Why is my 23 month old waking up sooo early?

[LucK]

My 23 months old has been waking up very very early starting couple of months ago.   The first twelve months she would wake up between 7:15 and 7:30 regularly and as she got older the sooner she started to wake up.  This worked for us, since I started work when she was 14 months.  For many months her wake up was between 6:30 to 6:50.  Generally we don’t go to her until 6:30 and she is happy in her crib playing.  The last two months her wake ups are around 5:45 and this morning she was up at 5:30.  I still don’t respond to her until 6:30.  She has black out blinds so the light is not an issue. 

Her regular day looks like this:

5:30 – 6:00 wake up – we don’t get her until 6:30
6:30 BF, get dressed
7:00 small breakfast at home if she asks
7:45 drop her at day care
8:30 breakfast
11:45/12 lunch
12:45 to 3:00ish nap
3:15 snack
3:45 pick up from day care
5:30 dinner
6:30/45 cereal snack, (I started to offer her other snacks in hopes she will stop BF which worked for few days only), bath, books, BF
7:30 bed (tends to be earlier around 7 if she is very tired)
 
I have notice and so has the day care provider that she is much to tired now and doesn’t have as much energy to run around as she normally did before her early wake up.  And then she is more cranky.  Otherwise, she is an independent sleeper and we don’t have problems getting her to sleep.  I find on the days that she goes to bed later or it takes her longer to fall asleep she tends to wake up just as early or even earlier.

I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks.

[LucySol]

i think she is OT at bedtime and thats why you are getting the EW.i would try bringing the nap earlier maybe at 12 and see if that helps.

[LucK]

She is in daycare and earlier nap times are not possible but I'll ask if perhaps they can put her down around 12:30. i don't think they can manage anything earlier because of walks and then lunch.

On the weekends we do let her have an earlier nap (based on when she is tired) but i don't see any difference.  Also I'm worried that early naps for two days will mess up rest of her week at the day care.

[LucySol]

ok,so what about an earlier bedtime for a while?

[LucK]

I can definitely try it.  How early would you suggest? 

If it takes her half an hour to fall asleep, should I still continue with the early bed time for a few days before I see a change?  (Just wondering because this happened in the past)

Thanks for your help.

[alohahellokitty]

I would do a earlier bedtime as well. Possibly 6:45-7pm and see if that helps a bit. Does she have all her teeth? If not she might be getting ready to start cutting her 2 year molars (or canines unless she already has). Teeth cutting really wears them out big time.

Does she fuss or cry upon waking? Or happily chat?

I would continue early bedtimes for 3-4 days to give her a chance to adapt to them. She might just go right off b/c it sounds like she's OT.

Good luck

[LucySol]

id go for 7ish too.ATM she is doing a 14 hr day so thats very long.i know Anna* had the same pproblem with nap times and daycare and then EW,il pm her and ask her to take a look,she may be able to give you some tips and tell you what she did/does.

[J & J's Mum]

We're having exactly the same here too   

DS goes to daycare 2 times a week where the nap is from 12.30.  We have constant EW at 5.15-5.30!!!  But she cries until I go in to her!! Also, she will not fall asleep unless I'm in her room with her!!!!!

[LucK]

Thanks for all your help....
I put her down at 7pm last night and she fell asleep right away.  She woke up just after 6am, so she had 1 extra hour of sleep.  I will continue this for the next few days and see how she does.  I don't think she is teething, usually she has a much tougher time with that including NW and fevers.

Do you think this will become her new bedtime or after a while I should just push it back to 7:30 in hopes she sleeps past 6/6:30?  The reason I ask, is that my DH doesn't get home until 6:30/7:00 so last night I asked him not to come in to see her if I'm getting her ready for bed, otherwise she gets really excited and even if she goes to bed earlier it takes her a while to fall asleep. 

i know Anna* had the same pproblem with nap times and daycare and then EW,il pm her and ask her to take a look,she may be able to give you some tips and tell you what she did/does.

I'll give it a try....

DS goes to daycare 2 times a week where the nap is from 12.30.  We have constant EW at 5.15-5.30!!!  But she cries until I go in to her!! Also, she will not fall asleep unless I'm in her room with her!!!!!

  I think you may need to get her to learn to sleep on her own, we did WiWo few months back after she got used to sleeping with us when she was sick and then teething.  She used to go to sleep on her own before then and the WiWo helped to break the habit.

[LucySol]

id give her a few days to catch up and combat the OT and then go gradually on the bedtime.maybe 15 mins later for a few days and see x

[anna*]

It's great that she's getting extra sleep. I would stick with the early bedtime for a few nights, then you can start to gradually move it back. Other thoughts I have are to make sure her bedroom is really really dark. Not sure where in the world you are, but here the mornings are getting light by 5am so if that morning light is coming in her curtains, it may well be waking her. The other thing is to try a wake up light on a timer - I had AMAZING results with this: Lucy, did you have success?

[LucK]

I have black out shades, so her room stays dark....but I was wondering the same if her EW may have gotten worse after the time change (I'm in Toronto and it gets light her around 5 too)

The other thing is to try a wake up light on a timer - I had AMAZING results with this: Lucy, did you have success?

  never heard of this....did you have the light go on at a certain time to signal to her it is time to wake up?  otherwise you don't respond?

[LucySol]

yep,i had brilliant results with the light on a timer.i had a 5.30am waker for 12 months,since doing the timer i now have to wake her or the lights wake her when they come on at 7am!!!!!

yep you set the lights to come on at a certain time,i had to do WIWO to get her to the time to begin with but made a huge thing when the lights came on.she soon got it,it took less than a week.At first i set the timer for 6am then as she got better at waiting i gradually pushed the timer on 10 mins at a time till we got to 7am.

[anna*]

Lucy did fairy lights on a timer switch, I got the GroClock (which shows a moon nightlight when it is night and a sunshine comes on when it is morning). Stan's light comes on at 7.10 and 3-4 days a week I have to wake him up at 7.30 (he still goes to bed at 7.30). This is after 15 months of 5.30am wake ups.

[LucK]

I've been keeping the early bedtime the last few nights and it seems to work every other day.  So one day she is up 6ish the next night she is up 5:30ish.  She is up earlier when it takes her a while to fall asleep.  I'm going to try the lights on a timer because I think it will have to signal to her when to wake up.  Still hoping she will sleep to 6:30 one of these days.

The day care provider has told me she hasn't been napping well either.  Normally she sleeps 2 to 3 hours and last few days the naps were much shorter, yesterday only 45 minutes.  Her diaper was dirty each time, so perhaps it was a coincidance.  I'll see how she does over the weekend.