to think that if your small children are awake...

[emmymama]

then you should be as well?

ok, so this may be jealousy, dd (13 months) wakes me up at 5.30am and sleeps from 9pm! hopefully only waking twice

i have a friend that gets up at dinnertime, she has a 13 month old and a 2 year old..

i asked her how much they sleep and she said that 13 month old goes to sleep at 6.30pm and 2 year old at 8ish and they sleep till around 10.30am and then play for an hour or so before she gets up

my dd would have eaten her cot by then

emmymama mine have all gone through a phase at around 10-12 months of trying to wake up early, I go in check on them if needed give them a drink and a toy and leave, they do make a fuss and sometimes you need to go back a few times (I dont leave them crying) but I just let them know that even if they are awake they have to stay in their cot until at least 6. Not all children are the same but if you get up with them whenever they want it will get earlier and earlier as they get older!

ds1 (3) went to sleep at 7.45 last night and had to be dragged out for playschool at 8.45, didn't eat more than 3 bites of breakfast, still has all his lunch in his bag and is rolling around on the couch now saying he's tired.

At the weekends he'll easily sleep til 10/11 am

dd (5) wakes at 8/9 every morning but if the boys are still asleep i don't get up and she plays happily for ages.

ds2 (14m) goes to sleep anywhere from 8-9.30 and sometimes sleeps til 6/7 in his cot but more often comes into our bed earlier... he'll happily stay in our bed feeding and dozing til whatever time dd is up and then he'll get out and play with her, popping back for boob every now and again.

All three have been known to sleep til midday on occassion.

dp and i need loads of sleep too so they clearly get it from us.

All that being said i don't think it's normal to lie in bed until dinner time every day, kids or no kids.... it was always at times of depression that i sank into the habit of sleeping all day and it made me feel awful.

emmymama... dd went through a phase of trying to get up at 5/6.... i just took her into my bed with us and made it clear no-one was getting up at that time, she soon got bored and started sleeping later.... no tears, no being mean to her or neglecting her but absolutely no giving in and getting up at such a ridiculous time of the morning.

Mmm, it's difficult to know (when you only have the one, especially) how much is influence and how much is character, isn't it?

If mine (16 months) ever wakes before 6am I treat it like a night wakeup and do rocking/bottleorbreast in a darkened room. At around 11 months she went through a phase where she was awake! Awake and wanting to chat, and play! at about 4.30am and that was obviously ridiculous so I would spend an entire hour getting her back to sleep. Do the same at 5.30, and at 6.30 if I can get away with it.

And in the evenings, we keep trying to move bedtime earlier and failing; end of daylight savings happened at Easter so we used the opportunity to move her bedtime an hour earlier. After all, if she thought it was 8.30 when it was 7.30 it should be easier than adjusting it, right?

But here we are two weeks in and she's already back to 8.30pm bedtimes. So she's clearly picking up on our signals and rhythms or something, because goodness knows I'd rather she was in bed earlier.

Anyway, that's a tangent but I mean, I do suspect there are ways to stop a child waking at 5.30am. And also I am suspecting that a child waking after 14/15 hours and still not bothering its mother for another hour has learned not to bother. Especially since both children don't disturb her.

If they are genunely asleep for the time she says they are, I don't see the problem, tbh. My eldest slept through from between 5 and 6pm and 9am from about 6 weeks old. He fed constantly throughout the day and had a few shortish naps, but slept all night without waking once. My other two children have been similar in their sleeping patterns, the longest one took to sleep through the night was 3 months. They all grew and developed fine, so I don't see the problem personally, and I cringe when friends tell me they still get up once or twice to toddlers, as I really couldn't be doing with it myself.

Now, my youngest is 6, but as he has Downs, developmentally his age is much younger, I guess. He is always awake at 5 am ish these days, regardless of when he goes to bed, and plays happily in his room (while the brother he shares with sleeps through it!) until either we get him up or he is hungry or needs a nappy change, in which case he calls us and lets us know. Sometimes that can be until almost lunchtime at weekends, but we do usually get up, nappy change and then he continues to play whilst we lay in and nap. (we never properly sleep, we can always hear him)

My older two still have to be woken every day.