13 month old regularly waking at 430am

[frankie77]

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone has any advice. My partner and I have had it very easy with our daughters' sleeping up until she started nursery and began to pick up the usual bugs and therefore started to have fractious sleep. She seems to be coming out the other side now (would not sleep unless one of us was in her room with her but as she'd been so ill we didn't want to leave her and thought would just sleep train when she was free of illness).

She's going to sleep fine but we're finding that no matter what time she goes down she always seems to wake up around 430am...I've tried giving her water but all she wants is milk...and then she pretty much falls asleep on me so I can safely put her back in her cot. She then sleeps until around 715am.

I've been googling this and it seems quite a common phenomenon but just wondered if I'm kidding myself that there's a chance she may start sleeping through again?! Any advice welcome! Has anyone had similar experiences? Since being bug free she's gone back to being a formidable eater, seems to be taking her first steps so I know there's a lot of activity going on for her right now...don't want to do anything too drastic but if anyone has any tips that'd be great! Thanks x

[Beagle]

Is she cold by any chance. Coldest time of the night. Try another layer and see if that helps.

[SebsC]

Hi Frankie77. I had the same thing with my son when he was about 14 months. He had previously been a good sleeper but following an illness he began repeatedly waking up at 4 am. Not particularly wanting anything other than calling for Mummy. I tried the 'wake to sleep' method and have to say that it worked wonderfully for my LO. I think it's the method recommended by the Baby Whisperer. Basically, you set your alarm for about an hour before the time they usually wake, so in my case it was a 3am alarm and then you go into their room and gently 'wake' them. I just used to gently rub his back and talk softly to him - enough to rouse him but not fully wake him up. Then you settle them back down and they go back to sleep. The idea is that their waking at 3/4 am has become a habit so you need to interrupt it. So you break the cycle by half waking them before their natural body clock does. Anyway, for whatever reason it worked really well for my son and after three days of doing this he went back to his previous sleep pattern. I'm sure If you google it you can find more info. Hope this helps - I do still remember how exhausting it was.

[minimac]

If you're sure she's not cold then the 'wake to sleep' option is def worth giving a go. We had similar problems with our son about the same age and 2 or 3 nights of wake to sleep and he went back to sleeping through. It sounds drastic and worse than it is but I figured 2 nights of setting an alarm (or more if necessary) was worth it up against weeks and weeks of broken sleep which has become habit forming. Whatever you decide good luck!

[minder]

Have you had a word with the nursery if this has been happening since your daughter started there? It could just be the different environment during the day etc. not just illness.

Does she have a regular naptime there? If she doesn't this could lead to disturbed sleep at night but 13 months is the classic age for waking up during the night!