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 😴

@TheyMostlyComeAtNightMostly He's usually asleep somewhere between 7.30 and 8.15.

It might not last forever but DD stopped waking so early after we had a rule of not getting up before 6, no matter what happened. If she woke before that we'd ignore her for a bit and then periodically peep round the door and say 'its not time to get up yet, lie down'. Obviously if she sounded really distressed from a bad dream or something we'd go in to her.
It wasn't fun but she learned that starting the day so early is not an option so now she just chatters to herself if she wakes before 6.

My youngest is up before 5. My eldest (now 12 thankfully able to get on with getting ready) is still usually up before 6. She stopped getting up before 5 sometime around being able to turn on the light and read by herself.

Operational Sleep In Your Own Bed has now commenced in earnest. DS woke at 1am last night, I held him while he dozed until 2. I finally plucked up the courage to put him back in the cot and he went batshit crazy. I called in DH but after 20 mins of 'I waaaant Muumm-eeeee' he gave up and I swapped back in. Managed to get DS asleep and back into the cot by 3ish. He then slept in there UNTIL 5.55AM!!

So, in summary: bit of a shit night but he slept beyond 4.30 so it feels a bit like progress.

We'll see what tonight brings...

Nice to have an update, sounds like your DS is a fairly quick learner... I do think there’s a difference between panicky ‘where is my mum I’m scared’ crying and ‘I’m cross that you’re not doing what I want’ crying.

I am very impressed with how late you all stay up!
Dcs bedtime was always 8pm and I was fast asleep on the sofa by 8.15 for years. Dh used to wake me up to go to bed.
Dc1 is now 15 and still under strict orders not to get out of bed before 6am!

Things will get so much better when they are able to switch on the tv and help themselves to some cereal. Hang in there!

Could be wrong but this sounds like a mixture of over tiredness and nap-dropping.

When both of mine were starting to drop their naps altogether, they would either a) have their nap then take yeeeears to fall asleep at night or b) skip it and then be really worked up at bedtime, struggle to go down, have a restless night and wake up early all because their bodies were so wired from being OT.

If it is this, the key for me was to make bedtime VERY early. So if they didn’t nap, I would put them to bed at 5.30/6pm latest - as in, in cot, asleep. And honestly, they would sleep 12 hrs at least. Because although they were needing to drop the nap, they couldn’t quite handle going without it. So I had to compensate by getting them to bed before they got hysterically OT. And therefore they’d be more relaxed and have a brilliant, calm night’s sleep - and wake at a decent time properly refreshed. Never overestimate how much OT can fuck up a baby/toddler’s sleep!

It worked like a bloody miracle for me.

BTW Mine dropped their naps at 2 and 3 quarters and 20months.

...just to add, once they got used to not napping, bedtime gradually crept back to a more reasonable 7pm.

@QuilliamCakespeare , I have to say when my DD has a bad night she does tend to sleep in a bit later , when she goes through the night ( not often!) she will wake up at 5am on the dot so I'm not sure what to wish for not getting woken up during the night i suppose and accept the 5am wake up call (wah!!) she's still on 2 naps a day and length of naps seems to make not one bit of difference( been getting up at 5am since the day she was born!). I do worry that she'll never be ready to drop the first nap getting up at 5am I can't see her ever lasting till 12 for an afternoon nap. What sort of naps do you guys have ?

Yep
5 am is a good day actually
Mine hates sleep.
I imagine he is one of those geniuses, like Picasso or Da Vinci, who never slept.
Then he tries to eat his own poo and bubble gets burst

Curlywurly, DS3 is just dropping his nap. If I let him go to bed at 6 he is up again at 9 and ready to party till the small hours. He is more restless at night though having not napped and I do think he sleeps better at night on the rare days he has an early nap.

Oh blimey Drcoconut, that sounds fun!!