aibu to ask..if your child was an early riser when did they grow put of it? because my son is driving me bloody mental!!!

[LalaLeona]

13 month old getting up at 4.20 every day..nothing but nothing gets him back to sleep! If your kid was like this..what age did they start sleeping longer?

I'm 46 and still can't sleep past 5.30!

Embrace it!! You know it's the best time of the day!

I celebrated when DS slept in past 5. Think he was 18 months. He's 2.9 now and we're at 6.15-7 now.

From age 3 mine have been able to play in their room or go downstairs to get a biscuit on their own... so that's the key to survival I think. Hope it's not always you that has to get up. :-( x x

I was close to posting this at 4:40. We have tried everything. Later bedtime, treating it like a night waking, supper, cosleeping, sleep consultant. Nothing has helped. DS is also 13months and has done this since about 4 months.

We put him in our bed and watch videos. Unfortunately I don't seem able to doze while he does this.

The best we could do was train her to be more independent. ...go downstairs, watch a bit of tv, make some toast and NOT bother us until at least 7am! (Of course if she's ill or needs us for something important she can come in. ..although she does have to come in for cuddles!)

My DS is 11 yo and DD is 8 yo and we are all up and dressed!

My DS is still up by 6.30 and he's 13! That is regardless of what time he went to bed or what he did the day before. Normally though he is ready for bed by about 8.30.

The 5am start stopped when he was about 10 or 11.

It does get easier though as once a bit older they don't need you to get up with them.

Having early risers does have advantages though.
My DS gets up and empties the dishwasher, sets the table for breakfast, walks the dog and brings us a cup of tea in bed! So worth those early mornings a few years ago.

My DS gets up and empties the dishwasher, sets the table for breakfast, walks the dog and brings us a cup of tea in bed! What a great lad!

Indeed he is, thank you.

DD1 was about 2.6 when she would regularly do 7-7.

DD2 is just 3. She is slowly and more frequently edging towards 7am wake ups. About once a month it will be 5am-ish and most other mornings are 6am/6.30am.

All of mine are up before 6:30am...

One of them (5.5 years old now) is up at 5:30am every morning and comes on my morning walk with me. The rest tend to sleep an "extra" hour.

But DH and I are both early risers, so it doesn't bother us and we wouldn't have expected anything else from our kids!

DS was a 4.30-5am waker at 18 months old. He got to 6am by 4 and now at 7 he wakes 6.30am most days though sometimes it's earlier and now and again it's after 7am.

I'm an early waker anyway - I was always awake by 6am before having him anyway and I only sleep 6 hours a night. He clearly takes after me as he only sleeps a max of 9 hours already, unlike DH who will sleep 10+ hours when given the chance.

I worked hard with my youngest to get him to 6 am - probably just about there reliably by age 5. I'm another one whose mother had little sympathy for me ...

Until 11 he'd not been able to sleep in to recover from a late night either - generally any catch up sleep wouldn't happen till 2-4 days later which could be a challenge! Now he can sleep in sometimes (definitely puberty related).

About 12. Sorry.

Now I'm the one waking early and he's in bed til 10.

Thanks for the honest replys all, it seems there's no rhyme or reason for it and no particular age where it stops. Guess I will have to try and be all zen about it and go with the flow..

If I were to go back in time, OP, I'd try Waking to Sleep (google it)

Basically, for a period of several day, you get up and gently rouse them about an hour before they normally wake. Is meant to re-set their sleep patterns. I did do it for my younger one who used to wake in the middle of the night. Worked

Glad it's not just me who has a loony hyper baby that doesn't need much sleep though! Never meet anyone in real life it's funny!

Mine suddenly stopped getting up at 5am when he started school and needed to be up at 7am...and was then so difficult to wake!

I'm relieved to hear about the teenagers who still get up early, I thought mine was abnormal! Last weekend he had a friend round for a sleepover, they went to sleep at 2am DS still got up at 7am and then was waiting around for his friend who sensibly slept until 11am!! Just goes to show how different they all are.

My nearly 12 year old DS has just started voluntarily staying in bed until after 7am.

Have you tried very gently waking them before you go to bed? Around 10 or whenever, very gently shake the shoulder so that they just stir, not even opening their eyes. It could break the pattern.

Oh Layla, my two have always been early risers, now 14 & 16 and still up early every morning, I am envious of parents that have teenagers that stay in bed! I live in hope that when the pubbing/clubbing stage starts they will lay in, whether I will be able to who knows, you get so used to being up early.

All of mine have had this phase between one and two. It's hideous. Gro-clock amd letting them scream from about two saved my sanity. It at least shifted them past six.

DS is almost 9 and I'm still waiting He wakes between 5.30-6 every day which is an improvement on his previous 4.30 onwards I suppose.
He would get up and go downstairs by himself to watch TV and play on the iPad, but this also woke the dog who would then start whining to be let out. We bought him a tablet of his own at an earlier age than I would have liked so that he could play games and watch cartoons on YouTube in bed. So he still wakes early but he's brilliant at not disturbing anyone until a reasonable time now.

You're asking the wrong question op. The ones you need to ask are - how soon can I create a situation where it is safe to ignore them until 6? 7? How can I train them to stay quietly in their rooms until then?