HELP HELP HELP: nearly 2 years of early morning waking - is there ANY solution???

[LawdyMissTutter]

ds (20mo) is an early waker. this morning was 5:25. yesterday 5:40. they're typical days.

he goes to bed between 7pm and 7:30. we've tried making that earlier/later to no avail.

once he's awake, he's awake. if we go in and sshh him he might make another 10 mins before crying but that's it. this is what we do until 6am when we go and get him up.

we've also been trying to limit his daytime nap (if left to his own devices he'll happily sleep for over 2 hours) - for the last 10 days or so we've been waking him after an hour or so - max an hour and a half.

thought this was working, as for the first week he made it to 6am at least. one day to 7:10!!!

but for some reason we're back to square one. this is the third day he's been up well before 6.

does anyone have any ideas? please?

or are some children just early wakers?

[NotQuiteCockney]

When does he have his nap? An early nap can cause early waking.

Is there anything happening at that hour or the morning that might be waking him? Heating going on? Neighbours getting up? A white noise cd/machine might help?

[LawdyMissTutter]

thanks, but don't think it's either of those

he doesn't nap until at least 12:30 - usually 1ish

he wakes at slightly diff times so don't think it's an external stimulus. v quiet here and v dark

[NotQuiteCockney]

I'd try pushing the nap later for a week or two, and see if it helps. That's not a very early nap at all, but still.

He isn't getting that much sleep overall, so it's not like he should be awake then.

Oh, is he hungry? My DS2 sleeps better if I manage to stuff him before bed.

Any changes (shorter nap, later nap, later bedtime) often take weeks to bed down and work, ime.

[LawdyMissTutter]

i can try, but after getting up at 5:25 sometimes it's all i can do to get him past lunchtime...

i'm hoping it's just the latter, i.e. we need to give it more time to bed down, so to speak

doubt that it's hunger - e.g. last night he had a big tea and a banana an hour later. also, he's perfectly happy to wait til 7:30 (or later) for breakfast, despite getting up so early (and that's without milk when he wakes - has had none since 12mo)

[NotQuiteCockney]

No, it's not hunger then. Does he seem tired, much of the time? Is it possible he just needs less sleep than most people?

(Have you tried keeping it boring in the morning?)

[LawdyMissTutter]

he sometimes rubs his eyes mid to late morning, but normally picks up again once he's eaten lunch

re keeping it boring in the morning. atm we bring him into our room. in a desperate attempt to enable ourselves to stay in bed longer we brought a tv up to our roon so he lies between us for half an hour or so, watching cbeebies

then he gets bored and wriggles and wants to get up

without the tv i fear he'd go straight to our bedroom door and knock (signalling he wants to go downstairs)

[LawdyMissTutter]

anyone else have any ideas?

[LawdyMissTutter]

if i only ask for thing from you again, let it be this.....

[LawdyMissTutter]

i promise i'll be a MN giver not a taker for ever more

just this one little thing.....

[florenceuk]

What did he do when the clocks went back? Did he adjust? What about when the clocks went forward? Or is he up at the same "real" time regardless? I ask because IME the only way I solved DS's early waking at that age was to put him to be later - around 8pm worked for me. Eventually when he dropped the nap he slept for longer at night, but not till then.

[LawdyMissTutter]

he adjusted - eventually. but at first he was up an hour earlier (or is it later?)

i think that once we've tried the shorter nap thing for a while, we'll have to have a go at the 8pm bedtime thing - consistently, that is

am loathed to, because i feel that i have so little time in the evenings as it is, but if that's what it takes...

[fizzbuzz]

God, you have my sympathy big time. Ds did this for 2 years as well. It stopped at about 4, and got much better when he started school. Sorry

[hippmummy]

LMT - I honestly could have written your OP. I have exactly the same problem with my DS2 who is 16mths.
It's so tiring - every thing we do is trial and error, and any progress we make is so short term that we are constantly back to square one.

I've read 2 things which I'm going to try, and I'll let you know if we have any success.

1. Earlier bedtime - strangley read a few things that suggest if you put them to bed at 6 they are more likely to wake up around 7.00 a.m!!! I've always been scared to try it for fear he will wake even earlier, but apparantly that's not the case. So I'm figuring anything's worth a try!
   
   
2. Homeopathy - don't know if you ever use it, but I have for a few things like teething, ezcema and had good results. I understand that there may be a homeopathic solution to sleep problems.
   
   Anyway, fingers crossed!
   
   I'll keep you posted

[naughtymummy]

Another truckload of sympathy here. We have struggled and struggled had 4.45 one morning this week!!

Again a vote for earlier bedtime we have found that 8pm bedtime=615 wake up but bizzarely 730/745 more likely to be 645/7am no idea why. Never taken it to it's logical conclusion and put him to bed at 6pm tho not that brave.

[Flumpytina]

LMT you have my sympathy too! We have an early morning Lark here (dd1 nearly three), who's internal clock has been set at 5.30 am ish for what seems forever.
We have just ordered the bunny alarm clock but your ds is probably too young to understand that yet.
The only times when dd does sleep in (ha ha like we are ecstatic if she wakes up at 7am) is if she has been literally run into the ground the day before (at Center Parcs is the usual place)...not that I'm suggesting you move to Center Parcs, just wondering if getting him to do lots of physical activies might help.

[FluffyMummy123]

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