My 23 month old son wakes at 5.30 to 6am every day

[Beautifulbabyboy]

Which is fine, it is just his sleep pattern. He goes asleep at 7pm every night. But I keep thinking of a previous AIBU thread where parents who let their toddlers watch 2-3 hours of tele a day were flamed, in particular one poster said parents who do this "obviously their heart isn't in it"

So AIBU to think these same parents don't have an early riser...

Because my heart is very much into parenting, but from 5.45 to hopefully 7.15 I can manage to lie in bed whilst DS watches the iPad... Or am I supposed to be bouncing around downstairs coming up with fun filled activities at dawn?

(For the record he also watches the bedtime hour on cbeebies - wind down time.. - hence the 2-3 hours)

DS is 4.5. He slept through from 9 weeks but has always woken up between 5 and 6. Actually, we had a long run of 4.30s. He has slept in til 7.20 about twice. YADNBU to give him the IPad, ours has been worth every penny for the that extra half an hour in the morning.

I thought it would get better over time but he woke up at 5am this morning and was on the go all day till he slept at 7.45. He is nuts, and we are exhausted. Do what you need to do I say.

Yup, gro clock, or even proper clock. My rule has always been, if it isn't 6.30 yet, its not morning.I would march DS back to bed at 5. Its how he learned to read - not allowed put of his bedroom, with only some cheerios and a pile of books for entertainment. That's my theory anyway.
(justifying being a mean mummy ..)
But, yeah, post 6.30 it was milkshake for at least an hour! Yanbu

I used to go for tv when they were too little to go downstairs/be left safely, I have slept through pretty much every CBeebies programme/CD known to man (perhaps CBeebies only starts at 7am!) Once they were a bit older, it was no coming in to us til after 7am, and if too early, returned to bed 'not time to get up yet'. They used to play in their rooms/sing/look at books/play with teddies til a civilized hour (not that 7 is civilized by my standards, but still).

As for people saying I love my evening, that is the penalty if you want to crack early waking. One solution is to still put your children to bed at 8pm but allow them to read/play quietly with a dim light. Then if they don't go to sleep til 9/10, it doesn't matter. Anyway, once they are over about 8 you can't put them to bed ridiculously early, and once they are teenagers they will be up all evening!

I don't won't can't parent before 8am. Thankfully DS has learnt this, and tends to be relatively zombie like until 7.30 ish anyway, even if he wakes up an hour or so earlier. He will sit in front of the TV, sometimes get himself a cereal bar, but generally occupy himself until I am human.

No normal person is in super mum mode at 5.30. I refuse to believe it.

I think I may be the lone voice of dissent here. DS is 22 months. He wakes between 5 and 6am. We don't have a TV. Our schedule looks something like this:

5.30am wake up, cuddle, breastfeeding

6.00am DS bouncing on my head in bed, with me attempting to introduce calmer activities like singing, chatting, silly games, still in bed while I come to (i am NOT a morning person in any sense at all)

6.30am Head downstairs, read stories, listen to some music, do colouring

7.00am If I'm lucky and not starting work early that day, DH takes over at this point and I go back to bed for a bit (thank God). DH and DS usually build Duplo houses or play with some other quietish toys.

7.30am DS has breakfast and plays while DH/I eat breakfast

8.30am DS gets washed and dressed. Runs around madly cackling while DH and I get ready for work.

9.00am DS heads to nursery if it's a Mon-Thu. If it's Fri-Sun we might go for a walk or to play in the garden.

I can't really see where TV would fit into this, but that's probably because I've never had one. I don't think we'd want to waste any our time with DS (both work FT) even at 6am...although if I were a SAHM I might feel very different!

For me, if I were working I'd feel the same but I'm at home all day and tbh I don't want ds wearing himself out before school even starts!

I had 3 kids in 30 months and run a pub full time there was no way I could do 5.30 starts my kids always slept from 8 -8 otherwise I couldn't have coped!!

Never ever allowed 5.30 as an option
I didnt have any help with child care so needed a good routine

Horid one here too. DS either gets to watch iggle piggle on iPhone or I lie brain dead on the couch while he watches it on sky plus and occasionally jumps on top of me or shoves a book in my face!

Jacques That sounds lovely. Especially the bit about your OH taking over while you can go back to bed.
I have had 2 lie ins in 2 years. One of which was until 8am and the other was 7ish but I was mightily hungover and my dad needs to learn what a proper lie in is and that DD shouting 'MUUUUUMMMEEEEEE' up the stairs for 10mins is probably not conducive to sleep

How do all of you 8-8 people get them to stay in bed? And what age was that from? DD used to be 7-6 or 7 but the last few months have been hellish. I'm hearing Gro-clock (eyeing one on ebay as I type) but when does that become effective? Will DD get it if I use it now at 23mo? She has begun waking about 4ish to come in with me for an hour or so before getting up and I am so zombified I try to get her asap before I fully wake up smacks wrist as sure this is 'making a rod' but I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance atm

Yay! Dd woke at 7am.

probably cursed myself, and she'll wake at 5 tomorrow

Used to Tuck them back in bed as I would at 4am, and it worked they are alll in there 20's now and can sleep for England!!

Oh good grief! 5:40 this morning.
After waking at 1am and 4am to feed dd I am really running on empty.
Or just not running really.
Day out essential.
(tv is off though [smug])

In the summer when it's light it's difficult to persuade dd it's not morning!

How do you get then to go back to bed? personally shouting saying very firmly " it is NOT morning. Back to bed." I have a very argumentative child, so it was a battle sometimes, but one worth winning.ds is 7 now, and is quiet when he gets up at 7 at the weekends, gets himself a bowl of cereal, reads etc ( no tv until I am awake ish). He even knows not to chatter at me until I have had my tea, and jumping on my head has NEVER been an option !(why would you put up with that!?)

Age 7 I can see a firm 'back to bed' might work, but at 23 months??

Ds3 is 2.4 and usually wakes at 5.30-6, he doesn't always sleep through either so some days I'm barely functioning at that time. Ds4 usually wakes for a bf around 5-6 then goes back to sleep while I plonk ds3 infront of the tv and have a coffee.

No, I don't have to tell him back to bed now-he doesn't get up at 5 am anymore!
I meant from 2 ish onwards. Before age 2 I just let him in with me, and he would doze a bit more, but I would NEVER get up, or ggive any sign that it was morning at 5 am.

Well, I bring 23mo DS in to bed with around 5-5.30 if he wakes up then, but how do you make him doze? My DS goes more for bouncing on my head while singing "Row Row Row Boat...Scream! Scream!" at about a thousand decibels.

DS is 23 months and the gro clock works inasmuch as he still wakes up at whatever time takes his fancy but will now potter in his room instead of shouting "mummy! Breakfast!" at 4.30 (the event which prompted the purchase of the clock). Now we can at least say "no, it's still nighttime, we're not getting up" and he gets it, which he didn't before. We have a stair gate on his doorway so he is safe and can still easily get out attention in an emergency.

We've got it to 6.30 which is the time we have to get up anyway in term time and now it's the holidays we're experimenting with setting it a bit later.

I dont know that ds really dozed for that long tbh, but I guess my point is that I wouldn't put up with anyone bouncing on my head.
I always made it clear that it was not morning, still sleepytime etc.
I do think that I have been pretty strict about bedtimes/ nightime, but maybe that's because I have always been a LP, and a working one, so I just can't cope with 5 am starts. I am sure someone will come on now and say how they are a LP of 16 kids and they don't mind, but I DO!
Even as a teeny baby, if it was stupidly early, I would let him gurgle and sing in his cot (we shared a room) and not get up until it was a reasonable time.
It OK, especially from the age of around 3, to put your foot down and say NO. Like I say, it's a battle, and trust me I do not have a compliant biddable child by any stretch, but I need my sleep.

Oh, and from age 4, "morning" has not started until 7 am, and ds wouldn't disturb me before then.
It helped that he didn't like to go downstairs alone (monsters) so I knew he wouldn't be rummaging around and teetering on chairs in the kitchen.
These days I sleep until 8.30/9 am at the weekends, so there is no way you have to suffer for years and years.

I have 4DC. They are all early risers. There is only 15 months between DS1 and Twin DDs. As toddlers ALL 3 would wake at 5am EVERY morning and this went on for at least 6 months. There was no way they would go back to sleep. It was fairly hellish I have to admit. We would all slumber in front of the TV for at least 2 hours every morning before I even felt vaguely awake and able to face the day. It was the Teletubby era and I remember it well. No harm done - all flourishing at school, happy, friendly DC. You have to do what you can to survive those early years. Pre-children I would have been horrified at myself I'm sure!

It was a phase for mine from around age 2 to around 3.5. Woke up at 5am raring to go for the day. We work so we made the house as safe as possible, then one of us came down too and half slept on the sofa whilst cbeebies was on. DC grew out of it. a few years later, we're dragging them out of bed at 8am. Just keep saying - it's not time to get up! It's a killer - many sympathies.