Am done... Wtf should I do??

[Philoshite]

Ds is 3 in July and he's always sleep well through the night but wakes around 4.45 every morning. Sometimes it's 5 or 5.10 and sometimes it's 430 all of which are too bloody early!! I'm utterly fed up of this...
The problem we have is ds shares with older ds 8 so we really can't allow ds2 to wake him or I'd bloody leave him til 6am and get him up then. We have put older ds in our room and had a week of ignoring ds2 which did help but soon as we put them back together he started waking earlier again. His routine is wake between 445- 530 we are active and get fresh air then lunch at 12ish, he's usually ready for sleep around 1245 and sleeps for an hour or sometimes 2 so is always awake by 230 when we do school run and play etc then bedtime is 6.30. Hes started taking a while to go off so asleep 7.30 then solid sleep til morning. Thank God he doesn't wake in the night!! If we try to keep him awake later then he doesn't settle well and wakes at 3,4 and 5 so we just stick to 630 bedtime and at least he sleeps well. Can anyone see where I might change things to get him to stop waking so bloody early? Not sure he can drop his nap as that makes him so over tired at bedtime we have an awful night.
Please help as I'm so sick of it now
We are desperate for an extension which will give boys own rooms but won't be happening yet and other children share successfully so what am I doing wrong
Thank you

[mnistooaddictive]

Try gradually cutting back his nap. 45 mins for a week, 30 mins for a week etc. Sounds like it needs to go

[Philoshite]

Really? Selfishly I'm hoping he doesn't drop it just yet as need that for myself when he's up so early

[Purplerainbow2]

I would also say drop the nap. Not that it help but ds1 always up at 5, sometimes 430. Nothing I can do, just his sleep pattern. Take advantage of being up early and getting stuff done!

[Philoshite]

Not sure he's ready to drop it.. Hed fall asleep by 5pm exhausted and then not sleep well all night. Once at nursery he didn't nap and this is what happened. He was awful and whined the whole next day

[fluffikins]

No experience as my Dd is under one but I've heard people have great success with the gro clock

[Muskateersmummy]

Drop the nap. And try a gro-clock and sticker chart

[Philoshite]

We have one.. Our big problem is ds shares so don't want him waking his elder brother who'll be tired at school. Today is a pissed off at life sort of day

[Philoshite]

What happens if I drop the nap and then he's unconscious at 2/3/4 pm. Do I just try and keep him up?

[MyWey]

I say drop the nap too. My DD will be 3 in the summer and she now naps every 3 days or so but not every day. Bedtime is 7pm and she sleeps until 7am. If she gets tired we just watch TV for half an hour and have a snack and she usually perks up.

[enderwoman]

Google "wake to sleep".

You basically wake them up gently an hour or so before they normally get up then tell them to go back to sleep. The theory is that they will go back to sleep and "sleep in" until later. Apparently you only have to do this for a few days before the new wake up time becomes a habit.

[MyWey]

Should have said she was an early riser before we dropped the nap so it has definitely helped. At first she was tired in the day but now she sleeps later she isn't worn out by lunchtime anymore.

[Philoshite]

I agree that ds would probably be OK without a nap if he woke later
But awake from 430 then awake all day, can't see how he'll last

[CoteDAzur]

Stop the afternoon nap and put him to bed later. He clearly doesn't need as much sleep as you think he does.

At that age, DD didn't nap & slept from 20:30-08:00 or so.

[CoteDAzur]

"can't see how he'll last"

Just don't let him nap. Don't put him to bed. Don't put him in the car. Take him out during his nap time, then put him to bed later.

He'll be tired and grumpy that first day but his metabolism will soon adjust. He'll sleep longer in the night and won't need the nap in the afternoon.

[mrsmugoo]

Yes you need to break the cycle - those two hours he's sleeping in the day will eventually become the two hours extra in the morning taking his wake up to a reasonable 6:30 or 7am.

It's a slog breaking the cycle but as pp said - just don't let him sleep! Or cut down to max 45 minutes nap and early bed for a week or two while he adjusts.

Mine is just 2 and I can't let him have longer than an hour otherwise he wakes up earlier than the mandatory 7am that I have deemed acceptable! By the time he's the same age as yours I would definitely expect him to not need that hour in the day anymore.

[Muskateersmummy]

I agree with cote , you'll have a grumpy tot on your hands for a day or two but he'll soon adjust to the routine

[starfish12]

Def drop the nap... will be painful to start at 430am until 630pm is a LONG day but eventually his body clock should right itself. Or if he wakes at 530 def drop it but if he wakes at 430 give him 45 mins. You don't have to go cold turkey... phase it out gradually...

[BoyGirlBoy3]

Black out blind?

[Whatthefreakinwhatnow]

DD1 was like this, though didn't nap in the day, just woke at 4. She didn't, and still doesn't, need asixj sleep as other kids. I started extending bedtime 10 mins a day until it got to 8/8.30 and then she would sleep til 6

[Whatthefreakinwhatnow]

erm, not sure what happened there! Should be 'as much' lol

[waitingforsomething]

Not many 3 year olds will nap for two hours and then sleep a decent night. Do everything you can to keep him awake for a few days and put him to bed 7-ish. He will be grumpy for a bit but get used to it

[Philoshite]

Thanks for all your advice
When I say can't see how he'll last it's because he falls asleep at 1ish and just goes.. If I wake him he'll cry and try to settle to sleep and I'd have to sit him up, shake him a bit or take him outside to try and rouse him. I don't have to out him down for a nap, he just falls asleep wherever. So this is why I thought he still needed a nap

[CoteDAzur]

He falls asleep after lunch because he's been up since 4 AM. You can't make him go back to sleep in the morning but you can make him stay awake in the afternoon. Which will keep him asleep longer in the night.

A 3-yr-old usually won't sleep more than 12 hours. If you let him sleep two hours in the afternoon then put him down at 18:30 for the night, no wonder he is up for the day before 5 AM.

[Bigbagofchips]

Hi, I am in exactly the same position as you OP as my 2.5 year old has been waking at between 4.30 and 5.00 for months now. He had been having 2 hours nap at lunchtime (would sleep for hours if I let him).
I've decided that I need to reduce his lunchtime sleep but am doing it gradually with the hope that I can get him down to about 1 hour. I think this is an easier way of just stopping it all together as there is no way he would last until bedtime after waking at 4.30am. Plus his sleep at night deteriorates if he is over tired. Just hoping it works as like you I am fed up of the early starts! Xx

[Philoshite]

Cote.. I absolutely agree with what your saying but in practice I'm finding it tricky. Today he was unconscious at 1pm.. He slept for an hour and woke happily and has gone to sleep at 7pm
I'm going to get a few quiet days and push through with reduced naps as no naps I think will be too hard for him then reduce further until no naps at all..