Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Toddler waking at 5am every day! HELP!

3 replies

lmac89 · 21/10/2013 09:56

Hi, really needing some advice and to know if anyone else is in the same boat. My DS is 16 months old and for the past couple of months wakes between 5 and 5.30am every day. He has blackout blinds and our house is quiet. He goes to bed at around 7.15 - 7.30 every night. He is fantastic at going to bed, has around 8oz milk before he goes down and goes down awake and settles himself down. When he wakes around 5 he is almost half asleep and really violently kicks the sides of his cot until he wakes himself up. I have tried just going in and tucking his legs back in, and leaving straight away. This sometimes calms him for 10 mins but it starts up again. I am a light sleeper and am now pregnant so cannot sleep through it.

He must be tired, as all morning after we have got up (i tend to give him until 6am to see if he will go back off) then we watch some Milkshake or Cbeebies and he just zones out watching it. I can put him back down around 10am for a nap and he can sleep anything up to 2 and a half hours. at the minute I have been trying to make the most of this and going back to sleep when he does. But I am increasingly worrying that this is just enabling in a way, and it doesn't help us get out and about to groups we normally would do. I feel really tired, helpless and concerned for when the new baby comes. I feel ill and emotional with this pregnancy anyway so that's not helping, but the sleep is really getting to me. I need to know if others are having the same problem and if its just a phase or if there is more i can do.

Thank you :-)

OP posts:
ICameOnTheJitney · 21/10/2013 11:21

What time are you going to bed yourself? I know how hard this can be and the way I dealt with it was by getting myself to bed by 9.00pm. It's not ideal I know but you won't be so zombie like. Also, when he wakes simply stay in bed...I get that you find it hard to go back to sleep but you should perhaps begin ignoring him completely and staying put until about 6.30am....whilst early this is still a reasonable time to wake.

There's no need for you to get up to tuck his legs back in....make sure he's got a sleepsuit on so he won't get cold and ignore. He'll begin to go back to sleep.

lmac89 · 21/10/2013 12:55

I am going to bed anywhere between 9 and 10pm. I think my pregnancy tiredness is not helping anything, and maybe once I am out of this first trimester it will be a bit better. Will try ignoring him more I think, it's just sometimes easier to say than to do as I get so restless when I can hear him and im not going back to sleep. But then that's almost my issue and not his. thanks.

OP posts:
Oriunda · 21/10/2013 16:09

You have described my life! DS (20months) has always woken early. Usually 530, sometimes 6, and for a few weeks we had 6/615 and I thought we were moving to the fabled 7am that I hear some people get. He has gone back the last 2 weeks to 445/5/515 and it is slowly destroying me. Am hoping it's just temporary. I leave him for 30 mins or so (he's quite happy playing with his teddies) just to see if he goes back down but never does. Once he starts getting too vocal, around 6am or so he comes in with us (if a weekday as DH gets up early) or down with me at weekends. The day begins with cbeebies etc and we head out around 915 or so. I have found classes that start at 930 or latest 10am, and by latest 11am we head home and he either falls asleep in pushchair or car and I transfer him to his cot. He'll sleep for 2-2.5hrs and I get an hour nap myself. I also go to bed early. Only way I can cope.

I have got up (for work/DH's work) at 530 for the last 15 years or so, so am an early riser and used to it, but this extra 30 mins earlier in the morning is too much. Fingers crossed it will pass. On the plus side, he goes to bed @645pm and is out like a light just after 7pm as soon as he hits the cot. And no, putting him to bed later does not make him wake later before anyone suggests it! When we're in Italy and family pressure means he goes to bed later, he still wakes up the same time.

Have you considered a sleep bag? DS has one so no worries about getting cold etc. Has he got some favourite soft toys in the bed he can play with?

When DS is older I will be getting the Gro clock!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page