Support and Chat thread for parents of Early Waking Toddlers #2

[lilalley]

Here too

[MomofCharlie]

Hi,
I'm looking for advice. My 25 month old has always been an early waker (4:30 or 5 am), and despite trying so much over the past year (wake to sleep, slowly moving bedtime a bit later, fiddling with his nap), nothing changed it, and we accepted it. EXCEPT... for the past 3 nights, it's been 3 am. Seriously. And he's up. For the day. Negotiating, put-down or anything seems make a difference. He is up, end of story.
Bedtime is at 7:20 pm; nap is from 12 to 2 during the week at daycare, 11 til 2 on weekends. He's a good eater, enormous babe (35 lbs), very mild-mannered and sensitive. If I even let him cry for 2 minute intervals by taking my time getting down the hall to him, he will stutter all day the following day. It's so sad.

What am I missing? We can't function like this. It's affecting me, DS and our older son, as no one can sleep once "Bam-Bam" is up. Help please!!

Allison

[MomofCharlie]

And from reading a few posts here and around the site, I see that my DS takes regular EW to a whole new level! We'd be so happy with a 5:45 morning!!! How sad is that?

[lilly_kitt]

Hi

Tyler is 16 months old and has just started waking at 5.50am on the dot, i'm not sure if its the birds that wake him up, but he's wide awake when he's up.  He then has to have a nap at 9.45 for an hour and then yesterday he had another 1 hour at 2-3pm.  When he woke at 6.30-7 he would just have the one nap after lunch and be fine.  Last night he was also very unsettled so i thought he had another tooth on the way, medicated before bed.

Any ideas

[Lizzie Lou]

I am almost ready to lose the plot I think! I have a wonderful spirited DS who is 28month. He (thanks to BW) has always been a great sleeper, like fab! I had DD 17 weeks ago and since I have bought her home, DS has been EW. I know its a reaction to a new sis, but am running out of ideas!
So EW is anytime from 4.30 to 6.30, we have invested in a Gro Clock and set it to 6.15am, he wakes up, looks at the clock, understands the concept but STILL comes in our room whatever time he opens his eyes, I take him back do the whole cloack routine AGAIN and that can happen lots of times! It has been 3 weeks now with the clock, how long should it take?
This is affecting his behaviour as OT and eating! He still had a beaker of milk in the morning and this is what he wants when he comes in our room, do you think that is the issue?
Bedtime is always the same , and runs well and he fals to sleep no problem!
Routine:
Wake 4.40 - 6.30
Milk in beaker
E 7.30  -whatever time wake
E lunch 11.30-12.30 depend on wake time , eats maybe half
Nap 12-1 - depending on what time he has woken that day, for 2 hours (I wake after 2 hours)
Tea 5.30 wont eat
Bath and Bed 6.30 - 7pm depend on wake time

DS always wants a snack when woken from his nap and I give him fresh fruit or rice cakes. So anyone got any ideas here? Any advice would be appreciated! Am just sooooo tired!

[essexlemon]

Allison I don't know what to suggest especially as your DS is so sensitive but (((hugs)))

Do you do anything like taking him back to bed with you when he wakes, anything like that? With our DS I started insisting he had to sit with me until at least 5am before DH could get up to him as he wsn't waking for food but for extra playtime with Daddy. Is there anything that is making it worth his while to wake early?

Also, as your LO's wake up time has suddenly shifted, DS always has his worst EW's if there is any upheaval and when he is teething. Is there any sign that anything is 'up'?

[anna*]

How about putting a stairgate up at his bedroom door so he CAN't come into your room?

[Brock~Tahlia~Mummy]

I'm back!!! We had some EWs some months back and they're back! We've had a few 4.45am-5.15am...
Our last bout of EWs were at 15-16 mos (I'll have to check back on this thread).
I think he's getting early 2 year molars. His naps have shortened too. We were getting lovely 2-3hour naps, now they're looking more like 1 1/2. So he's really starting to get OT. We've also started slowly PT and he's recognizing when he needs to pee. He's really trying to rip his nappy off of late, usually when I get him up his nappy is scrunched and the tabs are loose. Ohhh who knows??!!
Will need to bring all sleep times forward in hope he's got himself in an OT cycle and this will hopefully help. (fingers crossed).


Hugs all! EWs are tirrrrring... Yawn...
Xxx

[Tweakster]

It IS tiring.  Dare I say our EW are at bay since all teeth are in.  Correlation or not, I have noticed a huge difference overall.

Duct tape for the nappy at naptime!

[Brock~Tahlia~Mummy]

I've put some training pants over the nappy to stop it being messed with! Duct tape was next! Lol Although I'm lol about the last 2 days! We had a 4.15 yesterday and a 3.15 this morning, luckily after an 1 1/2 hour of chatting, whinging and playing he went back to sleep and woke at 6.15. Unfortunately though (yesterday) I got him up at 6 am and he'd been snoozing on and off (I think) since 4.15! Ok so this is new to me! I though his last boughts of EWs were early! I'm continuing to put him down early for all sleeps... Fingers crossed. I wonder if it's the 2 year molars? He has all his teeth bar two year molars, surely it can't be? Besides he isn't crying when he wakes? It's almost UT signs, yet he is acting OT and has teething signs, he's shoving his fingers right down the back of his mouth almost gagging. oh well! IDK!    

[EloysH]

just wanted to chime in that our 13 month old EW's when he is teething.  I put it down to him being too uncomfortable in those early hours when he is stirring, and the pain meds have worn off..... so he wakes the house up including his brother at 5am  

[Brock~Tahlia~Mummy]

Ohhh....Wendy Hugs xxx
 I actually cried the other day( it's been a while since I've shed a tear over sleeping!)
 I woke to raspberries and machine sounds at 4.15am the other morning! Then the next night a 3am party in his cot!
I'm still bringing all sleeps forward. He was sooo tired the otherday he cried so much from around 8.30am Until I put him down for a nap at 11 ( he slept 3 1/2 hours!!). Anyway that morning I ended up taking him in to the drs!
He was just so tired and hungry. He's so sensitive about eating that in "normal" circstances meal times need to be ideal for Brock to eat. So being so tired also affected his eating, that day was a tough one!  The dr gave him the all clear BTW...
I'm getting a Baltic Amber teething necklace in hope it may help if he is getting early 2 year molars?
He woke this morning at 4.30-chatting, then by 5am he started crying so I WIWO until 5.30 for 15 mins then he stopped crying and either slept for 20 mins or played very quietly. I'm Not getting him out of his room until 6, I tried this approach a few months back and it worked (eventually). It worked before so I'm hoping it will work this time around. I need to try and resolve this so we dint experience another day where he was just a mess.
I use the opening the curtain as a time to wake up cue and tell him ok time to get up now! Ahhh these LOs! I'm sure they're getting smarter!

Hugs all xx

[essexlemon]

We've finally Sussex that EW's are an early warning that DS has an ear infection coming. Once the NW's start up as well it's usually bad enough for the Dr to give him antibiotics.

Usual pattern is:

Starts getting over infection. Wake up edges closer to 5am then 5.30 and even... wait for it ... 6am !!!!!!!

We start putting the flags out.

Wake ups edge back to 5.30 then 4.30 then 4am. I book the Dr's. They look in his ears and say no problems. Wake ups continue at around 4am for a few days the NW's start. Once we get a 3hr or will not settle, no way no how, up at 1am and doesn't go back to sleep style wake up we go back to the Dr - they look in his ears and agree that he definitely needs antibiotics.

There never seems to be any sign of trouble in his ears until we get that really big wake up but the build up is always the same. The only variable is that sometimes it hits nap times too but sometimes not.

After a course of antibiotics recently DH was beside himself with worry because DS didn't wake until nearly 6.45. Wish he did that every day

[Bel]

We seem to have sorted our EW for now thanks to *Wendy*'s great suggestion (buried in a recent thread) to move nap time later. After three days I had to wake DS for the first time ever from a nap (heading beyond 2 1/2hrs) and morning wakes shifted from 5.15 to 6.15. I think the secret was extending his A time.
However along with this, BT was moving from 6.30/7pm to 7.30/8pm. The shorter evenings are a minor sacrifice to the new 'sleep ins'. We are happy and crossing our fingers that it lasts!!!

[camsyummymummy]

Hi all

Very new here, I have a 12 month old darling boy who used to sleep wonderfully (thought we had it made when he was tiny - he slept through from 3 months  ) but then he hit the 9 month sleep regression and from then on it has generally gone from bad to worse.  He has woken no later than 4.30am for the last week and this morning it was 3.45am (we did WI/WO for an hour when he finally went back to sleep for an hour - I on the other hand just lay there waiting for him to wake  so have been on the go for a while  ). 
He (usually) wakes around 5/5.30 and is BF almost straight away - he screams the house down until he gets this!
We go downstairs and he has breakfast
10is he has a nap and then he has a beaker of milk
12pm lunch
2.30is 2nd nap followed by beaker of milk
5.30pm teatime
7pm bf then bath, book and bed - he has been soothing himself off for 7.30pm the last few days, but sometimes he needs his back patted/rubbed for a few minutes until he goes off.
Naps vary from 30/40 mins to 1.5/2 hours depending on what he feels like!

He is generally a happy little soul through the day and I am resigned to early wakings, but 3.45 is a bit much! I plan to put a post on toddler sleep and see if I get any advice - in the meantime I'll pop the matchsticks in!
He has only had the one nap so far today (he doesn't see to want the afternoon one) so I'll see what happens tonight.  I'm wondering if he is ready to drop the 2nd nap, but I'm not sure how to do this as I work 3 days a week and he does to the childminder.  She is near to where I work which is half an hour from home so he often has a snooze on the way there which would scupper things a bit  .  Any ideas?

On a different note (don't know if this has been suggested before) I found some research on the Internet which had shown that early waking adult insomniacs who were given the use of a UV light box half an hour of so before bed ended up no longer having insomnia.  Having thought about this I decided to try taking Cameron for a walk each evening before bed (in the summer obviously) to see if this would help.  When I did it when he was 10 months old it worked like a charm - we had 6.30am wake ups for a few weeks - but then he got sick and it all went out the window.  We still go for our walk, but the magic seems to have gone!  However you may want to try it to see if it works!  If you can't get out for the walk I guess  30 mins or so playing in the garden would have the same effect - it's all to do with UV light.