help me, i'm soooooo tired!

[dancingbear]

Hello!

Well as the title says i am so ridiculously tired! I just found out i am pg again with baby no.2 (prob about 8 weeks now) so that accounts for some of the tiredness. However my dd is 13 months now and up every day between 4.45 and 5.15am. AAARGH. Seems to be a common problem but i wondered if anyone could make any suggestions on how to tackle this. We've just come back from a visit to my mum and dads for 5 days which didn't help as she refused to nap in the cot there so had all her sleeps in the day in buggy or car 
First day back today and she went for her am nap fine in her cot so maybe it was just being in a strange place?

Anyway here's a typical day at the mo:

5.00 wake
5.15 breasfeed (usually falls asleep or dozes for 1 hr while feeding and so do I  )
7.30 breakfast
9.00 NAP 1 (30-60 mins ,never let her go for more than 1 hr)
10.00 snack and juice
12.00 lunch
1.00-1.30 NAP 2 (up to 1hr 20 mins, while away it was more like 40-50mins)
5.00 dinner
6.30 bath
7.45 bottle and bed

usually asleep by 7.00-7.15pm

Am i making things worse for myslef by letting her nod off during the morning feed? I'm just so knackered that its hard to face starting the day so early.

Any suggestions most welcome before i keel over!

emma x

[Layla]

So really, she is waking in the early hours of the morning & then continues her night sleep until 6?

7.45 bottle and bed

usually asleep by 7.00-7.15pm

Wanted to confirm - is she asleep by 7-7.15 or 8-8.15?

[dancingbear]

Hi

yes she's asleep by 7.00-7.15 usually. And yes i guess she is continuing her night sleep til 6, just not in her cot unfortunately!

I am wanting to stop bf'ing soon so will need to cut out that morning feed/snuggle soon anyway and if its contributing to these early wakes then i am definitely up for losing it!

thanks

emma x

[dkjokisch]

It doesn't sound like she's getting alot of daytime sleep.  Overtiredness can lead to early AM wake-ups, and a prolonged nursing/cuddle session is def reinforcing it.  Have you tried moving the PM nap a little later to get a longer nap?

[dancingbear]

Any suggestions on timing for this nap, should i also have an earlier bedtime? I guess when i drop the long bf/nap in the morning my whole day will shift earlier.

Was considering waking her in the night and making her eat lots of chips - joke. Honestly, i will try anything!

emma x

[Layla]

Emma - you could try for 1 nap but she might not be ready yet. At 13months, some struggle to transition to 1 nap.... The naps (as posted) seem ok to me... as long as she is doing 1.5hrs in the afternoon. So I think the issue is that she has learnt that when she wakes in the early hours of the morning, she will be BF back to sleep.

I don't think its necessary to wean altogether but if you want to, that will help the situation a little better. Are you familiar with any of the sleep training methods for toddlers? I would do pd or wi/wo for that last hour to help her get back to sleep. You might have better luck her settling with daddy than with you becuase she knows he can't BF her. IF she doesn't return back to sleep, thats ok.... start the day at 6am & continue on with the morning nap at 9am. Don't adjust the morning nap to her 5am wake up because that will only shift her day to 5am starts. Keep the morning nap to 45mins long & do the afternoon nap at around 1.30-3pm. It might take her a few weeks (or maybe sooner) but eventually, if every morning that she wakes, you will do pd or wi/wo rather than BF, she will learn to sleep the whole 11hrs uninterrupted.

Here's the link - https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63896.0

Let me know what you think
Layla

[dancingbear]

Thanks layla

gonna try this and see how we get on.

Today has been a cr*p day! She was up at 5am as usual nd fell asleep on the boob as usual. Went for a nap at 9 and slept for 50 mins, then tried to put her down again a bit later than usual at 1.30 but she was having NONE of it, screaming and refusing to lie down, so after half an hour of battling i put her in the buggy and headed out and she was asleep by the end of the road  but only slept for 20 mins! Then went to baby group and had her weighed and she has lost 3.5 oz in the last couple of weeks and is down from the 25th to the 9th centile. She is allergic to dairy and until i see a dietician (appt at the end of the month) the health visitor advised me to keep bf'ing til then as she needs the extra calories, so no weaning for a few more weeks.

Gonna put her to bed early today and start tomorrow by trying to keep her in the cot til 6am and only feed her after that but not let her fall asleep, i may even give her juice/brekkie first and milk after to make sure she stays awake.

Thansk for the suggestions, i'll keep u posted!

emma x (zzzzzzzzzz!)

[Layla]

How are you doing Emma?