My 11 month old was up at 5:30am every day and it was killing me... 3 days ago I stuck some sticky black out blinds from amazon on the windows and covered the cracks with duck tape and it’s properly dark in there now. Like not even a tiny strip of light. Ok so from the outside my house looks like a dodgy internet user might live there BUT I have had 6:45/7am starts ever since..! I know I am probably tempting fate here but I just wanted to share this info in case anyone else reading this had given up like I had...just do it! Black out those windows! Lockdown with a baby and a toddler is a lot easier when you knock 90 minutes off the start
While you are waiting for the amazon blind to arrive you can use foil to do the same thing. Wipe the window with a damp.cloth and the foil just sticks.to it.
This also works for us. And a wonderful sleep success we had recently was with 19mo old who persistently woke 5.30-6am, we took advantage of the last clock change and moved her bedtime to 7.45/8 (keeping essentially the same time her body was used to pre clockchange) and voila! Asleep until 7am! Somehow the difference between waking at 6 and 7 is very significant for me and I feel so much better rested.
I was using a gro blind before which is why I didn’t try this until just now..but I read somewhere on a forum about how taping every last crack of light really makes a difference and it really has with us!
Years ago when mine were babies and sticky blackout blinds didn’t exist I used a large double navy bedsheet to drape over the curtains, and used to take it on holiday with us too.
We have a black out blind in DS's room and its amazing but the rail it hangs from is set a few inches from the wall so there is ALWAY a strip along the top letting light in. Ive tried hanging a rolled up towel up there, now theres a soft toy stuffed at the top to at least push the middle against the wall but its never completely blacked out.
hopefully, with time..