Early waking - please help with wake to sleep

[MHilton]

Hi

My son has always had trouble sleeping - day and night.  He had reflux for just over a year, which disturbed his night and day sleep and has suffered very badly with teething - each tooth has caused at least 3 weeks of pain for him.  His reflux is now better but he is still cutting teeth (6 to go!).

Our day is as follows:

Wakes any time from 5.30am - 6am - cries to be got up.
Soy milk 7am
Breakfast 8.30am
Nap 9.30/10  for 1 - 1.5hrs (is incredibly tired and I find it hard to keep him up longer)
lunch 12pm
Refuses to sleep at all in afternoon
soy milk and snack 3pm
Refuses to sleep again
Very tired by 4pm - may nod off for 15Min's if in car - but we pay for it at bed time!
dinner at 5pm
bath 6.15pm
in bed anywhere between 6.30 - 7pm (we cannot keep him up later than this as he is just sooooo tired). At night he will not go to sleep without me in the room and it takes between 15 Min's and 45Min's to settle. 

He has just started to sleep through the night again after 3 months of bad teething and waking 3/4 times a night.

My husband and I are so tired and desperate for him to sleep longer in the morning.  I tried 'wake to sleep' yesterday and today, going in at 5am and changing his nappy - although I'm not sure if I woke him enough.....but it didn't work, he still woke at 5.50am!

When he woke this morning I lay in his bedroom with him for 1.5hrs trying to coax him to lay down and go back to sleep - he kept yawning and almost trying to go back to sleep - I know he is still tired, but he just wouldn't settle!

Please can someone advise if:

Am expecting too much?
Should I push his bed time back?
Has anyone done wake to sleep with a toddler and what exactly did then do to get it to work?
Any other advice.......

Thank you

Miranda

[Harrisonsmummy]

Teething aside, it is often overtiredness that causes night wakings and early wake-ups and your lo sounds like a likely candidate! I cannot speak for wake-to-sleep, as my experience was that DS just woke up earlier!! I have hardly ever managed to get him back to sleep, and the most I have ever done is allowed a very early cat-nap of 30-40 minutes at 9am to tide him over - but generally I just give snacks and distraction until an early lunch and sleep!

I would really work on pushing the nap back, as he is only taking the one that is all you have to work on. If you can't go cold turkey and force him to stay awake until a later nap time, you will need to gradually push the nap back in stages, but at the same time bring bedtime forward as much as possible. You may have to live with the early mornings just until you have sorted his nap out and he is sleeping a decent amount, then you can move bedtime back again.

If you check some of the other threads out, most people have a great deal of success with early bedtimes, they stop night wakings and often help the early mornings too.

Sorry a bit gabbled, but something may help!

justine

[Ewan's Mummy]

Hi Miranda

I've just had a thread running with a similar problem to you as Ewan (14 months and also teething) was having a sleep around 9am and refusing his afternoon nap and then getting up very early (4am) and perpetually tired. 

I've cut to one nap which he currently takes at around 10.45 and that's what time he goes down regardless of when he wakes up (which is still more often than not 4am!) and a very consistant bedtime - in bed around 5.30/5.45pm asleep for 6pm.  Anyway, as I just posted on my thread today (after six days of this new very regular routine) he slept from 6.15pm until 5.45am (which I know is early for you but is a positive lie in for me!) and he's still asleep in his nap now and has been for 2.5 hours!) so I feel like he's finally catching up on sleep. 

So it's been a bit rough whilst establishing this routine but things are definately improving.  I make sure I give him a huge snack (almost a lunch) before I put him down for his nap to make sure he doesn't wake up hungry and give him another lunch when he wakes up.  I was like you and found it hard to keep him awake after 9am in the morning but following great advice on this site i just went for it and kept him up and now he's used to it. 

Anyway sorry to ramble, just wanted to say that it does get easier just be consistent!

[MHilton]

Hi there

Thanks to both of you for your advice, it is so good coming to the forum and reading that so many other people have the same difficulties and that there is a solution!

I have started today!  Oliver woke at 5.30am and I have managed to keep him up until 11.30am..... he nearly fell asleep in his high chair when I gave him his early lunch but we made it.  He's now fast asleep, fingers crossed he will sleep for more than 1 hour. 

I read in another thread that toddlers need to take their bed time sleep no more than 5 hours from waking from their nap, and that make sense as Oliver was always tired at 4pm.

Ewan's Mummy, what time did Ewan wake today... do you think you are getting there?

I will let you know how we get on in the next few days, thanks again.

[Ewan's Mummy]

Hi Miranda

Ewan woke at 4.45am this morning :-(  so nowhere near as impressive as yesterday but still better than the  bang on 4am we had been having.  I suppose I can't expect miracles, it's still only the first week of his new routine (must keep telling myself that!).  He was tired when he woke up but just wouldn't go back to sleep (I'm blaming the teeth!). 

Anyway, do keep us posted how you get on with your new routine.  I'm very curious, like you say, it's good to know that others are having the same experiences and how they are dealing with them.

Hope he's had a big long sleep this afternoon ;-)