Really early mornings with young dc, what do you do?

[Darkestseasonofall]

My dc (1 and 4) get up at 5.30 lately. I'm working on pushing it back with later bedtimes etc, but getting nowhere fast.
If you're dc get up equally early what do you do?!
We need to be out of the house by 8.30 and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that after breakfast and getting dressed there's an awful lot of TV going on and playing on the floor whilst I tidy up / shower etc.
It feels a bit endless, and a ti y bit neglectful to just leave them to their own devices, but I really don't want to get crafting etc when it's still dark.
What do you do about your very early rising young dc?

If it helps my son went through a phase of being up between 4.30-5.00am when he was probably 14-18 months, think they get a bit confused when they are beginning to switch to one nap a day. I eventually solved it by making him wait till at least 11am for his nap and only letting him have 1 1/2 hours at a time and only the one nap. He gets up around 7am now. I feel your pain though, the 5am wake ups with stinging eyes when cbeebies hasn't even begun. Urgh!!

5.30! Definitely don't get up, that's still night time

I put mine back to bed or bring them into our bed/get into their bed. Milk if necessary.
At an absolute push, let them watch some muted Peppa on my phone.

But no one gets out of bed before 6.30 at the earliest in my house, that's been the rule for 10 years now and nothing would persuade me to get up any earlier

Kittykat - honestly he's fine downstairs. He's always been happy amusing himself and ive had no issues (he does get my attention and we do lots in the day, he's not left to fend for himself) I also have a non sleeping 11month old so my bed is very precious as i spend most of my night sleeping in a chair in her room.

Have you got really good blackout curtains that don't let a beam of light through? Worth the investment.
The 4 year old could have a sippy cup by the bed.

When you get up early, only switch on low light lamps, no overhead lights, keep your voice muted and un-exciting. Keep house curtains closed.
Put tv on low volume, encourage sitting on settee under a throw. If you head for the kitchen to get a coffee/rusk/bottle etc, keep the door pulled close so the bright light doesn't disturb the mood.
Keep telling yourself, this will pass.

Sounds totally normal to me. You're doing fine. I'd maybe start to be a bit stricter with the 4 year old but I'm not sure what you can do about the 1 year old.

Surely there is nobody out there that would actually consider crafting at that time in the morning?! Or if there is, I'm guessing it wouldn't be an issue for them anyway as their perfect kids probably sleep 7-7 with a 2 hour lunchtime nap...

I NEVER considered 5.30 time to get up!

If any of mine woke at that age it was 'it's still sleep time, go back to bed' or bring them in with me and settle down to sleep again.

Honestly amazed at the amount of people who just accept getting up in the middle of the night, and then wonder why their kids get up so early!

Crafts?! Literally my worst nightmare even during waking hours. In the middle of the night I'd rather stab myself in the eyeball with a rusty pin.

🤣

With DS1, the rule was we don't go downstairs until CBeebies starts, which was 6:15. No idea if it's on any earlier now though.

With DS2 (about to turn 1), I have to bring him downstairs to avoid him waking up his older brother. If I think he will sleep, nothing gets turned on and we sit in silent darkness. If he's wide awake and going back to sleep is definitely not on the agenda I'll turn the tv on. Usually my stuff, catch up on things I've missed because it tends to be a lot quieter and less sensory than kids TV. When DS1 comes downstairs though it's game over. I leave them to play, make a massive mug of coffee and we all sit and have a drink and biscuits until it's time for breakfast and to get dressed.

I remember when DS1 spent a while waking up for the day at 4:30. And just trying to get some more sleep before I had to go and do a days work. It never worked, he'd spot me, run over and peel my eyes open. DS2's an early riser but at least he'll let me snooze.

@includewomeninthesequel Genuinely curious here, what do you do with a child that just doesn't go back to sleep then?

In the case of my DS, he simply ran out of sleep at 4.30 in the morning. He was wide awake and could quite happily keep going from then until his afternoon nap - which he dropped before he was 2. Some kids just need less sleep than others.

I could have left him in his cot screaming every morning I suppose but that would have woken the other one!

TV. Sofa.

We had 5:30s for a while. Eventually moved to 6, maybe 6:30. Eventually they were old enough to only need half an ear from our bedroom. It’s grim while it lasts though, you have my sympathy

In that case I would have probably brought him into bed with us and dozed a bit; no talking, still dark, etc.

I'm not being a smug arse by the way - I honestly never gave it a thought other than to separate day time from night time in the same way I always had.

Then my best friend had a baby, and used to say 'we've been up since 4am' or whatever and I was just like, why the fuck would you ever get up at that time? Her son has still never understood that he can't get up whenever he wants, and he's 7. She's a wreck!

Short version: I bore the shit out of them so much it's not worth getting up for

Anything before 8am tv.. I have later sleepers. 7.30 ish. I can't wake properly other than make a bottle for a good half hour. So tv goes on.
Around 8 then we sort breakfast and the rest of our day.

No one goes downstairs before 7am ever! It's the middle of the night 😂

We have had a fair bit of TV lately in honestly. Dh has been working loads.. We've been going out everyday which has knackered them and then end up grumpy and non Cooperative with anything other than chill.
So someday 4 onwards tv has been on.. Mainly nursery rhymes or music on YouTube etc. It perks them up and lightens their mood, as well as stops a late afternoon danger nap

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel
We do that the 2 Yr old will. Often climb into our bed and dose back off until dhs alarm at 7.50 on the times she's woken earlier ( normally ds alarm if he sleeps thro it.)
And by her getting in with us she doesn't wake the baby on purpose! 😂

I miss the cosy cuddles now they're older really.

Fair enough. I find it really hard to doze though when an unoccupied 1.5 year old is jumping all over the bed with absolutely no chance of going to sleep themselves. TV keeps them occupied and in one place so that I am able to doze!

I do wonder if my kids are just nuts. Maybe other people can tell their kids to lie in bed awake and stare at the ceiling for an hour and they just do it? Mine would absolutely lose their shit! (But so would I to be fair!)

There is a reason CBeebies has an early riser section. Do not feel guilty.

I am currently awake with my 4yo who has started having nightmares and is terrified of her bedroom and will be up in 5 hours time when the 1yo to wakes up. I have no guilt that tv will be on.

What time are they going to bed? Children of that age need 11/12 hours, and by pushing their bedtime back you could be making them overtired hence the early wake ups! I would be inclined to try an earlier bed tbh!

Chuck them the iPad till at least 7am!

My first would happily sleep until 7, and my second thought that the day started sometime between 4.30 and 5.30. From about 12 months till maybe 4 years maybe? It didn’t matter what we did - if left alone he would wake the whole house up, if we took him to bed for boring sleeping time he would just climb all over us and want to be entertained. Trying to move naps/bedtimes was disastrous! He would wake up at the same time but grumpy. I used to prop him up in my bed with an iPad playing Peppa pig and go back to sleep some mornings. Sometimes one of us would get up with him and get milk or read or something. But he definitely was awake, and that was that. Telling him to go back to sleep never did any good. But it doesn’t last forever, and a bit of TV won’t hurt....

Kids watch TV, you drink coffee and stare out the window

Easy ☕

why don't you just lie on the sofa with your eyes closed?

^
. This is my new Mantra I think

Omgosh you poor thing! I remember those days! Mine are 16, 15 and 8 now and I remember them waking up that early and wanting to cry! Don't beat yourself up. Do what you need to to get through it. They won't remember much anyway love. Be kind to yourself for goodness sake. Xxxxx

I went through a stage of handing the ipad and that would give me until 7am until one morning when he creeped through at 4am and said (delighted with himself) "I'll just watch the ipad now okaayyyyy?". And he had brought it through with him! So from then on we have darkness and silence until 06.30. The elder one goes to the toilet and then back to bed. He most likely will end up in bed with me tossing and turning and trying to chat but I turn my back to him. He knows the drill and would never really go back to sleep but he will lie in his bed. He rarely does it now at 3. My littlest is 8 months and he will chat or shout in the cot but he just gets his dummy until 6.30. Hes a contented wee thing and would often fall back asleep. Obviously if he had a dirty nappy I'd change it but hes back in the cot until 06.30.