Early wakings?

[Carmela's Mom]

My son has been waking anywhere from 4:30-6:00 to wake.  Every time he does, I check Carmela's monitor (we have one where we can see her) and she is awake!     She isn't talking just knotting up her hair or rolling around.  It takes me 45 mins to feed the baby and get back into bed.  When I do she is still awake.  I fall back asleep as she is not crying and I don't hear her until 7:00-7:30ish!  Now I have no clue if she falls back asleep or not but she does appear tired in the morning.  She's not very cranky -- just tired looking.  It could be me looking too into things???  Right now this is our schedule...nap time is definitely doing better since I moved it to 12 (from 1).  Bedtime is very unstable.  We are trying to find the right time for her.  It normally takes 45 mins for her to fall asleep.

7:30 awake and eat
11:00 lunch
11:30 begin nap time routine
12:00 nap (anywhere from 1.5-2 hours)
2:00 wake
3:00 snack then outside play
5:30 dinner
6:00 bath
6:30-7:30 play inside
7:30 begin bedtime routine
8:00 in bed

8:30-8:45 asleep

My question is -- since she's not crying or doesn't need me, should I assume she's going back to sleep and keep our 8:00 bedtime or should I push it up to 7:30 and see if that helps?  I really don't know what to do.  I have tried every bedtime under the sun.  At 8:00 she has this issue but at 7:30 it seems to take forever for her to fall asleep.  Suggestions??

[imsmum]

I know you are exhausted with the 2 lo's but is there any way you can keep yourself up --or better yet, give dh the job--and just see if she does fall asleep again? Or set your alarm if ds isn't in your room for 6:45 or so to see if she is awake?  If you can figue out whether she sleeps or not after being woken by your ds you'll know whether you should move bedtime sooner. 

[Carmela's Mom]

That's the thing.  I don't know WHY she is waking.  My son is in my room and I really don't think she can hear him.  I think she's already up prior to him waking.  I don't know.  DH leaves for work at 5 a.m. so he is little help.  I just know that today she is being a BEAR.  She's been pretty good despite the wakings all week, but I guess it's catching up to her today? 

[imsmum]

 I know with my dd it takes very little to wake her from about 4 o'clock onwards so you may be surprised that it is actually taking very little noise to wake her.  It may be that she is overtired at bedtime though and is waking early because she is going down too late.  I find it really difficult too to get my dd to sleep early--she'll just chatter away for up to 1 hour-- but I just keep putting her in early since she doesn't seem to mind doing that and if she needs to go to sleep early then at least she's in her crib.  So I would definitely try to move the bedtime  a half hour earlier especially now that you have the earlier nap to see if that helps.

[Carmela's Mom]

I think we are going to stick with the 7:30.  I have to talk to DH about it tonight and see what he says.  I'll see if it takes her longer than an hour to fall asleep...if so, then I am better off doing 8:00 and having it take 45 mins ya know?

[Katet]

If you didn't have the monitor & wasn't woken yourself you wouldn't know... I'd say leave it, it is normal for babies toddlers to wake in the night & just play... if she needed the sleep she would actually be asleep or calling out to you... the fact she is a bear in the day, could well be more about being displaced by a new baby brother... my neice has always taken 45mins to "talk" herself to sleep & apparently around the 2yo age used to be awake playing for 2-4 hours at night for about 6 months & then it stopped, when she gave up napping.

[Carmela's Mom]

Thanks Katet.  I think you may be right.  She is napping just about everyday (as long as I get her in early enough) and really is good on most days.  I think yesterday she didn't fall asleep, but I think she does most days.  This morning I kept the monitor on all morning.  Joey woke at 4:30 and when I turned on her monitor (right away before I even got him) she was awake...laying there knotting her hair up (her way of soothing herself  .... but by the time I was done feeding him, she was asleep.  I kept her monitor on without the picture, just the sound, until 7:45 when she finally made noise!!!!!!  So I have a hard time believing that she is up all that time from 4:30 to 7:45, not making a peep ya know???  I'm sure she falls back asleep on most mornings.