Toddler suddenly waking very early. So miserable.

[ibajlp]

18 month old suddenly waking at 5:55 without fail. Used to sleep until gone 7. I’ve tried everything in the last two weeks and nothing is changing it! Slightly earlier bedtime, slightly later, more exercise, more food, less food, more drink and less drink etc. The room is pitch black so it’s not a light issue. I’m a lone parent and this feels like the worst thing as it’s making my days seems even longer. Please help

6am is "normal" OP as lots of posters say but I feel sorry for myself if DS wakes before 7am. We got the Gro Clock around this age and taught DS that he needs to stay in his cot and play with a toy / look at a book til it goes orange. Works most of the time. Even if it means I have to get up to fetch him something I can make myself a cup of tea and feed the cat.

6am is pretty normal, sorry! I think the only solution is an earlier night for you.

I tried EVERYTHING to get mine to sleep later. 6 am is our earliest acceptable but even that's been hard fought. Sorry.

Do you cap his nap at hour, OP?

I'm still waking at 6am most mornings with my 17 year old! (Leaves for college at 7)
Some children are just early risers. Watch a bit of TV or similar during the day for you to catch a break.

Totally normal with my two, it stopped once teething stopped so about 3ish
Awful!

Same with me. Mine is 2 and 3 months and my evenings were so miserable, it took him 2hrs to sleep, sometimes he was still up at 10pm, crying for me, when he went to bed at 8pm with daddy. So 3 weeks back we stopped the nap, he's tired during the day and before bed time. I put him to bed at 8pm or around it and he sleeps in 10 min without a fail.

Watch TV for a break? Even if you are at work?

Maybe not 😂
I do sympathise though - mine was hard to get to sleep, woke early and seemed to need less sleep than other toddlers. Even as a teen she can go to bed at midnight, get up at 6 and still breeze through the day.

My eldest woke around half five or six til she started school. It's pretty normal, unfortunately.

Ours has never woken later than 6.30. They only need so much sleep in 24hrs (11-14hrs total is the average for this age). This also drops slightly over time. As others have said, if it's become consistent enough to be the new normal and isn't teething or developmental you may need to trial things for a week or so to see a difference. I'd look at later bedtime personally, unless they already seem dysregulated at bedtime. Many kids don't do the 12hrs ideal overnight, they average more like 10-11 especially if still napping. We are at 16m with 1.5-2hr nap, wake at 6-6.30, bed at 7.30-7.45

My oldest used to get up at about 5am every morning, he still does it now and he’s an adult. I’m not an early bird myself but I did get used to it at the time.

Nearly 6 is quite normal for a wake time tbh. Even for adults.

early morning rises are defined as before 05:30

at that age the nap might be too short, most children need 1.5-2hr naps until at least 2 years old.

To me it's a normal wake up time at that age. My DD woke up from 5.30am onwards for ages and then only recently as she turned 2 she extended to 7am-7.30am.

Another here to say that's a normal wake up time. I'm so at 5.50am and don't have young kids waking me up. Not sure there's anything you can do about it.

Yeah 6am is a normal time for a toddler to wake up. If it was 5am I'd understand trying to move it later but a lot of toddlers do wake around 6. Even my six year old wakes at half 6 now.

You put them to bed later then, but not just for one night to try it, but for a couple of weeks so that their sleeping pattern changes.

I'd love that! My stupid dogs wake up at 5.15 😭

Mine wakes at 4:30. He doesn’t nap anymore. Made no difference. We’re on week three without a nap.

I'm not a morning person, I’m finding it super hard, but it’s not as if you can just ignore them! He’d just run through and climb on me anyway.

Definitely don’t scrap the nap at 18 months. Very common misconception that toddlers wake early because they’ve had enough sleep. Firstly 6am isn’t that early, but in general early wakes are usually due to overtiredness - I’d be maxing out the day sleep - 18 months can be easily 2 hours +.

I wouldnt go in and get them up unless they were properly crying for a good few minutes.

Another thing you could try is going in quietly and try to get them to go back to sleep. Tell them it's too early, it's sleep time, pat them for a few minutes or whatever and leave again. But appreciate this probably won't work.

If still having two naps could be a sign they need to drop to one a day.there is a 18 month sleep regression I believe (although I swear there is one every month if you Google a particular month regression!) I would say it was around this age that my son wouldn't sleep in the dark anymore, when he woke he got scared and would wake crying, once we left the landing light on and the door open about 9 inches to let some light in, he was fine and used to back to sleep in the night/morning by himself.

You'll have to go to bed earlier

It’s not early.

I guess it depends on what time the child goes to sleep how big an impact it has on you, but it’s not a particularly early wake.

to get rid of the nap is madness

I don't think 6am is that early, it's kind of a normal time to get up, especially in the week.