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Waking early and not going back to sleep

Can anyone help me please, my son is 17 months old and is waking between 4am and 5.30am and won't go back to sleep.

We live in a 1 bedroom flat, so he shares our bedroom. I've tried a drink. I've tried his music, but he is full of energy, so one of us has to get up with him (As we both work full time) he runs around and plays, then about 7.30 he is tried and falls asleep. Or he falls asleep in the car on the way to the Nursery and is hard to wake up. He has 2 hours sleep in the day and again he is hard to wake up from his afternoon sleep.

We put him to bed at 7.30pm, but we have tried later 8pm or 8.30 but nothing has work. My husband works shifts, so we can't even put him in the lounge or we sleep in the lounge.

Please help as don't know what to do.
Thanks
Maz:\(

Replies

  • Hi Maz

    I think you will have to put his bed time later, or tell the Nursery his nap is to be no more than an hour, sounds like you just need to get him back in routine, which may involve depriving him sleep elsewhere, I know its tiring to keep them up all night when you want some time to wind down yourself but I think it may be the only way for now. also tell him its bed time and to go back to sleep, believe it or not I used to do this to my son when he was very young and it actually worked alot of the time.
  • Hi Maz
    We had Problems with our daughter continually waking thoughout the night, we did 2 things 1st put her in her own bed and secondly cut her daytime nap, now shes allowed a nap befor 12 no longer than an hour, if she hasnt gone to sleep befor 12 no nap, dont get me wrong she does get niggly but she has started sleeping better now if she does wake we stick her straight in with us and she falls straight back to sleep.
    I know it sounds hard but things may not improve until he goes into a room of his own.
    Nikki
  • hi my daughter (3yrs) has always wakened at all sorts of times, and we just take her in with us and she will go straight to sleep..this may not be for you, and not everyone likes this but i believe you have to do what you have to do to get a sleep, cause if you dont get enough sleep it makes the day much worse.
  • hopefully it's just a phase but i also used to put him into our bed or get up!! was also sharing our room with l/o and it's hard! hope he grows out of it soon image
  • Hi Maz
    Ill be thinkin ov ya at 5.30 ive got the same problem...
    Will give other ladies suggestions a go...
    How is it goin?
    SWxx
  • I've only just seen this but I just thought I'd add my bit in. I wouldn't try keeping him up later, if he is in the habit of waking up that early he probably still will and if he has missed sleep at both ends he will be really horrible! If he is tired by 7.30 he is probably already getting too little sleep so cutting his nap or changing his bedtime will probably just make him worse. I'm lucky in tha my lo sleeps well but I used to be a member of a sleep forum and this was quite a common problem. One solution that seemed to work for a lot of people was to decide what time was getting up time and then stick to it. If they wake before that you just ignore them untill its getting up time. Obviously you can't ignore them for hours but once they get used to each time you can gradually make it later, so maybe you could start by not getting him up untill 5.30 and then gradually move it back 15 mins at a time untill he was waking up at a sensible time.
    Another idea that seemed to work for a lot of people was to half wake him even earlier than he normally wakes, say 3.30. The idea is that this disrupts the routine he has got into and he then sleeps later. You might want to try it when you are off work the next day just in case it goes horribly wrong though!!!!
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