16 month old waking between 4-6 every morning!?

[Heatherm4]

My 16 month old has been sleeping through the night for quite some time now, with exceptions of painful teething nights.
What's weird is that the last week or so he's been waking up like clockwork every morning around 5:15. I cannot just let him cry it out as he won't calm himself down. When we go in he is usually standing up just crying/screaming. I can usually pick him up and zip! He's done, lays his head on my shoulder and I can lay him back down put his music on and he'll go back to sleep. I just don't know why he is waking?! Is this normal for that age? I don't believe he's hungry as he's not starving when he gets up at around 7. The only thing that I can see bothering him is teething but I just don't understand how it's almost the same time each morning!! (his round eye teeth are all almost through).

[adgal]

Eye teeth and molars caused my little guy the most trouble.  We are just finishing our 2 year molars, and it's so hard to see them having such a tough time isn't it.  A MH friend suggested rubbing honey on their gums and boy, did it ever work.  Better then orajel (which my son hated, so I quickly gave up on it).  She told me that honey softens the gums and makes it easier.  It really did seem to work quite well. I used that and infant tylenol when necessary.

My other comment on this might be that he is napping too long during the day.  Ryder is often now refusing to nap, but days he does, if I let him sleep longer then about an hour, we are in for a rough night.  That or an exceptionally early morning.  Just a possibility?  You might want to try shortening it for a couple of days and see what happens.  Best of luck, and hopefully it's over with soon.  

[margypops]

You know they make these rattles/soothers you put cold water in and can even freeze this may help soother the gums if you thinks its teeth... hope he feels better before too long

[Evie1029]

Poor sweetie, that's gotta be so uncomfortable.  I hate teething, especially with the molars coming in.  I wish there was something else to do to help other than giving ibuprofen or tylenol.  I don't know of anything they can chew on that'll reach back there.

[margypops]

Children do have night terrors but this could indeed be his teeth they do get sore gums awww something soothing on his gums maybe .

[Heatherm4]

He hasn't been bad the last few days. He will wake but isn't screaming. He will kind of babble away and then fall back asleep. I think you're right about him being in a lighter stage of sleep.
I actually have a thing I turn on that makes different sounds "rain, rainforest, thunderstorm etc..." so that is always on when he sleeps and on top of it there is a humidifier because of the dry winter air.
I'm chalking it down to teeth. His round eye ones are almost all the way through and I think they are the culprit. What's crazy is I just caught a glimpse of his 2 year molars already!! :( No breaks for him but soon it will all be over!

[Evie1029]

My 16 month old started doing this recently too.  She also wakes up a few hours before her normal wake up time too.  My thoughts are that at this point in the night they're in a stage of lighter sleep and are more easily awakened by light or noise.  I think in my case that it's my husband getting up to go to work that's waking her up.  He tries to be quiet but I'm sure she can still hear the noises he makes.  I'm planning on buying a fan to put in her room to hopefully drown out any outside noise she's hearing.  I know you said that you have music playing in his room.  Maybe the addition of white noise from a fan would help?  Because of the time he's waking up I wonder if he's hearing people going to work/cars starting or maybe a night light in his room is stirring him awake?  Or he could simply be feeling some discomfort from his teeth coming in, not enough to make him cry in pain but enough to wake him up.  Just some ideas.  Anyway, I hope we both figure this out soon!  This has definitely been making me tired the next day and I'm sure it has for you too.  Good luck and let me know if you figure it out!

[allmymarbles]

Maybe nightmares. Everyone gets them.