My toddler is broken

[QuilliamCakespeare]

My eldest was an early riser until he started school but my youngest is next level. He's up before 5 every day, most days between 4.20 and 4.40. He'll be wide awake and shouting 'go downstairs!'. I do try to settle him back to sleep but 99 times out of 100 he's having none of it. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether he skips his daytime nap or sleeps for 2.5 hours.

I know it'll get better eventually. I know one day I won't be earth-shatteringly knackered all the time. But right now I want to whinge.

Is anyone else in the same boat? I need some company here. I have tea and mince pies on offer 😴

my DC2 is like this & for the first time in ages he slept through & i can’t f’ing sleep!!!

I don’t even mind the early waking but it’s the fact he refuses to get back into bed with us & wants everyone to get up, get him breakfast & go out all before sunrise! Hoping it gets better 🙏🙏

I'll join you! As you can see from my username I'm in the same boat! My 14 month old has , no joke, from day 1 woken up between 0400 and 0500. She'll maybe sleep in until 0600 but that's only if she's been up for hours in the night changing nap times makes no difference, crawling , walking, eating makes no difference . I've come to accept it but it's so so boring at 5am!! The tiredness is bad but the boredom is worse I find! Especially with the mornings so dark! So no solutions to be offered here but I'll share some Christmas tree chocolates

length of naps doesn’t seem to make much difference but we do try to wear him out physically.

We do the same, running around all day but doesn't seem to make a difference really! And I also have a bed refuser , she gets more excited getting back into bed with me - easier to just get up!

on the days I can’t bear it because he sometimes takes ages to actually go asleep as well I just let him watch tv & give him a banana so I can nap for an extra 1/2 hour or so. I then get woken up by a banana skin landing on my head.

Ha yes I'm definitely guilty of sticking on some early morning Wiggles ( only thing she'll watch!) and resting my eyes on the sofa I also usually end up having two breakfasts , one with her at 6 then I'm starving by 9 so eat again which is not helping my baby weight .

DC1 was so easy, sleeps well, eats everything, great in restaurants, cautious & well behaved (never really had tantrums etc so it’s been an adjustment.

DC2 is fussy with food, 1 day he loves something the next day he’s outraged i’ve served something so inedible. We are approaching the terrible twos & he’s being having huge tantrums the last month or so. They are epic, full on shouting & screaming (neighbours must think i’m abusive) & unpredictable.

My people! I love the usernames @canigetaliein and @5ambreakfastclub 😁

On work days I can find a silver lining in the fact I get a few hours with him before we all go our separate ways but for God's sake, kid. It's the Christmas holidays, have a lie in!

What time do you go to bed? I'm normally ready to drop by about 9.30 but have been battling through to 11 while DH is off work and we can take turns getting up. It's probably not helping the tiredness to be fair.

I go to bed far too late, 11.30 but I like to feel I have an evening plus there’s always stuff I need to do that I can’t do in the day because the tornado is about or we are out.

what saves me is that DH is very hands on & requires less sleep so he gets up with him a lot.

Oh I'm in bed by 9pm latest! DH tends to do any night wakings as he cannot bear the 5am get up so I guess it's not too bad a deal but still , it's not fun getting up at 5am!! And it just invades my whole life , I never want to go out in the evenings cause I know I'll just be so shattered the next day ! Me and DH have been out once as a couple since she was born cause it's just not worth both of us being knackered !!

Get a GroClock and be very strict about not getting up until the clock says so. Start off setting it at his usual getting up time and gradually push it to a later time - by no more than 5 mins every few days. Lots of praise for staying in bed 'until the sun (on the clock) comes up'.
Worked wonders for both of mine. You do have to be very strict at returning them to bed with little interaction if they get up too early but it didn't take long until they got the hang of it and actually started going back to sleep if they woke up before getting-up time.

I find it hard as well because we don't live in the U.K. and nothing in this country opens till 9 at the earliest ! So I literally have no where to go- I dream about a 24 hour Tesco haha!

Def thinking about trying a gro clock , at 14 months she might be a bit young to understand but she'll get there .. maybe..

@concernedforthefuture we do have a gro
clock (in the box, unused) somewhere so I could dig it out. He was only 2 this month but is pretty bright so could probably understand if I explain it to him...worth a try!

I feel your pain. DD2 has slept until 5.20 today and it actually feels like a lie-in after months of ridiculous pre-5 am starts.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'll join you! I've been up with my 18 month old since 4.15am (and several times before that!) I dream of the day he sleeps through but can't see it happening any time soon

Can I second (third?) the groclock. By the time DD was almost 2, she'd slept through the night about 4 times. Within a week of using the clock, she was sleeping through. Now, she lies quietly, or plays with a soft toy, if she wakes before the sun comes up. It's been a game changer.

Hi OP have you tried one of those lights in his room? I can't remember the name but basically it tells them when they're allowed to get up by the light changing colour so if they wake up before and look and it's not the right colour it's still "night time". I have quite a lot of friends that swear by it. Could do with one myself since I'm awake at 5 every morning without fail atm lol (none of the kids just me). I hope you manage to get into a good routine for rising soon x

I'm in the same boat! My little girl was 2 last month, it takes up to an hour to get her to settle in the evening, awake every hour or two throughout the night & up between 3 and 4 for the day 😴 it makes the days so long. Naps/no naps don't seem to make a difference either. X

I’m afraid I stick mine in front of the iPad and doze back off for an hour. He is child number 3 (the other two were much better 😱) and I just cannot bear the tiredness. I wouldn’t cope with work or the other children.

Ahh I'm glad to see it's not just my DS's 2.8 years old and 18 months!! It's more so the eldest who wakes and shouts downstairs again and again until you go down!! No Matter what you say, bribe him with etc..I've tried the gro clock unfortunately it just got ignored like everything else.. thankfully on work days it's not to early as I have to be up anyway. we'll I could have an extra half hour if not woken! Hopefully it's just a "phase" and will soon pass...I've been telling myself this for the past year!! Good luck to those who still have the possibility of the gro clock working!!

My dc were firmly in that club. Now I am dragging them out at 7 for school. School holidays would be bliss, except that I am so conditioned to need little sleep that
I wake up early anyway!

Morning!
We've managed to push things to 6 over the holidays.
Normally we are on 5.30. You don't want to know how old mine are. Let's just say both are capable of getting themselves toast (presliced bread) for breakfast.

My 4 year old is like this - had to push bedtime back to 8:30pm so he wouldn't get up til 5am. I'm in bed about 9pm as there is still the odd morning he's up at 4am. Gro clock did nothing.