OMG. Kill me!
Today was day #4 of LO (14 months) getting up at 4/4:30am and not going back to sleep no matter what we do - rock, soothe, nurse, CIO. We gave her Advil last night thinking it might be molars but she wakes up screaming the same time every day. We are about to lose it.
I don't think this is the 18-month regression yet? Could be teething? HELP. When will this pass??
grapefruit / 4066 posts
oh no! could be teething and the meds could have worn off by the early morning time- have you tried dream feeding medicine, maybe around 3am? There IS a 15 month regression- could be that! We went through a rough week of sleep around 15 months....but her molars/canines were also in play as well. Is she on one nap now or two?
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
I just wanted to send hugs. Sounds awful. I hope this is a phase that passes quickly.
What time is she going to bed? Could she just need less sleep? What if you push bedtime back? Or is she not getting enough sleep in naps, so she is over tired?
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@NovBaby1112: I thought this morning about dream feeding medicine because the advil is definitely wearing off around 4am. She goes to bed between 7-7:30 and also is just recently transitioned to one nap.
@Smurfette: I can't imagine sleeping 7:30-4:30 is enough sleep for her! She's on one nap normally (ie when she doesn't get up at 4.. then she takes 2) and it's only 2 hours usually, so I don't think she's napping too much or not enough. I swear we are going to kill each other if this doesn't let up soon!
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@JoJoGirl: ahhh ok...yea sometimes they get overtired during the transition to 1 nap. are you putting her to bed earlier during the transition? we had to do that until she got used to the longer awake times. and yea, i would try giving some meds around 2/3am, after the initial bedtime does wears off. I've done this before when LO is teething and it really helps that early morning/uncomfortable teething time.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
@JoJoGirl: Maybe she is just adjusting to the one nap. Although waking up that early is causing 2. I don't know. Could you try and earlier bedtime?
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@NovBaby1112: The weird thing is she'd been on one nap for a couple of weeks pretty consistently and was doing okay with it, then this happened all of a sudden without any other changes, which is what leads me to think it's teeth? But of course when she gets up at 4, she does take 2 naps, so now we are totally confused.
@Smurfette: We are worried if we put her to bed even earlier she is just going to keep waking up earlier 
I guess we could try and see what happens.
She's also waking up SCREAMING which she doesn't normally do, normally she wakes up, kicks her bed for a few mins, rolls around, gets up and starts talking, then escalates slowly until someone comes to get her.
@swedishfish: Thanks
persimmon / 1153 posts
We went through this for a month and a half. Torture. She was trying to transition to one nap a day and her schedule was way off & she was having a growth spurt. For my sake (cause I'm 786 weeks pregnant, lol) I decided to keep her on two naps today. I would adjust her bedtime schedule if I were you & see if that makes a difference. Hugs.
persimmon / 1153 posts
@JoJoGirl: Does she wake up like she's throwing a tantrum almost? J did that for a few weeks. She was over tired and my pedi told me it was normal and she could also still be half asleep or waking up from a nightmare. Either way, it sucks!
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
@JoJoGirl: I might try it and see. Give her Motrin before bed and pray it works.
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@JoJoGirl: I've read that overtiredness can actually accumulate, and teething only makes things worse. So she may have been fine at first, but it might have caught up to her. What I would do is go back to 2 naps for a few days to get back on track, but make sure that first nap is no earlier than 9am (sometimes TOO early of a nap can perpetuate the early waking cycle). Then do an earlier bedtime, and dream feed meds so you can figure out if she is waking from teething.
coconut / 8279 posts
It sounds like she's consistently going to bed/tired at the same time of night.
For us, we had to switch bedtime to a later time when he dropped his naps. Even though he would've slept/gone to bed earlier, he would get up much earlier too. If all else fails you could always try bumping bedtime up a bit and see if it helps?
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
Argh, so people think we should either put her to bed earlier or put her to bed later? 
@emg86: Yes, exactly - she wakes up totally escalated and screaming. For the first couple of days she was crying while laying down so we thought she was having a nightmare, but now she's full out standing up in the crib and screaming, fully awake.
Honestly has putting a kid to bed EARLIER ever actually helped them sleep later?
pomegranate / 3895 posts
@JoJoGirl: This happened to my DD after she'd been on one nap for a couple weeks. Apparently, overtiredness can kind of accumulate over time and eventually plays out in these sorts of scenarios.
When it happened to us, I checked in with a friend who is a total sleep guru and she recommended adding back in a short morning nap (we did it around 9:30) each morning until she naturally dropped it herself. We did that, capping that morning nap at 30 minutes, and it made a world of difference. Within a few weeks, she ended up dropping the morning nap herself and we haven't had any issues since.
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@JoJoGirl: well, earlier bedtime for us meant that LO got more overnight sleep, which resulted in her being more rested in the AM and not overtired- which can frequently cause those early morning screaming/crying sessions. An earlier bedtime was esp important during the 2-1 nap transition for us. For example, if your LO goes to bed at 6/6:30pm, she will be getting more sleep overnight, so the hope is that she will be more rested to sleep through that 4/4:30am waking and get back on track once she is caught up on sleep. At that age, My LO would wake at the same time regardless if she went to bed at 6pm or 8pm- the only difference was she was much more well rested when she woke if she went to bed earlier.
I agree with @heartonastring: about trying a very short morning nap.
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@heartonastring: Interesting. Part of the reason we dropped to one nap is because we have been UNABLE to get her down for an afternoon nap in weeks and weeks. I wonder though if capping a morning nap and then doing a longer afternoon one may make sense (and that's actually what they do at our daycare to keep her schedule in line with the other kids).
Although, she's been taking 2 naps the last couple of days because of the early wakeups, and her morning wake schedule hasn't changed at all.. how long do you think it takes for her to catch up?
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@NovBaby1112: But she was still getting up at 4am? Even with an earlier bedtime?
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
Hmm I should add... today was the first time in her life LO fell back asleep in our bed (I was sadly gone already, DH laid in bed with her for 2 hrs) - which leads me to believe this may be an overtired thing. Maybe we'll try an earlier bedtime tonight and see what happens
pomegranate / 3895 posts
@JoJoGirl: I guess I would say that it's worth a shot!? In our case, the problem wasn't that she was waking up too early in the morning, but rather that she completely refused to nap in the afternoon at daycare, despite clearly being incredibly tired. Once we added the short morning nap back in everything straightened itself out within about five days.
ETA: Oh, and an early bedtime to help combat the overtiredness as well if she's not napping well in the afternoon.
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@JoJoGirl: well my LO wasnt getting up THAT early- more like 5/5:30am, which was still too early for me in my book! But yes, she would have an early bedtime, might still wake at 5/5:30, but was much more well rested as opposed to if I put her to bed later. The phase did end though- not sure if her teeth came through or if she was just over waking that early, but it did end.
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@NovBaby1112: @heartonastring: She always naps pretty well. Her wake time has been slowly creeping back from 6:30am to 6 to 5:30am the last month or so as we started transitioning, then 4:30am started over the weekend.
Actually it was 3:30am on Sunday. Couldn't get her back to sleep until 9am.. slept until 12, then 4-4:45pm.
grapefruit / 4066 posts
@JoJoGirl: do not underestimate the hell that is molars and canines, lol. They seriously suck and cause havoc on sleep, esp. early wakings like that. My best advice for you is to just truck along, know that it will end- and give meds as needed and minimize over-tiredness as much as possible. We have had our fair share of early waking phases and they suckkkk...but things always go back to normal. Keeping my fingers crossed for a more normal wake up time for you soon!!!
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@NovBaby1112: Thank you Guess we will try an early bedtime tonight and see what happens - couldn't get much worse.
eggplant / 11824 posts
Does she have blackout curtains in her room? This summer with the earlier light in the mornings E started to shift her waking into the 5am hour; but (finally!) putting up blackout curtains really helped and she’s back to her normal wakeup time.
Also, when we get E to bed a bit earlier, she sleeps longer most of the time (maybe 80-90% of the time). A later bedtime never results in more/longer sleep; she gets up at the same time and is just crabbier because she got less sleep.
I would try adjusting her bedtime earlier; though you might have to do it gradually.
Ugh, I cannot imagine how freaking exhausted and spent I would be if I was getting up at 4:30!!!
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@yoursilverlining: Yep, we've had blackout curtains in her room since day 1. During the move in April we put in the RediShade ones and now we have lovely permanent ones.
And yes, please kill me. We also had a bunch of company over the weekend staying with us so I was exhausted AND trying to keep her quiet so she wouldn't wake up the whole house.
pomelo / 5258 posts
@JoJoGirl: No advice but you have my sympathy. LO has done this pretty much since birth. Last week she slept in until 6am twice and I got so excited I posted about it. But then it was back to 4:30/4:45. And I totally relate to how hard it is to keep them quiet with company. Our guest room comes with ear plugs.
Let me know if you find a solution.
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
Well. She got up again at 4:45am. I saw a molar in her mouth halfway through a (bloody) gum last night, so I guess now we know what her issue is. Poor DH lost his mind this morning and was unable to parent her - i had to run home from work because she was in the crib screaming and he was at his wit's end I don't know how much longer we can keep this up.
coconut / 8279 posts
@JoJoGirl: so sorry! and you're not alone, I had to do that before, leave work to relieve DH, ugh.
J's been cutting his 2 year molars for a while now and it's just crazy town. Bottoms are in and the tops are coming now.
cantaloupe / 6206 posts
@rachiecakes: Sort of glad to hear I'm not the only one... Mama bear came out.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
@JoJoGirl: I hope the molars come in quick so the whole house gets some relief.
Molars sucks arse for R and took forever. And now she is getting Canine's.
pea / 19 posts
@jojogirl: Just came upon this thread. This is us, down to every last detail. Help! Did anything wind up working for you?
eggplant / 11716 posts
@JoJoGirl: I'd like to know, too! Did it end? We were having 4-5 am wakeups for weeks and finally LO started "sleeping in" till 5:30 am...but today was up again at 4:50 am! WTF.
She goes to bed anywhere from 7-7:30 pm, usually closer to 7. This has been going on at least 6 weeks. I am SO TIRED all the time and she's tired, which makes us all miserable and cranky.
nectarine / 2591 posts
When my LO had a string of very early wake ups what worked for us was an earlier bed time.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@AprilFool: I feel like my LO isn't tired earlier than 7 pm because she generally naps 1-3 pm so 7 pm is just 4 hours later. Sometimes it's even a struggle to get her down at 7-7:30.
grapefruit / 4671 posts
I hate to be the bearer of bad news in this thread, but my DD is now 29 months old and today she was up at 4.15am...
grapefruit / 4671 posts
@Anagram: no, before the change from daylight savings she was waking up anytime between 5.30 and 6.30. Could this be affecting your LO?
I can count on one hand the number of times in her life she has woken up after 7. I think she is just an early riser.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@plantains: ahhh...yikes. I know my LO is also just naturally an early morning girl, because she's never woken up even after 6 am (at least, not in my memory).
But lately, she's back to at least 1 overnight wake up AND the super early morning wake up.
Anyway. This is why I don't work out. Too tired. I blame my kid for my fatness. 
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. I hope she eases up on you soon!!
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