We’ve recently had help from a sleep consultant to help our 7 month old as we were getting zero hours sleep a night
Whilst here she recommended some changes to our 4yo (nearly 5) bedtime as she gets up at 5 most mornings and she felt she wasn’t getting enough sleep.
We would lay with her to go to sleep which we seem to have managed to change pretty quickly with no real objection from DD and we have stopped milk before bed as we were still lifting her at around 11. Both these changes have gone pretty smoothly, couple of upset bedtimes but easily calmed and has accepted that she’s a big girl and can manage this.
The other change is to get her to stay in her room / try and sleep until 630. This she can’t get her head around. We’ve been taking her back multiple times in the morning from around 530. The first morning she got extremely distressed so I stayed with her. Now she protests a little but she will go back, she just rocks up again 5 mins later!
AIBU to make her stay in her room until 630? I think she feels sad as this used to be ‘extra’ time with us but the sleep consultant felt that the longer we can push through then she might actually sleep longer in the morning. We are so tired at 5am that we aren’t great parents for at least an hour and screens played a big part and we do want to change this, I just feel mean taking her back so many times and imagine she feels a bit rejected. (Her baby sibling is also staying in bed longer now)
YABU - kids wake up at 5 and you should deal with it
YANBU - stick with it it will be helpful in the long run