Please say this will end

[DueyCheatemAndHow]

DS (3.5) is getting up at 4.30 every day. We are broken. It's ruining our lives. We've tried EVERYTHING. Please tell me this ends.

This will end when the clocks change back !

What's bedtime?
Any naps still?

gro clock? Tbh at that age they are old enough to understand you can wake up but you can’t get up, stay in you bed.

It will end, the following things are likely to help;
To an extent it's seasonal the mornings are very light just now, the darker mornings from August onwards will help
When school/ nursery ends and bedtime drifts later
The clocks change in October

Also try re- intoducing a seista not too long but a nap between 3-5 may give him the energy for a 9pm bedtime

What time is bedtime? We had to let ours stay up till 9-10pm in order to get a decent sleep in the morning.

Late nights didn't lead to sleeping in, in my house.

It ended for us when he was old enough to turn the tv on.

Be warned, at that age he turned out to be old enough to put his wellies on, open the locked front door (standing on a step to reach the lock) and head to a neighbour to play. Life gets easier and harder all the same time!

It will end but as with a PP it was really only when my oldest got capable of looking after himself! He's still an early riser now and going to bed later has never made a difference. Can you set him up with a tablet, some kind of snack etc (obviously something not likely to choke on) so that he will stay in his bedroom a little longer. I'm not sure that would have worked with mine - he liked the company! Good luck and you will get through it.

I feel your pain op, our 3.5 year old is currently doing exactly the same every morning!! We've tried a few things and nothing seems to work

Bedtime is 6.45 but we've tried earlier and lager. He won't nap hsually by himself but he will sometimes fall asleep in front of the TV after lunch and will always sleep in the car

Early rising dc's are absolutely exhausting, I know exactly how you feel, you have my sympathy!

Dc's 1 and 3 were both early risers (4.30 onwards) and nothing we tried helped them to sleep longer-both cut their daytime naps by 12months and would only catnap in the car.

Basically, one of us would get up with the child, head downstairs, give them a beaker of milk, a bowl of dry cereal and stick a video on. We'd then try and nap on the sofa as much as poss. The hour they woke gradually got later.

Can you get your dc a kindle fire/iPad etc? They can maybe lie quietly watching something? Obviously not ideal watching so much tv/computer games but if it gets you over this grim phase it'll be worth it.

My daughter is 5.5 and I'm sorry to say it's always been like this and continues to be, although we have gotten it to 5:30am now, it's just how she is.

Doesn't matter if I put her to bed at 7pm or 9pm, she's going to be up at 5:30. It did used to be 4:30, that's slowly gotten to the current 5:30 over a period of about a year.

Gro clocks don't work for all kids, they aren't a magic bullet! In fact most kids are pretty strong willed and insistent, they would have to be very placid and compliant to just lie in bed staring at the ceiling for two hours because the clock hasn't changed colour.

I would try making sure he doesn’t nap at all, put to bed later and wake him in the middle of the night when he’s fast asleep, just briefly, as this can sometimes reset the sleep cycles. It feels very wrong though!

The Lager should make him sleepy 😁

@Gingermoth you beat me to it!

If it's any consolation these are the kids that get themselves up for school without any prompting when they're teenagers

It will end, but maybe not soon.

if mien woke early at that age I would have popped them in bed with me and put cartoons on. Too early to actually be getting up. If they’re generally fairly trust worthy (as trust worthy as a kid that age can be). I let them play in their room, but absolutely no breakfast, no drink other than water and no going downstairs/into living room until at least 6.30am.

I absolutely would not be starting the day at 4.30. That will only encourage them to continue getting up at that time.

Hahahaha oops! I'd like to make it clear that I have not tried alcohol but I've considered it many times

I have two early risers. Now at almost 9 my DS will go to 6:30 but at least now can put on his xbox and play until we are up.

DD is 5 and will appear in our room 5:30-6:00 ish, I give her my phone or her ipad with some netflix and she sits in with us watching while we doze. She can sometimes go a bit later if she has had a very physical day previously. It's worse in the school holidays.

All screen time rules go out the window for a bit of extra sleep.

As toddlers they were a nightmare and later bedtimes often led to even earlier wakings for us.

The only things that have ever helped us is to give them lots of exercise (I have a high energy dog too so its a similar principle with him). Even then it buys us maybe an extra half hour.

6:45-4:30 is actually not bad for a preschooler, assuming that’s uninterrupted. That’s ten hours. Children who sleep more than eleven hours are rare in my experience! You basically either need to keep him up later or go to bed very early yourself. I sympathise, one of mine got up at 4 something for years (from a 7:30 bedtime) but if they don’t need the sleep then they don’t need it. DC often still wakes early but now stays in bed/goes back to sleep until 6:30 when they’re allowed to get up, but they’re now school age.

Hahahaha oops! I'd like to make it clear that I have not tried alcohol

It would be considered abusive these days ... but when I was a baby my mum actually did give me tiny amounts of whisky to make me sleep. People did do this; it was a thing. She said it worked ... and for what it's worth, it didn't do me any harm.

Dd1 went through a phase of this at around 2.5. She'd dropped naps at 18 mo and no amount of tinkering with bedtimes, Gro Clocks, blackout blinds and refusing to get up with her worked. What made it even more fun was the fact I was pregnant with her sister by this point.

We sort of got used to it and ended up embracing the early starts. We took turns in sleeping extra and used the time to do get laundry on etc. I know this probably isn't what you want to hear...

She's a few months off 15 and got up early today... At 10am!

Have you tried decent blackout blinds to keep the mornings dark?

DD did this. She is 17 now and she doesn't do it any more. However, she does still voluntarily get up at 6:30 on school days. She could easily leave it til 7:15 to get out of bed.

As I recall, she gradually grew out of it. By the time she started school at 4, she was getting up at a more reasonable hour.

To anyone hating the light mornings, we found while on holiday and having to improvise a night blind that kitchen foil blu tacked on the windows was brilliant.

Yes your house does have the appearance of someone who believes aliens are watching us but, if it gets you more sleep...

You have my sympathies op. We tried everything. All I can suggest is take in in turn with your partner to have lie ins.