To have a moan about early rising

[OneFootIn1999]

Dd is five. She has slept until 7am maybe twice in her life. 6.30am is considered amazing. 6am is standard and some days (partic now it is lighter in the mornings and the birds are singing) it is 5.45ish. Like today. She will sing (loudly) to herself for a while, read in bed for a few minutes- but then she is bounding in to us. Adorable, yes, but too damn early.

I do realise that on the spectrum of 'issues' this is nothing, really. And that she could be waking even earlier (believe me, in her younger years we knew the 'joy' of 4.30am).

It's just the way she is. She's an early bird. No Gro Clock or blackout blind or later bedtime (she goes to bed at 7pm) has succeeded in pushing her wake-up time back. We gave up trying ages ago.

But I am tired.

Tired of having to go to bed at 10pm and panicking if I do have a late night or a few drinks that the morning will be hell.
Tired of looking forward to getting back into bed the moment I get woken up in the morning.
Tired of the unspoken game of 'which one of us gets a lie-in today' (which I lost today)
Tired of feeling grumpy for a good hour while she is chipper and ready to rock the day.
Tired of trying to keep her quiet so she doesn't wake up her little brother (which she invariably does)
Tired of feeling jealous when friends talk of their kids' regular 7am wake ups, having to rouse them kids for school, and getting to sleep til 8am on weekends.
Tired of feeling a bit bloody knackered all the time.

Am not a morning person.

Mine too. Ds2 wakes 5-5.30 ish. I don't like to moan in real life fe because both boys sleep all night, but it is exhausting. I went away for a few days recently and waking naturally, even though it eas just 7am, made an enormous difference to my energy levels

Yep sounds normal. My 5 yr old DS is an early bird. This morning it was 6.40am which is about the latest he gets though once he slept till 7.30 and I had to check he was still breathing. From 2-4 he was regularly up for the day at 5am which was just exhausting.

At least your DD is asleep at 7. DS sleeps just over 10 hours a night now so not only he is up at 6.30am, he doesn't go to sleep till around 8.30pm. By the time he's asleep I'm not far off bed myself!

Ds (3) wakes every day about 5:30-6ish. On a weekend I have started bringing up a carton of juice, a croissant, banana and the iPad the night before and keeping them by my bed. Then, when he hops in with me I can sometimes wrangle another hour in bed.... I'm a lone parent and have been since his birth, so I'm a big fan of bribery so I can stay horizontal just a little bit longer

Now she's older could she read in bed? DS insists on not getting up until 8 on the weekend- if he wakes before he reads a book in bed (this all came from him but we're very grateful- and counting down the days until ds2 will do it too!).

Early risers here too.... Youngest (3) was in our bed at 5:45 but nodded off, chatty eldest (4) came and woke us all at 6:30. It never changes! Even though youngest nods off I'm generally awake from when he come in. Can't keep them awake past 6:30pm. Tried everything here too. We just embrace the evening and grin and bear it in the morning. I don't think they have ever slept past 7:30. Even if one naps through the day, resulting in not getting to sleep until 10pm they will be up at 7!

I'm an early riser anyway, so it never affected me much when they were little - it is getting to the other way round here - 2 teens wanting to be up ever later -

last week for the first time, I gave in and went to bed BEFORE they did - which they found quite amusing!

Sorry but loud singing at 5.45 - no I wouldn't tolerate this.

She can wake up at that time but she would get very short shrift from me for waking up everyone else.

She can read quietly, leave a bottle of water by her bed etc but no way would I put up with singing at that time !

Same here. I can't remember the last time I woke to see a time beginning with 7 on my clock.

I too get that nasty grotty grumpy feeling for about an hour first thing.

I have found that it helps to do "my own thing" in that first hour, by which I mean I make tea, potter, pretend I will do some exercise, and just see to the DC most basic needs.

Then I will "wake up proper" and make breakfast / be jolly around 7.

No requirement to be show super mum/CBBC presenter style jollity for first hour of the day. >. Just make some tea and ensure they don't kill themselves.

My ds wakes up at 4 ish every. Single. Damn. Morning.....I am beyond pissed off with it

I seem to have the best of both worlds. My 6 and 4 year olds are resisting bedtime at the mo, last night they were still playing up at 9pm. So no evening to speak of.
Then my 6 month old is up at 5.30am every day, It is a joy.

No, YANBU.

DS1 is a early riser, never needed as much sleep as the book said he should sort of child.

We have an older version of a groclock - it goes green for go, and will also speak the time to you if you press the button. It also has an alarm!! Not sure why you'd need an alarm on something designed to keep kids in bed, but hey!

Anyway, I heard him at 5.30 this morning. He stayed in bed (singing, and thumping his legs on the mattress) til the clock went green at 6.15. We've been up since then. DS2 emerged at 7.

Strategies: decide the night before who is getting the lie in, and tell the kids who to wake in the morning. So the 5 yr old knows he can wake Mummy on a Sat, but he has to go see Daddy (far side of the bed) on a Sunday.

Then bring a blanket down stairs, put on TV, and doze for and hour.
And Yes, the none lie in parent often goes back to bed for an hour, either in the morning when parent 2 gets up, or for an afternoon snooze while the kids are taken OUT! - This is my preference.

Those of you doing it on your own, massive . I'm looking forward to DS1 being taken to DH's parents for a week over Easter. I'll just be left with sleepy DS2 :) Tho when it was the other way round I was [snoozy]

It IS just a phase. But I'm already planning for the day that I set the alarm for 5.30 to hoover his bedroom!

Presume you've tried a later bedtime and absolutely no naps in the daytime. 7pm seems very early for a 5 year old.

hiccupgirl no help, but I'm delighted to find another 5 yr old who sleeps that little. 8-5.30 here, practically without fail. [yawn]

DS is 3.10 and 5am is the usual wake up time around here. I have been living in hope that once he starts school in September he will sleep in later but this thread has dashed my hopes. However he does go to bed at 7pm on the dot & sleeps through the night so I can't complain (although the shopping bags under my eyes tell a different story).

Sadly, I suspect he gets this from me, DM gleefully recounts how little sleep I needed as a child (pay back....).

I actually tInk there is nothing you can do so suggesting no day times naps is blanket daft. My eldest slept a lot. Napped 9-9.45 and 2-5pm. Then desperate for bed at 7pm and slept through until 8am. When he started school and was doing mornings only he would still nap about once a week. He's nearly fourteen now and sleeps 9/10pm until 6.30am.

Dc2 was never as good a sleeper though it was always doable. Different kind of person who struggles to sleep now for different reasons but can get up for school and live a full life.

Dc3 goes to sleep 7-8pm depending on day of the week and is mostly always up 6.30-7am though strangely sleeps later on a Sunday morning.

Mine slept better when they had an afternoon nap. Over tiredness does not equal a good nights sleep ime.

Mine definitely do not sleep better with a nap. They won't sleep until 9:30/10pm. And still get up 6:30/7.
Sleeping a full 12 hours at night, 6:15pm - 6am is much better. If they go to bed late, they are much more difficult to deal with the next day due to lack of sleep.

But they did love naps when younger, always had a fab nap schedule and a good 12hours at night. Don't get me wrong, if they nod off in the car, or are absolutely knackered after a busy day I won't stop them, but I don't encourage naps every day.

Reading this feeling smug as mine are teens. But I remember those days. We used to stick the tv on in the bedroom at 5.30, the only thing in those days was the Hoobs on a very grainy C5, then we could doze back off.

Meglet, when your ds is 13, I promise you you will not be able to get him up early to do his paper round

That's why I said a blanket state ten is wrong and there isn't a lot you can do. Mine all have the same parents and we did the same things but they are different sleepers.

I'm just as knackered now as when they were up in the night and some days more so. It's part of the job.

I hope everyone has a good day and a restful night tonight.

Lack of sleep is absolute torture. We've had two weeks of night wakings where dd2 won't settle unless she comes into our bed for a while. She then goes back to her bed and wakes at 5.30! I'm am so grumpy this morning, I've barely spoken to her, it was my turn to get up

I'm not a morning person, you have my sympathies - but aw how cute re the dressing gown!!

Search on amazon for a totoro cloak, they are v snuggly and do up with one popper. Shown as a cape on an adult but DD has had one since tiny as lovely full length.

Sorry but I don't understand why on one hand you are completely at the end of your tether but also think its cute

Hope that's not too harsh but if you want this to stop you need to be firmer with her.
You sound absolutely knackered and I can see its affecting every area of your life.
She can tie her own dressing gown at 5 < awaits flaming>

I agree with pp...5 is more than old enough to be able to entertain herself until 7. Line up a snack and a drink the night before and be really strict about it. No noise or leaving the bedroom unless for the loo until 7am. You will have to stick to your guns and keep returning her to her room but she is definitely old enough to understand this.

Ds aged 3 had finally managed to stay in bed until 6am after years of 5am waking until the last month when it's started again but WORSE. He's up from 4/4.30am for a poo and will not go back to sleep despite gro clock etc and firm boundaries.
I am 40 weeks pregnant, exhausted and dreading adding a newborn to the mix.

I'm having to put him to bed at 5 or 5.30pm because he's just foul by then and even if I force him to stay up he still needs a fucking poo at 4am. Sleep training is one thing but how the hell do you retrain a 3 year old' s bowels? It was always the reason he woke so early and the blissful 6am wakings were the one time he didnt seem to need to go until after breakfast.

God I'm so tired I could vomit.

my ds is 8yo and autistic, he doesn't sleep, he's regularly awake from 4.30am, although 5.30 happens just as often. DD is 5 and also a 6am riser.

They have to stay in their own rooms and are allowed to watch telly or read quietly until daddy leaves for work at 6.30am, when they are allowed downstairs.

If they can be taught that they MUST be quiet before 7am, then your 5yo can too, you just need to be persistent and firm in the rules.