night can get to its coldest at about 4am. I know you're dressing her warmly...maybe just the chill on her face wakes her?

I was thinking along the same lines as Nelle. DS has just started waking at roughly 4am too so I started dressing him much warmer and he is settling again. He was wanting booby when he woke up but I think it was more snuggling up to mummy under a blanket rather than wanting a feed.
This guessing game is so damn hard - Good luck.

My DS is doing exactly the same thing at the moment, he's going down just before 7pm and sleeping straight through till around 5am. I'm giving him a bf when he wakes up and then putting him back to bed but he's not going back to sleep :wall:

Part of me thinks it's the effect of daylight savings (he always woke up about 6am before daylight savings changed), but then I'm also toying with the idea of doing a rollover/dreamfeed when I go to bed because he seems to sleep 10 hours consistently and I can't help but wonder if it is hunger waking him up... Mind you I dropped the dream feed a couple of months ago because he would rarely take it and I was ending up waking him up for no reason and causing more trouble than it was worth...

Hmmm I might give the dreamfeed a go tonight and let you know how I go...

I dropped DD's sleep to 1 at 12 months old. She was having 2 probably hour naps and went down to one about 3 hour nap. HTH

how are thinngs going hun??? we've had a few early starts too this week :(