Is this my life forever now?!

[lancsgirl85]

So.. I think the answer to this is "yes, you will never lie in ever again" but just to check in case there's a glimmer of hope...

My 13 month old has started to sleep through the night probably 5 nights out of 7, so we are lucky in that respect. However, why, for the love of God, does she think 5.30am is an acceptable time to get up every single morning?!

Usually I get up and take her downstairs to play and breakfast etc, but this morning I just couldn't face it and brought into the playpen in my bedroom while I dozed on and off and she played. I felt guilty but I am exhausted with the early starts. I'd like just one day a week where I can lie in until 7.30/8am. Just one.

I mean, she gets up so offensively early, that her "mid morning" nap is now, at 9am! I'm typing this as she snoozes in my arms on the sofa.

Am I ever going to lie in til 7.30 ever again? Am I doomed? 😫

(Semi lightheaded but also please tell me there is hope of a lie in one day before I turn 40)

My DC never woke up early....but now I have to get my DD up for school she is a nightmare to wake up, I still have to get her dressed at age 10(!) and this is all to a background of crying! It pushes me over the edge every morning! So at least you should be ok with that!

Agree with dropping to one nap. She's using the morning nap to catch up. This fixed our ridiculously early wake ups with DS at around 13m.

you need to put her back to bed as if you would at 1.30am, you wouldn’t let her get up in the middle of the night so do that same routine until an appropriate time, This worked with my children.

Some do, some don’t. If you have a neurotypical child at least they’ll reach the age where you don’t have to get up with them anymore.

Mine used to get up ridiculously early. Myself and DH used to take turns at weekends so one of us could have a lie in. From about 7 she started getting up herself and letting us stay in bed for a bit.

At some point, can’t remember when, we introduced a glo clock and tried to train the kids to not get up until 7am, my youngest quickly worked out how to make the sun appear on it early, but at some point they do get old enough to understand too early to wake mummy.
I did a lot of snoozing while CBeebies was on when mine were tiny.

i now have a 14 & 11 yo and I barely see them. They certainly don’t get up early unless forced.

I think one lie in a week saved my sanity, shift work is hard, but could your partner do mornings on some of his off days?

Do you go in as soon as she wakes even if she's happy? My DS is 3 now, but I tended to let him have a few toy dinosaurs/animals and books in the cot/within reach of the cot so he could play and look at the pictures for a bit and he'd usually be happy for quite a while that way and we could get some more kip.

Share the wake ups if you are able, if you're not a lone parent then they shouldn't all be your responsibility. Appreciate this isn't helpful if you are.

Have you got a Toniebox/Yoto Box/Alexa in her room? My DS loves audiobooks and has done since he got his Toniebox (think he was 18 months or so). He can get up and put Tonies on himself now if he wants to, but we used to find Tonies or the Julia Donaldson audiobooks on the Alexa helped entertain him for an extra half an hour in the mornings when he woke early. Added benefit that sometimes they lulled him back to sleep as he goes to sleep to an audiobook at night, too.

It seems counterintuitive, but have you tried an earlier bedtime? My DS will always wake way earlier than normal if he has a late bedtime, and 7.45-8.45pm would be super late for him, even at age 3. 6.45-7pm is the sweet spot for us in terms of maximising sleep and he usually sleeps in the latest and sleeps best when he's had an earlier bedtime.

Agree small children hard wired to get up at Dawn. And it turns out so are puppies / young dogs.

they do grow out of it.

very exhausting while it lasts though. My sympathies!

Hollow laughter

It must be nice having children this worked for....

My 2 year old has been through lots of phases. He did a spell of 5am wakeups but now regularly sleeps until 7/7.30. He said “more sleep mummy” the other day when I came in and went back down until 8.30! I hadn’t changed anything but think how much sleep he needs varies over time. No doubt we’ll be back to 5.00am again soon. I don’t find his wake up time particularly related to how much nap he has had though he tends to sleep longer after a busy day at nursery / lots of outside time.

No! Of course not! Don’t be silly. In about 14 years it will be 11,30 am on a Saturday and you’ll be nagging them to get up.

Agree with this.

If DS is up before 6.30am he gets put back to bed. It took a bit of persistence, but he knows now that we'll get up to take him for a wee but then he goes back to bed or plays/reads quietly in bed until 7am ish. The key thing is we don't get up and do fun stuff with him when he wakes super early. DH got into the habit of taking him down for breakfast and starting the day at 6am and the wake ups got progressively earlier and earlier.

Take hope in the fact this phase won't last forever. I had raring to go 4.30am toddler for a while.
Once your DD starts nursery or school her sleep will improve.
When she is a teenager you will struggle to wake her before lunchtime.

DD is now 9 and has been waking between 5.30-6 her whole life. Occasionally 6.30. If she sleeps till 7 or past we knows she’s ill.

Once she was about 3 she could learn the rule of “stay in bed till the sun comes up on your gro clock” which was initially at 6, then we gradually pushed to 6.30 etc. She would stay in bed and “read” books till the sun came up. It was a bit of a battle at first getting her to do that but we were all so desperate for sleep it was worth it! (She also woke in the night for a long time and DC2 is similar 🥱)

If you start the day at 5.30 she will continue to rise at 5.30! Get a gro clock. Move the wake up time forward by 10 minutes bit by bit. Any time before morning time, treat it as a night time wake up - keep it dark and quiet and just repeat your nighttime cue phrase. Eventually she will sleep later.

Hollow laughter

It must be nice having easy children this worked for....

Ha sorry she's a lark.
If my son made it to 6am it was a good day. He went down well between 7.30 to 8pm (making it later won't help). Slept well but always up early and ready to party!
He's 18 now and still gets up super early and likes to get an hour session at the gym before work (and cycles there and back - ball of energy that boy).
Popping your child in to a playpen in your room for an hour is fine if they are playing happily.

Mine all went through a phase of 5am starts when they were 1, lasted about 6-9 months. I did as little as I could get away with ie dozed on the sofa/bed while they pottered/babbled/watched telly. It's hell at the time but it did eventually get better. I used to get so angry and frustrated about it but it does end.

To make myself feel better I would sometimes try to he productive, do an online shop, laundry, send emails I'd been meaning to get around to. I tried to look upon it as a gift of additional time to get stuff done 😂

My 9 year old is still up at 6am every morning sorry not what you wanted to hear 😴

Persistence with conditioning them to settle back down at 5:30am (as I would at 1:30am) worked with my children. Took a long time but got there in the end and they now sleep until 7/7:30am (2 and 5 years old). Occasionally they do wake earlier and I stick an audio book on for them for 20/30 mins. Obviously if they were crying, we'd be getting up with them. Gro clocks help somewhat. Good blackout blinds essential.

It won't be forever but it might last a while (sorry!) I dealt with it by going to bed early myself - I went up at 9 for years! They do get to a point where they're old enough to sit in front of the tv while you doze in bed though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think we will invest in a Gro clock, I'm just wondering if she's too young for the concept of that just yet?

No, they're not. My youngest would sleep til 10am if allowed, and would as a baby as well.

Well, mine is 🤷🏻‍♀️

To make myself feel better I would sometimes try to he productive, do an online shop, laundry, send emails I'd been meaning to get around to. I tried to look upon it as a gift of additional time to get stuff done 😂

Yep, I've done a load of washing, cleaned the kitchen and made a shopping list, and it's only 10am. It does help to think of it like this I suppose! Sometimes though you really don't want that "gift" do you? 😂