What is it with 4am??

[sacred]

I have a 20month old dd who is wonderful at putting herself to sleep, she will start asking for bed come 7pm and goes without a fuss, however lately it has become quite the habbit to wake at 4/4:30am without fail! At first we started putting her into bed with us, however she started waking earlier and earlier asking for our bed! Then i roomed in with her to see if there was a particular noise the only noise was dd asking for me! so we decided to attempt CC, this was successful after the first night now she wakes just wanting a cuddle at 4ish and is more than happy to go back to sleep for another 2 hours after a quick cuddle, i am starting to turn into this monster who has a lack of patience as i am still doing the 4 o'clock thing 20 months on, it is starting to put me off the next one!!! Please help with some suggestions on trying to get her through to 5:30/6, we have tried everything and at our tether, i hate the idea of ignoring her but perhaps we need to give that ago any thoughts? We have done the whole later to bed, cutting back day sleep thing and that just makes things worse! The only other thing i can think of is setting an alarm around 3:30 and disturbing her sleep pattern but i'm not sure if thats just playing with fire! Please tell me this is just a phase and i will once agian be waking with the birds!!! Thanks

[melbryan]

We have a 19mth old and find that when he is teething ( in the lsat 2 weeks he has cut 6 teeth) he often wakes and has so for a while now but is able to scream out twice of a morning ( he is in a big bed) and falls asleep near the door. I hear him and if he continues he gets told off by DH ( I think he is sterner than me so I send him ) and he goes straight back to sleep I try not to give him a bottle but have put one of those egg night light in his room so if he wakes up and is scared of the dark he might find his night bottle and go back to sleep. I have never ever put him in my bed so can't comment on that.
I think he is a really good sleeper but has his moments they never last for more than a week though.

[Seekrit]

You're not alone, my 19 month old is doing the 4am thing as well. (saturday morning he stayed awake :dizzy:) I put him to bed 15 minutes earlier last night (6.45pm) and he slept all the way until 6.15am...

[GummyBear]

Could your bub be a bit cold? I read somewhere (and have found this with my DS) that 4am is usually the coolest part of the night. Could that be waking her up? Try an extra blanket before you go to bed or put her in a sleepsuit, if she's prone to kicking covers off.

[sacred]

Thankyou so much for not making us feel alone. Special thanks to seekrit we have moved bed time forward 15 mins and we have gotten for the last 3 nights 6:45pm till 5:30/6am from her (touch wood it keeps up) certainly cant complain about that, its amazing what 15 mins can do, thanks again for your suggestions they have been a blessing :yelclap:

[~Temet Nosce~]

wow, 15 mins does that? O_o lol. Will have to remember that.
Makes sense though, if my dd goes to bed half hour late, at 8pm, she will wake half hour early at 6.30am:confused::hair:

[Hollywood]

Our DS does that now and then, not sure why. It seems to coincide with teething and growth spurts. But then we co-sleep and he goes to bed at 9:30ish and sleeps until around 9am (is still asleep now and it's 9:11am)....so it's hard to compare our situations.