2 year old - early waking.

[hksi]

My daughter is almost 2 and waking each morning around 6. As she is the youngest of 4 this is causing a pproblem as she is waking the other children. She is happy when she wakes and not particularly hungry but stands in her cot and shouts mummy or daddy until one of us comes!! She has an hour long nap after lunch unless she is at the childminder where she doesn't sleep and has an hour when we get home at 3.
I'm thinking if dropping the nap??? Anyone have any experiece? She goes to bed at 7.

I have lots of experience!! My son is now 10 and has got up at between 6am and 7am his whole life. It doesn't matter what time he goes to bed or how many naps he does or doesn't have... he still wakes up at the same time. The only thing that worked was the introduction of a big wall-clock ... as in 'wait until the little hand points to seven'. However, it relies upon the child knowing what seven looks like. So good luck.

Hoping you get replies, as I have the same here.
My DD2 wakes at 6am every morning also shouting for one of us.She wakes DD1 who would probably sleep till 6.30-7.00 if allowed.
We've grown used to it now.
They are both in bed and asleep by 8.30pm and it doesn't matter about the length of nap she has.

Same as my 23 month old, who wakes up about 5.30. We are just grinning and bearing it and recording CBeebies to watch so early. He is not wet/cold/hungry/etc, but wants company.He wakes up early regardless of nap - which I use to catch up on my own sleep on days I am at home with him.

Yes, my DD having slept from 7pm to 7am up to age of 2, suddenly started waking up at 5am at 2 yrs old. Tried all sorts, cutting out nap, going to bed later, nothing worked. In the end I got up at 5am and entertained her for an hour and a half. Then Dh got up and entertained her for an hour and a half (whilst I went back to bed) til he went to work. It stopped at about age 3.5 I'm afraid. Now DD aged 4.5 wakes up around 7am and is just about at the age where she'll play in her room instead of waking everybody up. Think it might be a thing of 2 yr olds.

Have a 2.4 yr old who currently wakes between 6.30 and 7.30am. He goes to sleep around 8pm and has a nap in the afternoon. Sometimes he has phases of sleeping later in the mornings, but the early waking can go on for weeks and nothing seems to affect it. We've tried early bedtime, late bedtimes, quiet days, tiring him out, naps, no naps. Makes no difference. Just have to get to bed early myself.

Good luck.

Best to change your sleeping hours,6 is a good time to start the day! She has slept for 11 hours so is doing well.

When shes older you can teach her that not everyone wants to be up with the sunshine and she can amuse herself for a while .

When shes a teen she will just be coming home from a festival with tent,wellies,bags under the eyes and you will be relieved to see her even though it is 6am.

My 2 year old wakes at 6 too. We have a little tv in our room and he watches that whilst we doze. It actually makes less no difference if he doesn't nap in the day.
It'll get better in the winter x

If your DD is in bed by 7 and awake by 6 then she's getting 11 hours of sleep a night - this is good (especially if she is napping during the day adding to her sleep hours). She's waking refreshed and energetic ay 6am - so there is nothing to worry about as she's fine.

You need to go to bed earlier to cope with it. Her early morning waking will be a godsend when she starts nursery or school and has to be up early. But you need to adjust so that you are not tired.

But you could try cutting out her nap. Ours lies in later in the morning when we don't put her down for a nap.

Early waking certainly seems normal for young toddlers. Most of my friends said their children slept in longer when they started school - just when they didn'y want them to sleep in!

6am is normal, sorry. We too have a little early bird, she's up at 6 most days, sometimes we get a treat and she sleeps until 6.30. It's just the way their body clocks work for a lot of toddlers. Especially in the summer when the human body is programmed to need less sleep (even with blackout blinds).

At some point she'll either start sleeping later or be able to entertain herself until you get up.

We do find it a blessing on work days though as there is no mad rush to get out of the house, we get up at a leisurely pace and have breakfast together, then all out the door by 7.45. It would be nice if weekends were different though!

Yup - 6 am is normal. In fact, ours has been waking up at about 5 through the summer so 6 is better! In my experience nothing makes any difference. Fewer naps, later bedtime, darker room etc. Something you just have to live with!

Thanks so much for all the replies. I can cope with 6 - just lol but she wakes up my other 3 who need to go to school/pre-school so worry about them being tired. My 10 and 8 year old go to bed at 7.30 anyway so don't think they'd appreciate any earlier lol. Not convinced about dropping the nap ESP as it might not work as she's so good at going down. All tricky!! None of the others have done this so even on no 4 I'm learning!!! She's coming out of her buggy so maybe all the extra walking will wear her out!!!!

ds (2.6) has one of these clocks and knows not to come out of his room before the sunshine appears to tell him it's morning. He's in a bed, so can get out and play in the morning, but often just lies in bed singing to himself until 6.45 when he comes and tells us it's time to get up. Not a solution if your dcs share a room, but otherwise this has worked for us for several months now, so worth a try, perhaps?

DS has been waking early recently - today he is still asleep but DH and I are awake because we had friends staying that we waved off early.

He is just 2 and still has a long nap in the afternoon, usually 2 hours. He goes to bed at 8.30 and then normally he would sleep until 7-7.30am, but we have been having several 6.30 starts in the last fortnight. Reducing the nap doesn't help, he just gets grumpy.