16mo up at 5am every day

[pandarific]

Please help. We're shattered, we're both working 5 hours and then trying to pick up the additional in the evening and the crack of dawn starts are killing us.

He comes into our bed from anything between 12-4am, and then is up at 5. He goes to bed at 7, is usually asleep by half past. Help!!

He naps fine, from 11am to about 1pm.

Could you get him to have another nap in the day?

Morning - exactly the same here! Sending you

We are currently surviving by sleeping in shifts!

Unfortunately, I think this start time is common with small children. We would have the ipad by the bed. When DD came in, one parent would head off to sleep elsewhere and we'd put Peppa Pig or something on and try to doze until a reasonable time. I think the key really is sharing these early starts, there is no point you both being awake.

I also have the odd night on the sofa when I'm really knackered. 8 or 9 solid hours. Bliss.

I have a 19 month old that thinks 4am is time to get up. It's a killer!

No advice as w have tried everything

I just refused to accept anything before 6.30ish, kept putting them back to bed. Was easiest with oldest as no other kids to worry about waking, youngest got a slightly easier time of it, but still. We have a gro clock and they're not allowed in until the sun is up on it!

My 20 month old done this for a couple month when he was around 15 months was 4am every morning he now sleeps until 6am which is a little better. It will.hoepfully pass

It's tough but a pretty common wake up time for toddlers. He's getting about 12 hours sleep in a 24 hour period so probably doesn't need more. I had two kids who never slept more than 10 hours overnight, they just didn't need more sleep. Now when they're in primary school wake up time has moved to 6am

I'd also let him have cartoons in bed, hang in there.

My 16 month old goes to bed at 8-8:30 for a 6:30-7:30am wake. Maybe try a later bedtime? It takes a little while to adjust (ie they won’t sleep later the first night you try it). I think they just need less sleep as they get older!

If he’s taking half an hour to fall asleep maybe he’s not tired enough yet??

Are you in UK. Clocks change very soon. Personally I would try a week of a later bee time. Mine never went to bed at 7 unfortunately

My son is 2 and has been this way for ages. I've given up trying things to fix it as nothing worked and just accepted it. He wakes up at that time no matter when he goes to bed. He refuses to nap so some days he's asleep by 5pm! And I actually prefer having my nice long evening over a later start so I'm trying to see the positives!

We moved the nap until around 1-2 only got one hour no longer. Bed at 7pm and we saw a huge improvement.

My son never woke later than 6 until he was about 5 years old. Sorry. Shifting naps and bedtime had absolutely no effect and neither did gro clocks etc. Until he was old enough to go down and put the TV on unsupervised that was getting up time for us and yes it's v v tough. He's 10 now and still usually wakes by 6.30 but is finally able to read quietly til about 7.15 on holiday /weekends.

We are also struggling with 1 year old's early mornings. We find properly taking it in turns to get up and go downstairs so the other gets to sleep in every other morning without wriggly toddler in bed is what's helping the most. I'm not sure if this will encourage him to continue these early mornings but I'm sure it will pass eventually regardless. Even if it's just that eventually he'll be old enough to go and turn on the telly by himself for an hour at some point!

Very normal I'm afraid, my ds woke at 5am for the best part of a year as a toddler and it's slowly increased, he's 5 years old now and wakes between 6.30-7am now even on weekends. We also tried absolutely everything, gro-clocks, later bed time, more napping, less napping, co-sleeping etc nothing worked im afraid, it took a long time to accept that it was just his normal.

Normal. Sorry. Had this with mind until he was almost 3. All you can do is get through it. Get naps when you can. Nap when he naps. Tag team. Call in any help you can. Also get yourself a good iPad with kiddie friendly headphones. Have a snack ready and everything set up by the bed. Put Peppa pig or whatever keeps his attention on it. Let him have it when he wakes up. That might buy you an extra hour.

Just to say now mine is at school I have to wake her up to get her there. It does get better

Yep this is our norm too. Usually awake any time between 5 and half 5. As others have suggested we also bring DS into our bed and he happily watches youtube kids for an hour on my phone before one of us gives up and brings him downstairs for breakfast. Been like this since he was about 18 months (he's now almost 3!) My niece was the same and continued until she started school

If nothing works maybe try an earlier bedtime for your self for a while? I get up 5 am every weekday by choice and go to bed 9 pm most weekdays. At least it will help you cope.

Mine never needed much sleep - we got a groclock when she was 17 months, on the advice of a friend who said he wished he’d started earlier with his dd because he was sure she’d have “got” it. It was true for us - dd got it even though she was v.young, and once we’d changed it incrementally up from 5 to 7, i promised i would go in every morning at exactly 7 so she never came into our room. We still do this and she’s nearly 5.

Should have said - she still wakes early (6 now) but knows it’s not getting up time until 7 so plays quietly in her room until then.

It is normal and unfortunately not all children grow out of it. My DS is 11 and still wakes up at 5.30 every morning. Obviously I don’t have to get up with him anymore but after more than a decade of it my body clock has reset itself and I find myself ready for the day by then.

Try it go to bed earlier, adjust your own sleeping patterns. You have my sympathy, it’s so tough when they’re little and you have to be ‘on’ from the minute they’re up. Even harder with everything going on in the world at the minute.

Best of luck.

We had this and I sleep trained him - I know it's not a popular choice but he was shattered! Key thing for us was DS staying in his own bed, I did a few weeks where I ended up sleeping on his floor at some point but once we cracked that he moved to regular 6.30-7am wake-ups.

Ours ‘got’ the groclock when he was close to two and that really helped - totally surprised us.

Cut the nap down to an hour.

Or just put on cartoons. I don't think it's fair to put him back to bed in this instance he's going to bed early and having a 2 hour nap in the day, he probably just doesn't need more sleep.