When does the "waking up at the break of dawn" phase end?

[Karenn]

I am so tired! DD has been waking up *so* early for the last couple of weeks. Having her sleep in until 5:00am is starting to feel like a huge treat! Today it was 4am. I know I should be glad that she sleeps all night, but I just don't do well before 6 am.

I remember from DS that there wasn't much I could do about this, and that I just sort of had to wait it out. I just don't remember when it got better! I know for sure he was sleeping better at 18 mos, otherwise Claire wouldn't even be here. ;) Can anyone who's recently been through this phase tell me when it gets better? I need some hope to cling to!

[almostamom]

DS is 2 mos younger than your DD. I don't know when it ends, but we're right there with you. He was doing the 4 a.m. wake up call for months until mid July. From then until last week he was sleeping until around 6 a.m. Suddenly this week he's waking at 3:30 a.m. I'm blaming it on teething, but truly I don't know why. He ends up being so sleepy during the day he's either taking more naps (3 on Wednesday) or longer ones (both naps today were 2+ hours). I'm not sure how to get him back to his old sleeping patterns. Sorry, no answers here, just want you to know you're not alone :)

Hugs,
~Linda~
DS 11/04

[shishamo]

I just want to say my DD is doing the same thing! I'm SO tired. Today she was up at 3:45am.

Does your DD go back to sleep, though? I noticed that if I take her out of her room, she is happy and plays fine for a while, but if I stay there and put her back to bed (I do nurse her, which is not what I want to do but...) she goes back to sleep till around 6am.

My DD goes to bed at 6:30pm so she does sleep quite a bit all together.

[Karenn]

Nursing her back to sleep doesn't work, but sometimes I can rock her back to sleep. That worked for about 15 minutes this morning.

[kath68]

I could have written your post (in fact, I think I did!), about 3-4 months ago. I am happy to report, at 17 months, DS is over it. Knock on wood. I think he started getting more normal waking hours a couple of months ago. It was gradual, so I can't pinpoint it. I didn't do anything to change it.

He was waking up at 5:00am, but now wakes at about 7:15. It makes all the difference in the world to my sanity. He is also staying up a little bit later these days, but that is entirely unrelated, IMO, and has really only started happening in the last couple of weeks.

I think it helps that the days are getting shorter, and it gets light a little later.

[MarisaSF]

Thank you, Kathy! Your post does a lot to lift my spirits!
We're at 13 months and 6:30 is the latest she'll sleep, but that's often after waking at 5 am for a little nursey and falling back to sleep.

[kaylinsmommy2]

okay, I might be posting this a little prematurely, but just this week, DD has been sleepign later - finally. So from about 11-15 months, we had super early wakings. Now it's finally getting better. Today she woke up at 7am. One month ago, she was waking up at 530 (and I thought I would die of exhaustion!!). ;) I hope it gets better for you soon!!
Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04

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