dd waking up at 5.30 ish help please

[madame]

dd 23 months has always been a really good sleeper, until the last month or so she has started waking up at 5.30 ish every morning and wont go back to sleep. I have tried telling her it's still night time and putting her back down. Giving her her milk and then putting her back down. She just won't settle and I am just sooooooooo tired during the day. Her room is dark, it's quiet, she gets lots of exercise during the day. Her sleep is in the morning around 11 for about 2 hours and then nothing more till she goes to bed.

I tried this weekend putting her down later at 8 instead of 7.30 but that didn't seem to impact at all. My friends little boy wakes at 6 and she simply doesn't go in till 7. But my dd just screams and gets upset so I feel I need to go in.

Please more experinced mums....give me some ideas on what I might be able to try. I think I am goingh to have to start going to bed even earlier like 9! When do i get any me time then?

And we are trying for another baby....

could you try moving her morning sleep til after lunch, say 12 - 2ish or just an hour and a half til about 1.30 then she's not getting up much later than normal in the afternoon or would she not last that long, this worked for my lo, and he now wakes up generally between 6-7am.

no consolation here, but its really really common for little ones to wake early. mine gets up at 5.30 too (although last few nights he's slept til 6.15 which is like an amazing lie-in!!)
i do go to bed at 9.30. that gives me 2 or 3 hours in the evening which is about enough to eat dinner and watch a film. its the only way i can cope! i do stay up til 11 once or twice a week for a special occassion but im usually pretty shattered the next day.

I don't know if this will be of any help to you. I have 2 DS 3.5 and nearly 6. They are both early risers (no naps, unless in the car for long journeys) 5.00/5.30 onwards. We have found it takes 4/5 days of putting them to bed later, for the morning bit to kick in. At the moment we are keeping them up until 8.30/9, hopefully in another day or so, they will go to 8am. This we can cope with when we go camping this weekend.

My DD gets up any time from 5.15 till 6.00. I have been waiting for her to walk which she has just started (age 17 months). Putting her to bed later has no effect.

If she continues to get up early even with the extra exercise I will start restricting her daytime sleep in the autumn. (I can do early getting up in summer but not!!! winter in the dark.) This has an effect on a lot of kids.

Another things to try is putting some surprise toys in the cot to wake up to every day.

HTH

My DS is 15 months and until very very recently he was also waking up at around 5am, once or twice even 4.30 . But for the last week or so he has been waking up at around 6.15 and I'm convinced it's the days getting shorter. I think that the amount of daylight a baby/child gets during the day and also the intensity of light has an effect on his/her sleep so just darkening the bedroom may not have an effect. So at the height of summer my DS woke up a lot earlier no matter how dark his room was or when I put him to bed.

I tried so many things when he was waking up early and I too was EXHAUSTED so I know how you feel but tbh nothing worked and his later wake ups now just seemed to happen. I used to go to bed at 9pm or even earlier sometimes and I hated it as I had virtually no time to myself in the evenings, but somehow or the other I managed to get through it.

It is very very hard I know, but possibly going to bed early yourself may be your only option at the moment. But having said that I feel sure that his wake up time will not always be so early so just hang in there.

Thank you everyone, I am currently trying the going to bed slightly later thing at the moment. For the last 4 nights I have put dd down at 8 instead of 7.30. It's also nice as dh gets to put her to bed after returning from work.

The first 3 nights it had no impct at all but this morning she woke at 6.45 . That's much more civilised..... for me as I am the antichrist if I don't get enough sleep.

I think you are all right on the going to bed early and I am being really good and making sure I am in bed by 10! It does make a difference and gives me so much more energy during the day.

One of my friends put's a light in her ds room and put's it on a timer for 7 so when it comes on he knows it is wake up time. Do you think she is too young 23 mths to get that?