AIBU to try to get my DD to sleep in longer?

[UnicornAndSparkles]

Dd is generally a good sleeper but she's been persistently waking at 5/5.15 daily for months now. Shes 3y 4m. We cut her daytime nap (90 min) out entirely on the advice of a sleep consultant and that worked for maybe 3 weeks and she was sleeping 6.30pm to 6/6.30am. Now its back to "normal". I worry she isn't getting enough sleep, she averages maybe 10.5ish hours a night, in bed from 6.30/6.45 and asleep within minutes, waking around 5. I know there are many that have it worse than me but im just desperate to get her sleeping past 5ish in the morning. How do I do it?! She has a clock that she can read but persistently turns her lamp on and "reads" when she wakes, which would be fine if she didn't sing/call out and wake all of us! Im pregnant and not sleeping well at night and the early starts are just killing me!

Also, we already use white noise and a blackout blind. She can read her (dim) digital clock so knows its 5 something when she wakes and that wake up time is 6. She just doesn't care. Wakes up happy, singing etc. It's the rest of us that are miserable with it! I go to bed so early but some nights am up every couple of hours with baby kicking/needing to pee etc and it takes me forever to get back to sleep!

I’d try and go down the route of teaching her not to call out and wake you. My DD wakes early and she’s allowed to play with the toys she can reach from her bed (ones placed there for that purpose) until the sun comes up on her gro clock. We’ve tried different things to get her to sleep in and nothing has really worked consistently. It wasn’t so much of an issue until I had DS this year and couldn’t cope with him being up in the night and DD being up at 5

Is she at nursery? Does she get enough exercise and fresh air during the day? Enough activity and stimulation (difficult during covid, I know)? Decent diet? No screens for a couple of hours before bed?

If there's nothing obvious you could tweak to make sure she's physically primed to sleep longer, could you try a sticker chart and small rewards if she stays in bed till 6?

I think it's roughly the right amount of sleep for her age, I think the recommended amount is 10.5 to 11 hours. What happens if you do a later bedtime?

My DD is a similar age and needs a similar amount of sleep, so we've gone for a 7:30 bedtime so she doesn't wake until 6/6:30. If she's happy I would guess she doesn't need more sleep.

Shes getting a good night's sleep. She needs to go to bed later if you want her to sleep in later I'd say.

Put her to bed later?

Have you tried a later bedtime?

Sorry I do hate to state the bleeding obvious but 6.30 pm could be stretched to 7.00 or 7.30

If it helps it’s supposed to be a sign of intelligence.

I would work on rewarding quiet behaviour. Could she do more than read? DD will play with Lego etc. I would also gradually shift bedtime later. If she isn't tired in the day then she is probably managing on that amount of sleep.

This is quite normal in my experience, I have just adjusted my bed time so I get enough sleep, I go up at about 9ish.

I was also going to say what about a later bedtime. If that's the amount of sleep she needs, you need to shuffle it forward a bit to not have the early rise. Also work on rewarding her if she does wake early but stays quiet in her room until a set time.

She goes to bed very early. Have you tried a later bedtime?

That is a pretty early bedtime IMO. Mine are 3 and 5 and go to bed at 7:30.

I find sometimes with a later bedtime they still wake up early and then they’ve had even less sleep and it’s miserable for everyone.
I would just say it’s probably a phase and won’t last forever, she’s sleeping all night so that’s good.

That seems a very early bedtime , I would delay bedtime by an hour .

Agree 6:30 bedtime is very early. Try pushing it a it later and see if that helps? Might take a few days to make a difference though.

I echo the slightly later bedtime idea.

DD4 sleeps 11 hours (it doesn't seem to matter when it starts and finishes, always 11 hours), so we made bedtime 7:30-8pm and she wakes up at 6:30-7am.

She gets a bit ratty by the end of the day, but we keep the last hour pretty calm to avoid her losing her shit (bath, PJs, book, bed).

You have a child sleeping a huge block of time.

So either you work around the 5an starts, which imo aren't that bad or you have her awake later in the evening. You cannot expect a child to be in bed both ends of the day to suit you.
If you're tired, then you need to go to bed earlier...

Put her to bed later, she’s sleeping more than enough. Find it pretty bizarre you’ve got a sleeping consultant involved when she’s sleeping enough hours a night.

You can go to bed earlier

Also going to say a later bedtime. My grand daughter is 3y and her bedtime is 7.30pm and she wakes about 7.30/8am.
If you think she might struggle with staying awake an extra hour just ease her into it slowly so she adjusts. With my daughter I did 15 minutes later for a few days then after those few days added another 15 minutes later until it was the whole hour later. It helped me avoid the grumpy overtired ‘now I won’t go to sleep’ as she just naturally adjusted.

I'd move her bedtime on by 15 minutes for a couple of nights, then 15 more until finally you're on 7.30 or so. She is getting plenty of sleep so it can only be the early bedtime.

MellowMelly posted the same thing as me, apologies.

I feel for you, 5am is still nighttime to me try putting her to bed later over the Christmas holiday's and hopefully it will make a difference

@angieloumc literally we cross posted but great minds think alike