hi moms,
my daughter is waking up at 4:30 -5 am each morning. she wants to come into the bed with me, nurse, and SOMETIMES falls back to sleep. this process can last up to 2 hours. this morning after an hour of nursing, trying to start up conversations, and moments of what seemed like falling asleep, i told her to stop chatting and go back to sleep or i'd put her back into her crib. well, she tested me so i followed through and put her back in her crib, and i went back to bed. well, after screaming for about 15 minutes we haerd a thump and she had thrown herself out of her crib! thisn has never happened before. so my only option for her sleeping until a decent hour (for her as well as for me...when she gets up so early she is an absolute wreck - when she falls back to sleep, as expected she is in a great mood), which is her crying it out at 4 or 5 in the morning, is no longer an option as she may throw herself out of her crib like she did this morning. i am at a loss. any ideas? by the way, she goes to bed between 7 and 8, sleeps through the night, and going to bed later has not helped her to sleep later. please help!
thanks so much.
I know it is scary to think this could happen again but I would put her back in her crib. The fall may have scared her enough to keep her there. Do you have a visual monitor that you could use to see if she is in danger? Also, if the bumper is still in her crib I would remove it as she could be using it as a launching pad.
Hi R.,
Try putting her to bed earlier. My daughter was napping at this age for at least 1 hour at about 12pm and was asleep by 6-6:30pm. I HIGHLY recommend reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth for age appropriate sleep needs and schedules. He states that the biggest reason for an earlier wake up is too late a bedtime. She will wake up even earlier the later you put her to bed, as you have noticed, as so is overtired. My daughter is now 3 1/2 and goes to bed at 6-6:15pm and sleeps 11-13 hours without waking. You may even need an extra early bedtime for a while until she is well rested. If you have questions, email me.
Sincerely,
L.
My daughter did this too at 2 yrs. old. I don't know what kind of crib you have for her but ours is convertable and we took off the front and made it into a daybed. Then we put up a gate in front of her door so that she could still open the door but not take a 2 am walk around the house. Just make sure there is nothing that she can get into in her room and that's it's completely baby proof. This way if she does get up she is safe. She can learn to play with things in her room and maybe get tired and go back to bed after 20min or so. Good luck!
They make something called a crib tent. YOu secure it on the crib and zip her in. She can't get out and you get sleep.
Stac
what about a matress on the floor?if she talks don't respond much.i'm not an expert-maybe positive reinforcement for good behaviour,not negative reinforcement or attention for bad behaviour.
First of all, try putting her in a play pen to sleep. They are harder to get out of. She's old enough where it won't be a breathing hazard like an infant.
Secondly, make sure she is still napping during the day. It might sound crazy, but she needs to keep napping in order to sleep at night, it has to do with babies' sleep cycles.
Thirdly, you might want to give her a bottle of milk about 30 minutes before bedtime to fill her up. She might just be getting hungry... just be mentally prepared for possible diaper leaks in the morning.
Fourthly, she's old enough to understand you mean business. If she wakes up that early after all you have tried, put her back to bed and tell her she needs to stay there until the sun comes out. This might take a few days for her to understand. My daughter is 23 months and is still getting used to the idea that she has to stay in bed until it's light outside. (It took a month of training and some serious insomnia for me. She sometimes comes out at 6:30am, but its better than 3am or 5 am!)
Hope that helps.
My son was doing that until i turned the crib around with the short side against the wall. Having a camera in the room also helped me get to him before he scaled down. I was firm and non-emotionalabout it.
Crib tent.
When my older, sleep resisting, son started climbing out of his crib before we were ready for it, we got a crib tent that goes over the top of the crib. I thought he would hate it, but zipping him in soon became part of his bed and naptime routine.
They make versions with or without mesh sides. I ordered one from Walmart and I think the baby store in Burlington Coat Factory has them.
Wow, except for the throwing herself out of the crib part, I could easily say you just wrote about my own story! My little girl is now 22 months old and we have gone through the same thing. She has always gone to bed fairly early, 6:30-7pm, and woken up early, btwn 5-6am. We were out of town and all sleeping in the same room and the wakeup time just got earlier and earlier...she knew I would nurse her as much as she wanted because I didn't want to wake up everyone else. She was waking about 4:15am almost every morning for a week. I wasn't going to bed until quite late because I was dealing with a bunch of stuff I needed to do (my mom had just passed away). So, I was pretty tired, as was she. For me, it was enough to say I was done nursing, at least in the morning. When we got home, I stopped the early morning nursing time. It took a couple of days for her to get used to it and she certainly was upset with me the first few times I got up with her and told her we were not doing it any more in the morning. I had my husband get up with her the first couple of times so she didn't expect it right away. I talked with her about it as much as I could. In less than a week she stopped asking for it first thing. And, she is sleeping in a little more...at least past 5 again. The other thing I have done is put a couple of soft toys in the bed with her at night so she can play with them when she first wakes up. I don't go in to her room unless she is actually crying. Often she will just talk or call out to me or my husband (or even her brother) for a while, then go quite again. I don't leave her in there alone if she sounds distressed. It seems to be helping her find her own way to entertain herself for a little while, or fall back asleep, which is preferrable. It has been working slowly but surely. THis morning we even made it until 6am, which is a big step...something just doesn't feel right about getting up before 6am! Good luck.
