Up at 5am everyday... Seriously?

[ameliesmumvic]

Anyone help? My 19 month old son wakes at 5am most mornings. 6am is a lie in. My daughter only slept through at 2 years old and if we don't get him up he wakes her with all the noise and everyone loses out. He is not hungry, may be thirsty but I have left water with him and it doesn't make a difference. He is not woken by light or noise, he didn't like the dark so has a nightlight.
He has a 10 minute nap in the car on the way out for the day in the morning (because he's so tired) and an hour at lunch. I really don't think he could do without his lunchtime nap..., he'd fall asleep in his lunch! He goes to bed at 7 without a problem.
Am I missing something obvious? How can I get him to sleep past 5am? I'm up with him through the night too and as a shift worker I often have to survive on 4 hours sleep. Is this it? It's been ongoing for over 4 months..... Anyone help???

[fifitot]

I sympathise. DD was the same. I had some luck with a gro clock. You set it so the sunshine comes on and tell them to stay in bed until they see it.

It kind of worked but she still wakes now at 6 - she is 4. Just think she is an early riser. Good luck - I feel your pain!

[ginger2000]

Another sympathesiser here - My DD also went through this about the same age. We used the bunny clock which sounds similar to fifitot's gro clock - bunny wakes up when its time to get up.
we also had to face it at times and just get up! It does pass - she is still an early riser (at nearly age 6) but because we have 'trained' her, she waits in bed until 7am even if she has to play or read books should she wake earlier.

Its rough but we found the early starts often coincided with periods of development/growth - could that be a possibility?

[adamomma]

We had this starting back in April, only it was 4-4.30...

We used a light on a timer, which was set for 5. When she woke before this I would go in to her room and comfort her with out getting her out of the cot and then proceed to sit on the floor, in the cold, needing to pee, until the light came on at which point I would say in the happiest brightest voice I could muster "Good Morning!" and get her up. It worked after about a week and when we are feeling bold we move the timer ahead be 5 minutes. We are now at 5.20 and although she does sometimes still get up before then she stays quiet in the cot until the light comes on and she can say "Good Morning".

I think sometimes they just get up early, irregardless of bedtimes, nap or any external factor. Apparently my DH did the same thing as a child so at least I have someone to blame.

Good luck!

[bippyhippy]

Here's a useful article on early waking

Could you try to prevent him having the 10 min nap? My 19 month old naps from 11:00am until 13:30 and then sleeps 7:30 to 6:30.