I am sick of 4.45am...PLEASE help me!!!

[TattooedGrrrl]

DS1 wakes up at roughly this time every morning, gets out of bed and insists on getting up. We put him back in his bed, tell him it's still night time, and he keeps getting back up, shouting for DH / saying he's pooed (he usually hasn't)/ asking for a snack.

It makes no difference if we try putting him to bed later, and it makes no difference if he's napped in the day.

Can anyone please help?!? We're so tired of getting up at such a ridiculous time.

He's 2 yrs & 4mths BTW.

[LadyOfWaffle]

2.6 doing EXACTLY the same thing... I think it's the cold all of a sudden. When DH sleeps in his room he doesn't do it (as he tucks himself in with DH!)

[SmugColditz]

put him back to bed and hold the door shut

time the heating to kick in at 4am (it gets COLD)

Put him in a grow bag

set your alarm and go and wake him at 3 - then make him go back to sleep

[mehgalegs]

Sympathy - whta is it about 4.45am?? Until recently DS4 was doing the same. He is now at preschool full time and having a shorter day time nap and he now gets up at a much more reasonable (can't believe I'd ever think this!) 6.15

Oh - he is 3.5

[Tapster]

Cut out daytime nap?

[nappyaddict]

have a look at this

[RubySlippers]

agree with NA and Colditz

wake to sleep (which is on NA's link) is the way to go

[woodstock3]

having got up at 5.30 this morning (and every bloody morning for the last few weeks) i sympathise.
giving a big fat snack before bedtime, eg peanut butter sandwich, can sometimes extend it to a luxurious 6am.
was wondering about the cold, will maybe try setting the central heating for earlier. but tbh it just seems to come and go in phases - we have weeks of 5.30am then weeks of 7am and there never seems to be any logical reason.....

[TattooedGrrrl]

tapster- if he doesn't nap at all, he's a nightmare to deal with in the evening, and it makes no difference anyway- he didn't have one yesterday, and he's been up since 4.30am today.

Smug- he now refuses a growbag, and can take them off anyway. He's going into a proper bed tonight with a duvet. Heating is on at that time anyway, and as he shares with his 11mth old brother, there's only so much noise i feel he can make before i have to let him downstairs. There is a gate on their bedroom door, so he can't go downstairs without help.

I'll give the waking thing a go, and i'm getting a blackout blind, although it's so dark when he wakes anyway, i can't see that making a difference.

I am soooooooo tired.

[nappyaddict]

have you tried putting a beaker of milk and water next to his bed when he wakes up? might occupy him for a bit longer. also put a few books and toys for him to play with for a bit.

[nappyaddict]

also i find you need a combo of blackout curtains and blinds to make it really really dark.

have you tried a later bedtime? it took ds about a week to settle down into his later bedtime but after then it became his natural time slot to get tired and go to sleep iyswim.

[CarGirl]

I would perservere (sp?) with cutting out day time naps, it will be horrid for a few days (up to a week) until he starts getting the sleep he needs at night. I would dcrack the early waking before putting him in a bed tbh.

If you do put him in a bed put his duvet across the bed and tuck in the ends right under the mattress so it doesn't fall off.

I would also be very strict at not letting him out of cot/bed until 6.30/7am perhaps your younger ds could sleep in your room whilst you break the habit.

I think you have to see it as going through hell for a week to crack it to resolve the problem.

Realistically a 2 year old may only need 11 hours sleep in 24 so cutting out the naps is a key thing and then resetting his natural waking time will take a while.

[TattooedGrrrl]

he already has a book and beaker in bed with him.

He hasn't napped again today, and he's already quite horrible with it, but i'll try and keep him up until 6.30 at least.

Thanks for the duvet tip, i'll try that.

[CarGirl]

How did it go this morning?

Just try to cling onto "no pain no gain" when he is being grumpy later today after not having a nap!

[SoloTheCharmedOne]

Wake to sleep really worked for Dd. The only time it didn't was when she was ill. I actually had to wake her up this morning! unheard of in this house!

[Megglevache]

God you have my sympathy my 16 month old is waking aprox at 12.30am/3am/4am I am knackered too I blame it in the planets they must be out of alignment or something

recites mantra

[TattooedGrrrl]

well he went to bed at 6pm- i really couldn't keep him up any longer, he was falling asleep standing up!

he fell out of bed at 4am, and after 3 attempts to get him back to sleep, he finally did. he got up at a little after 6am, which is much better!

i've asked CM to not let him sleep more than 20mins max, if at all. will try stirring him tonight and then getting him back to sleep.

[SoloTheCharmedOne]

Tattooed, if you are talking about the WTS technique, you need to wake him, not just stir him. He needs to open his eyes. Do have a read of the link NappyAddict put up, it really does work, but if you don't do it right and for about a week of consecutive(not less than 6 nights)nights it won't work. It has been the only thing that has worked on my Dd and she was 19 months when I started it. 19 months of getting up to her every night.

[diddle]

crazy isn't it. my ds has done the same on and of for the last few days. he's 2.3yrs.
He also wakes at 6amish despite it still being dark. I put him back in bed and tell him its still night time and he has to stay in bed, it soemtimjes works, but i refuse to get out of bed until 7am, My youngest son wakes twice a night too, at different times to eldest so i need my rest. 2.3yr old has a gate on his room so he can't get out, he norally sings to himself until its time to get up.

[CarGirl]

Just a word of warning, the clocks go back at the end of the month so you need to be starting to put them to bed later to get them to sleep in later now or else they will be back to 5am get ups.

However it does show that 12 hours at night is all he needs so you really do need to knock all day time naps on the head. To you work F/T or could you take some time off whilst you train him to go without day time naps?

[NellyTheElephant]

I would give a huge endorsement to the 'wake to sleep' suggestion. My DD2 slept through the night (11 or 12 hrs a night) from 9 weeks - oh was I smug!!! Then suddenly around 13 months she started waking between 4 and 5am and crying. There was nothing wrong. If I went it she generally looked as if she was asleep but crying, although sometimes she'd wake properly and stand up. If I went in she'd re-settle immediately. If I left her, she'd cry for about 5 mins or so then go back to sleep. I was going spare as although she'd re-settle I'm a bit of an insomniac and would then be awake for the rest of the night. This started off happening maybe 3 times a week but over the next few months became more and more frequent. After about 4 months of disturbed sleep I stumbled across the wake to sleep suggestion. I was v skeptical, and also couldn't bear the thought of setting my alarm for 3.30am so thought that firstly I'd try a sort of wake to sleep 'lite' and wake her up at 11pm before I went to bed. The first night I did that she slept through. I thought it must be luck and did it a couple more nights running before stopping. She slept through every night after that for the next 3 months.

Recently (now 20 months), after some travelling around, she started waking again around the 4am slot. So again I woke her before going to bed and (fingers crossed) it seems to have worked again. If waking before you go to bed doesn't help, then I'd DEFINITELY try the proper wake to sleep of setting the alarm for 4am as distrupting sleep patterns for curing habit waking definitely works. It must be a proper wake up - i.e eyes flicking open.