sudden 5.00am wakeups?

ok, DS has started to regularly wake crying around 5am ... anytime between 4am and 5.30am.

he (for the past year) has generally had to be woken up by us around 6.30am, as that's when I leave for work.

generally, he'll take a full bottle, and then go back to sleep, but sometimes will continue to wake and self settle periodically from then until when we get up at 6am.

it is not improved if we just bring him into bed with us when he wakes - he still sometimes will continue to wake, self settle, sleep, wake, self settle, sleep, etc ...

this is very bad for me, as my morning sickness is much worse if I haven't had a proper night's sleep ...

and obviously, it's assumedly not much fun for DS either. he's still tired - as he will continue to self settle whether in bed with us or in his room ...

no fever, room temp is fine, no obvious discomfort, not teething, nappy fine ...

and I don't think it's bad dreams, as he would not have a chance to get back into a dream pattern between self settling and re-waking.

ideas?

Is it the light in the room? Ie more sunlight as we get closer to summer? That happens to all of my kids around this time of year - they always seem to sleep much longer in winter time!

a valid question, but no, it's quite dark in there ...

any other ideas?

Just wanted to subscribe, DS is doing the exact same thing, he has always been a champion sleeper and would sleep 10-12 hours straight no questions asked, but in the last few weeks he's been harder to get to sleep to start with and generally wakes again at about 10pm and needs soothing back to sleep, then on some nights he'll wake several times during the night or sleep through til 5am instead of the usual 7am. Same thing, no obvious discomfort, nappy is fine, he's not teething (though we do give him bonjela JIC) is room is a comfortable temp as is he and it's still dark. He's also fine to go back to sleep being held but is histerical if we leave him in the cot or try to put him down before he's completely back to sleep. I can't stand him sleeping with us coz he punches and kicks and wriggles and it drives me nuts. Sorry for no advice, but you aren't alone! Someone help us lol

Hi there!
DS has been a world class night sleeper since early on (sorry!) but he started waking between 4:30am and 5:30am a good few months ago. I go in, make sure he's got blankie and dummy, tell him to lie down, pat his back and leave, all in less than a minute, and he usually naps on and off until he wakes around 6:30am. No obvious signs of anything wrong, I didn't think the room was too light, cold etc
About 2 weeks ago I bought blackout curtains and put those up over his blinds. It's taken about a week, but DS has slept through without the early morning wake up three times in the last five days! And, the mornings he has woken, he's gone back to a deeper sleep rather than waking every 20mins or so. He's even had a couple of mornings where he's slept past 7am! So maybe blackout curtains are worth a try, even if you think that light isn't the issue.
HTH ;)

I'd try adjusting his bedtime to half any hour earlier. Sounds crazy I know but it worked here.

Not to be all gloom and doom, but we had over a year of this. Started at around the 12 month mark and we are only starting to see some improvements now. I tried everything under the sun, from going to bed earlier, to going to bed later, to laying on the floor in his room, to bringing him into bed with us etc etc... None of it worked. Until one day about a month ago when he slept to 6.30am completely out of the blue (the best we'd had in the year beforehand was 5.45am). Since then we've gradually been getting more and more 6am or laters...

I think some toddlers just do this for some unknown reason. There are heaps of threads on here from others who've been through the same thing and I know one of my nieces went through a similar thing which gradually changed after she turned two.

Sorry to be so depressing, just my experience. Hopefully yours is very, very different :hug:

wow, I hope it doesn't last that long!!!

I'm hoping that maybe if he eats more in the afternoon and evening he'll sleep longer ...

we'll see :)

Could he be cold P? That's the coldest part of the night... Might be waking him up?

I wondered that, and so we actually chucked the heating on a few nights at 18-20 to make sure his room kept warm - but no bone :(

I'm suspecting growth spurt and him getting hungries - because last night, he woke around 4.20am so I did a bottle, gave it to him, and he slept until 8am!!

:o

Hmm. I think ur DS has joined the same rebel gang my DD is in :rofl: maybe they are waking to have secret meetings about us lol. Eitherway would love to know the answer to this one. Meanwhile I hope things improve soon :)


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