Quite desperate to get my toddler to wake up a bit later than 6am...

[Pruni]

He goes to bed at anything between 7 and 8 pm, usually nearer 7. We've tried a later bedtime, didn't have any effect.
He is just happily awake at 6 or at best 6.30am. He's just dropped the afternoon nap and I had hoped that would mean an extra hour in the morning, but no luck so far.
Help...?

[expatinscotland]

Blackout blinds AND curtains works for us. DD1 is still up for 7 - give or take 10 mins. on either side.

[hermykne]

pruni could u force an afternoon nap on him and put himto bed at 8.30 and see what happens??
thou that just might result in a cranky boy come 11am if he still wakes at 6.30.
some do wake early and thats their body clock.

[hunkermunker]

Sell him on eBay to someone who lives in his time zone. Or move there yourself? You could try all sorts of new breakfast foods in your new country - see, I'm finding positives for you already!

Helpful aren't I?

[sfxmum]

sorry no help but my 12m old is the same. however it suits me as i am due back to work next week and this way i can easily fit in a morning bf. much to the dismay of dh who will be main carer now.
he asked the same question
good luck

[Pruni]

Have been trying to force the pm nap for the past two weeks - but when it's gone, it's gone.....

I think I'm going to go in last thing at night with a job lot of toys and books and hope that keeps him quiet until at least 7.

I am such a lightweight these days.....

[expatinscotland]

I can't wait till DD1 is old enough to understand that clock that cod put a link to on here.

Of course, when she is, then DD2 will be a toddler getting up w/the larks.

[oliveoil]

I gave up tbh and just got up when they did.

Once I am awake, I am awake. So leaving them in their room chattering with toys doesn't mean I can go back to sleep.

And 6am means Ceebeebies is on .

dd1 got up at 6.30am today, some days it is 8am.
dd2 was in our bed all night (pah!) but if she is in her cot (ha!), she gets up anytime from 6am to 7am.

[Louise123]

Dear Pruni, can totally sympathise. My 2yr ds dropped his nap at 22 months and now at 2yrs he is waking anywhere between 5.30 and 6.30am, occasionally 7ish. (He's so pooped late afternoon that he's in bed no later than 7pm. Have tried putting him to bed later, but it makes no difference to the time he gets up). Have the blackout blind and curtains - doesn't seem to make much difference. Have tried to encourage an afternoon nap (I think he needs it) but no luck - as you say, when it's gone, it's gone!
Sorry, I can't offer any advice, just sympathy - hoping it's something he grows out of (and soon, for my sanity!)

[Oblomov]

I understand.
Ds(26mths) is a dream for sleeping.
Bed at 7 pm
But wakes up at 6 am
No matter what we do - later bed time, less nap.
We have black outs.

I guess, I have been so pleased that he has always been a good sleeper, that I just accepted (although hated) the fact that he was an early riser.
I am TERRIBLE in the mornings.
Dh is an early riser.
And I mean that in more ways than one
Thus, I blame it all on dh.

Go on, tell me, tell me - how do you change / cure an early riser ?

[harmonicacarrier]

dd1 gets up at 6am no matter WHAT time she goes to bed. or whether or not she has an afternoon nap. It's her body clock.
soemtimes it slips to about 5.30 am
is he too young for the bunny wake up clock thing? can you get him to play quietly for a while in his room or bed?
or can you persuade him to come in with you for half an hour?
sorry not helping much

[Tommy]

we have this problem. I read the Christopher Green's Toddler Taming and, although he is excellent in all other areas, he admitted that he doesn't know how to get round this problem.....
DS1 is now 4 and he still wakes up pretty early (although not as bad as 6 every day) he at least can play in his room until a more reasonable time.
It's very tiring..... I found I just had to go to bed earlier zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[fruitful]

Books and toys and water in a non-spill beaker, in the cot. A friend put her child's cot next to the window - her dd stands up, sticks her head under the curtains and watches the world go by for half an hour or so.

Dd has a plug-in nightlight, plugged into a plug-in timer switch. The nightlight (which is a bear shape) comes on at 7. When the bear "wakes up" she is allowed up. That worked quite well from about age 2 (with bribes to get the rule established of course).

[arfishymeau]

I wish I could help with this too. My DD has slowly moved from 4.30am to 6am. I have only ever had to wake her up twice in her life (she's 3.5) and both times were for early flights.

I've tried everything but she always wakes up early - even if she's up late, she'll still be up at 6 and then horrible for the rest of the day.

When we dropped the afternoon nap it didn't change a thing - I too was hoping for the miracle of 7am.

If your DS is anything like mine the only advice I can give is to just accept it and go to bed early and start your day early. When DD was getting up at 4.30 I'd already done a 4.5 hour day before I even got to work. It meant I had time for breakfast though!

[Bozza]

Yes fruitful we started the light on timer with DS when he was about 2.5 and he still has it now at 5. The last few mornings he has occasionally sneakily got up before it and played in his bedroom. Although I discourage this I am not too bothered and I have had 2 and a half years of mileage out of my light timer so it's been worth the outlay... He doesn't wake us up in a morning anymore. If he gets up (weekends) and we are still asleep he just goes in his bedroom and plays. Obviously this is fairly infrequent due to also having 2yo DD.

[aelita]

Mine does this intermittently and I've worked out that it's for one of 2 reasons - being unsettled (new house, new baby) or over-tiredness. It went on for ages last year and I tried wearing him out, later bedtimes etc to no avail. By the time he was getting up at 4am and I was in despair I switched to earlier bedtimes and longer naps during the day and lo and behold, it worked like a charm. He's now 2 1/2 and it still works. He gets tired out during the week with the childminder and I give him as much daytime sleep as possible and put him to bed earlier at weekends and it (almost always) does the trick.
How old is your DS? Presume he dropped the nap of his own accord? Try a much earlier bedtime - 6pm - for a few days and see if it works. You never know!

[Pruni]

Well toys in the cot got us up to 7am but I had to go in and tell him it was sleeping time and to play with his toys, which he did - but maybe tomorrow won't be so bad.
I think I will try the earlier bedtime. Just for my own sanity!!
Bozza where did you get the light? What make is it?

[Bozza]

Any light will do. DS used to have one of those optic fibre lights that my SIL bought him. He now has a blue star from Ikea. As long as it plugs into a socket you can buy a timer (the sort people have fool burglers) and use it. The other trick is to put in a sufficiently low bulb that if he happens to sleep past it, it will not wake him up.

[aelita]

In case I wasn't clear though, you don't need to make it a permanent 6pm bedtime! I just need to do it occasionally and for a couple of days to bring things back into line if he builds up a bout of of overtiredness.