Sleep Q- how would you handle this?

krose0713 · October 2014

For the past 2 weeks DD has been waking up at 4:30am. I get up for work at 4:30 so it's not like I mind being awake, but I also can't spend too much time trying to get her back to sleep since I have to get ready. She is then falling asleep again from 5:45-7 (at my moms). Clearly she isn't done sleeping yet, but I'm not sure if there is anything I can do to help her fall back on her own. She rolls around and sits up and lays back down but just can't settle. She eventually starts yelling for me and wants to be cuddled, but DH isn't there in the morning so it's not feasible. I guess I don't really even know what I'm asking. Anyone else have a LO who does this? Is it just another crazy sleep phase? WWYD?

RedDDD · October 2014

I have this issue too and we have worked on an earlier bed time. But I notice DD does this same thing when she slept crappy at DC which unfortunately I don't have a ton of control over. I took this right off the sleep lady website which is a good one that I reference when we have sleep issues. These are her reasons for an early wake up.

1. Too late of a bedtime.

2. Nap deprivation.

3. Staying up too long between the end of his afternoon nap and going to bed (try not to let the interval exceed four hours).

4. Going to bed when he’s past that “drowsy but awake” mark. If he’s too drowsy, he won’t know how to get himself back to sleep when he’s more alert-including at 5:00a.m.

Skipping naps and putting your child to bed later will cause early rising-I know it’s not logical, and you and I would never do that – but it is true!
You can’t assume your child needs less sleep than the average until they are taking decent naps and sleeping through the night for several weeks.
Room darkening shades are critical!
Early rising takes several weeks of utter consistency to change so stick with it!

michelle7482 · October 2014

My DD sleeps exactly 10 hrs at night so I found no matter what time I put her to bed she was up almost to the minute 10 hrs later. She was going to bed btwn 7-730 and waking up at 5-530. When I moved her bedtime to 8 she now wakes between 6- 6:05. She also takes 2- 2 hr naps a day and when I tried cutting them down to sleep longer at night it didn't work. She was a bear. So this is what works for us.

staebells · October 2014

Ours did this for a long time. Putting him down earlier helps. I also noticed that if he starts stirring at night and quickly change his diaper with the lights still dim, he will fall right back to sleep and sleep until 6 instead of 5. I think his full diaper makes him wake up and not be able to fall back to sleep.

krose0713 · October 2014

Thanks for the tips everyone. @RedDDD‌ I looked more into what you posted and there does seem to be a lot of info out there supporting sleep deprivation causing early waking- seems so counter intuitive! We are going to give an earlier bedtime a try and see how it goes!

RedDDD · October 2014

GL!

Sleep Q- how would you handle this?

Re: Sleep Q- how would you handle this?

1. Too late of a bedtime.

2. Nap deprivation.

3. Staying up too long between the end of his afternoon nap and going to bed (try not to let the interval exceed four hours).

4. Going to bed when he’s past that “drowsy but awake” mark. If he’s too drowsy, he won’t know how to get himself back to sleep when he’s more alert-including at 5:00a.m.

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