I'm going mad

khaldrogo

My 22mo wakes between 5 am and 6am every morning. Its killing me. She goes down for 7:30 and is usually asleep soon after. She has a nap for 2 hrs around noon also.
She doesn't appear to be massively hungry or anything. Giving her food and putting her back down to sleep is a non runner. Once she's up she's up!

Any advice for making her sleep longer?

niallb

Any chance you could go to bed at 9 for a couple of weeks?

It should get you back rested before you start trying to make changes.
You'll need your strength!

That sounds like a reasonable amount of sleep for a 2 year old in total.
A little short, but everybody is different.

What time do you usually go to bed yourself? Is 6 that long before you'd really be able to get up?

After you get a bit of rest, maybe it's time to put your child's bedtime a little later, and try to wear them out as much as possible :-)
If them going to bed at 9 meant the early wake moved to 7:30 it might not be so bad.

Another suggestion which isn't easy to do at first is not to feed her when she wakes like that. Just talk calmly to her, and tell her to go back to sleep.
If she learns that food is only available a bit later in the morning,
she might get with the program.

Our first was a pretty good sleeper in a lot of ways, but two and three were twins and there always seemed to be at least one awake! You have my sympathy.

Get your own sleep sorted first if you can at all.
Doesn't matter what time of the day, whenever you get a chance.

mordeith

khaldrogo wrote: »

My 22mo wakes between 5 am and 6am every morning. Its killing me. She goes down for 7:30 and is usually asleep soon after. She has a nap for 2 hrs around noon also.
She doesn't appear to be massively hungry or anything. Giving her food and putting her back down to sleep is a non runner. Once she's up she's up!

Any advice for making her sleep longer?

If she's asleep for 8 and awake at 5-6 that's a pretty decent sleep to be honest, especially if she isn't waking between those times. I'm talking from my own perspective where our boys woke regularly until they were around 3 yrs.

Peckham

khaldrogo wrote:

My 22mo wakes between 5 am and 6am every morning. Its killing me. She goes down for 7:30 and is usually asleep soon after. She has a nap for 2 hrs around noon also. She doesn't appear to be massively hungry or anything. Giving her food and putting her back down to sleep is a non runner. Once she's up she's up!

We had this exact same issue with our middle child at around 15-18 months. Lasted a few months (sorry!) and ended as quickly as it started. Now he's a great sleeper!

No advice as to how to improve your situation unfortunately, but hang on in there!

shesty

Much as I hate to say it I think we put up with that from 14 mths up to .....well she's three now and only just sleeping past 06:30 lately.
I bought a gro clock when she was 20mths out of total desperation.I wasn't expecting her to sleep longer I just wanted her to understand that only when the sunshine came on the clock was it time for up.Given that we started at 04:30am and pushed on to 05:45 then 6....it was all progress.I just drew the line one day and said this house is not getting up before 6am!So if she woke before that I treated it like a nightime waking.Just went in, resettled as I would at night and said shh, time for sleep.Pointed at the clock.(ok, somedays I was vicious but still)

Oh cutting to one nap helps.It's very hard when they wake at that time, but it's worth it.My first went to one nap round 20 mths and my second has gone to one nap since 15 mths.This may be her way of showing she doesn't need two naps.

I have had to accept it's just how she's programmed.No.2 sleeps til 7 or so and thats just how she is.It's bloody torture though.I feel your pain.

tobdom

We've had great success out of following routines from the 'Save our sleep' & 'How to raise a happy toddler' books. Not that we ever had any great non-sleeping issues with our now almost 14mo, but we've tried to be on a good routine from the beginning. I know there's differing opinions on the routines & techniques in some of these books, but these definitely work for us.

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, you might want to try putting her down a little earlier..... maybe try for 7pm and see how it goes. Any change in routine is obviously going to take a little while to bed in (pardon the pun!). It doesn't make logical sense, but I've seen it work. For our lo, if she goes to bed later than her normal routine, she's actually more likely to wake up earlier than usual.......

khaldrogo

tobdom wrote:

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, you might want to try putting her down a little earlier..... maybe try for 7pm and see how it goes. Any change in routine is obviously going to take a little while to bed in (pardon the pun!). It doesn't make logical sense, but I've seen it work. For our lo, if she goes to bed later than her normal routine, she's actually more likely to wake up earlier than usual.......

This is definitely something we focus on. We actually changed her bedtime from 8 to 7.30 already which helped initially. If we tired to do away with the midday nap she would be overtired at bedtime and we've found when she's overtired she's up earlier

sentient_6

khaldrogo wrote: »

My 22mo wakes between 5 am and 6am every morning. Its killing me. She goes down for 7:30 and is usually asleep soon after. She has a nap for 2 hrs around noon also.
She doesn't appear to be massively hungry or anything. Giving her food and putting her back down to sleep is a non runner. Once she's up she's up!

Any advice for making her sleep longer?

What time are you going to bed at?

khaldrogo

sentient_6 wrote:

What time are you going to bed at?

I'm a night owl sadly. I've tried going to bed early but I just lie there. I also am out until after 10 a couple of nights a week then I usually have to clean a little or make lunch.
11 would be the earliest but it usually 12ish

Demosthenese

2 hours Nap in afternoon is probably the problem - reduce that Nap might help. Its getting the right balance.

unclealbert

You have it easy my dear,5am is a lie in.Sorry im all out of sympathy.Welcome to parenthood.

SusieBlue

unclealbert wrote: »

You have it easy my dear,5am is a lie in.Sorry im all out of sympathy.Welcome to parenthood.

What a helpful, compassionate, reply. :rolleyes:

seamus

It's probably time to start looking at dropping the nap alright. I can't recall exactly when we stopped on our first, but the symptoms we had were that she was absolutely wired when going to bed and would take 30-60 minutes to drop off to sleep.

It's a bit of a struggle at first - the child wants to keep the routine so will fall asleep when they feel tired.

The key is to identify when they're at risk of falling asleep and do something different to keep them awake. Change the routine a little so that nap doesn't happen.

sentient_6

khaldrogo wrote: »

I'm a night owl sadly. I've tried going to bed early but I just lie there. I also am out until after 10 a couple of nights a week then I usually have to clean a little or make lunch.
11 would be the earliest but it usually 12ish

Not sure what to tell you. I don't buy the night owl thing, not a dig at you personally, I don't agree with it from anyone. You need to sleep when the baby sleeps.

In the mean time try push 7.30 to 8.30 and see.

Its also possible to adapt to less sleep yourself. After a few months of 5 to 6 hours it just becomes a state of being. Its very hard to describe. You'll be wrecked but if you keep busy and power through it it will be become natural.

I would suggest its you that needs to change not the little one. Sorry!

shesty

I have to agree with this poster.I wouldn't agree with dropping the nap....it might give you an extra couple of hours in the morning but your days could turn into hell as a result.I don't think most kids are able for a nap to go until they are over two.I know they are all different but I'd leave the nap where it is, especially if she's going to sleep quick enough.

We have just had to accept that our day starts early and adjust ourselves accordingly.I'm beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel since she's got a bit older but still we are woken between 6:30 and 7 most mornings.Today started at 06:15am(despite my alarm being set for 06:45🙄).It's just how it is right now.

It won't last forever and I am looking forward to dragging them out of the bed when they are teenagers!!!!

Digs

In my experience it's a case of weathering the storm. My 4 yr old sounds exactly like your kiddo (except she was harder to get to actually go to sleep at night!). If you add up your child's hours sleeping in a 24 hr period you'll probably find they're bang on the money, nap included.

We went through a very rough patch of 5/6am waking, it did last a long time. We threw everything at it. Black out blinds, curtains etc and nothing encouraged her to sleep longer. She is just an early riser and the sooner we came to terms with it the easier is was to deal with.

Things for us are always easier during the darker winter months, she would stretch her sleep by a bit in the mornings. We figured she's a light sleeper and the birds or any slant of light were waking her.

Things calmed around 3yrs old, she started sleeping longer and now at 4 we usually get to 7:20am!! Hand on heart if I woke at 8am and she wasn't up I would have a heart attack, she NEVER sleeps in past 7:20, which is a very reasonable hour!

On the other hand her younger sister would sleep for ireland. Same house, parents and environment!!

Ps if I had a Euro for everyone who just told us to put her to bed later..... if only it were that simple!! Just made for a crankier child the next day as she woke at the same time!

You have my sympathies, it is very tough going but it will get better in time! Revenge is best served when they're 15 and you want to hoover at 7am on a Saturday

Theboinkmaster

We had similar issue about a month ago with our 23 month old - was waking at 4am sometimes!

We got the gro clock and it's working very well, have it set for 6.15am and he's getting it, has absolutely saved us.

pwurple

I used to try to take a nap myself as well. I'd take the 5am shift, and my husband would watch them while I got a nap after work for 40 mins.

walshb

khaldrogo wrote: »

My 22mo wakes between 5 am and 6am every morning. Its killing me. She goes down for 7:30 and is usually asleep soon after. She has a nap for 2 hrs around noon also.
She doesn't appear to be massively hungry or anything. Giving her food and putting her back down to sleep is a non runner. Once she's up she's up!

Any advice for making her sleep longer?

That's a pretty good innings you are getting there. 10 hrs unbroken sleep. You need to make the most of this time. Their sleep patterns are rarely set in stone, and can deviate....