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Behaviour/development

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

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Original poster

those of you whose toddlers wake at 5am

72 replies

CrushWithEyeliner · 29/06/2008 09:06

like mine do you have any tips/strategies? How do you cope with it and is there any way i could encourage a longer morning sleep. She goes from 7am to 5am and i feel like I have taken a lot of hallucinogenic drugs

OP posts:

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nappyaddict · 30/06/2008 10:29

well when i was at work last night, ds fell asleep on the sofa at 6pm and instead of waking him up after 30 mins which is what i always do my mum let him sleep through so he was up at 4!!

krang · 30/06/2008 11:00

How nice that I am not alone. DS (2 and 5 months) has just started the 5.30am wakeup. Am thinking of dropping his lunchtime nap to see if that makes a difference. At least I have a DH who will take turns in the morning...and tomorrow is my lovely lie-in till 7...

blueshoes · 30/06/2008 11:04

I have blackout blinds, ds is sleeps later than usual. But there are still times he is up from 5 am. Particularly this time of the year when the days are long.

I nurse ds lying down in bed. It buys me another 15-20 minutes and he might nod back off to sleep. Then he gets out of bed and pootles around for another 5-10 minutes before he tries to pull me out of bed. Whereupon I ask him to get a book and then read it to him in bed as horizontal as possible. Then I ask him to go look for his older sister. Or me or dh takes him downstairs and puts on the TV whilst cuddling him and trying to get some sleep whilst he watches.

It's hard but agree it won't be forever.

Twinkie1 · 30/06/2008 11:08

DS has gone back to bed for the last 2 mornings after we threatened to put a timer on his bedside light and he would only be allowed to get up when the light went on (great tip from Mung!!) - he cried and made a fuss about the timer although I don't think he knows what one is - and so we said we wouldn;t use it if he went back to bed in the mornings - he did say that he only gets up early to use the toilet but he has been the last 2 mornings and then got back in his bed - hoorah - still up at 7am but he does ask to go to bed usually before 7pm so he gets loads of sleep!

PrettyCandles · 30/06/2008 11:14

I resent that I lose what little couple-time dh and I have. In order to cope with the 5am wakings (for the last two days 4.40am) I would have to go to bed an hour after our eldest dc.

And it's not as if I can get anything done during the early mornings, either. Ds2 is 20m, a perpetual motion machine, into everything, opens everything, climbs everything and is uninterested in TV - unless he can dismantle it and play with the little buttons and twinkly lights.

Ugh.

Tutter · 30/06/2008 11:15

dh and i take turns getting up with ds2 at 5am

ds1 was exactly the same until he dropped all naps at 2.5yo

so only a year and a half to go til ds2 improves... [yawn]

Countingthegreyhairs · 30/06/2008 11:58

lol at 5am play-group

I would be wary about putting your dd to bed later in the evening. It depends on the individual child but if my dd missed her 'natural time slot' when she was ready for bed, she got over-tired and then found it harder to get to sleep and we ended up with her awake at night AND in the morning!!

The only thing that worked for us was going out in the morning every morning - however wretched I was feeling - and getting fresh air.

This was our schedule when dd was 18 mths which I stuck to rigidly:

Regular day-time naps - NO napping between 5am and 11.30 but fresh air and sunshine or wind and rain usually! Then a brief nap after lunch between 11.30 and 12.30/1pm and another brief one between 3.30 and 4.30pm then bed at 7pm. Loads of activity and stimulation between those times.

It worked most of the time and when it didn't I'd take turns with dh.

It does get better. DD's nearly five now and she usually sleeps until 7 and on one occasion recently she slept until 8.30 am and I was so worried about her not waking I couldn't sleep!!!!
Good luck

nappyaddict · 30/06/2008 16:22

counting the grey hairs - that happened the first week i decided to move ds' bed time but after that he settled down and it became his new natural time to go to bed iyswim.

Tortington · 30/06/2008 16:24

i told mine to get back in bed it wasn't morning yet.

as there was no telly and no entertainment - sleepis best cure for boredom

Countingthegreyhairs · 30/06/2008 17:03

Nappy Addict - yes it does suggest moving the child's bedtime incrementally by half an hour to a later time as a cure for early waking in most of my baby books - and I have a friend for whom that's worked really well (it just didn't for us and we tried it for about 3 wks!) Still got the panda eyes 4 yrs on ....

Countingthegreyhairs · 30/06/2008 17:04

Oh forgot to say agree with Custo about making being awake at inappropriate times as boring as possible too ....

Clockspotter · 19/01/2010 13:20

Thank God I'm not the only one thats all I can say! Mine (19mths) has started waking regularly at betw 4-5am which is fine when I can doss down with her again when she has her daytime nap at weekends but def not on a workday night!

We've been trying a version of the controlled crying thing out of desperation but I hate it. She's not old enough to explain why shes waking she might be scared for all we know.

Might try sitting by the cot and hand-holding instead- if she'll let me that is!!

One thing for sure Im not giving up my precious evenings!

longingforsleep · 19/01/2010 13:33

If it makes you feel any better, this will pass. My DS (now 5.5) was a really terrible sleeper, and was up at 5am for what seemed like a very long time. He now sleeps (pretty reliably) until at least 7am - this morning until 7.45 am, and if you'd told me that 2 years ago I would never have believed you!

I'm still planning to hoover outside his bedroom very early when he's a teenager, just to give him an idea of what I went through I do feel for you, but it will pass! Good luck.

Orissiah · 20/01/2010 13:55

My 19mo DD has been waking up around 5.30am for the last two months. She's too young to explain that it's too early and she's too young to understand bribery so what keeps me going is that it's all just a phase.

Interestingly, she sleeps in to 6.45 or 7am (her usual wake up time since 3 months to 17 months!) if we don't put her down for a lunch time nap.

joinedathipmummy · 01/05/2010 21:12

hi! New to this but need to offload about likewise 5am start! Lovely little girl, 32mnths, VERY active and VERY early. Tried clock - proudly told me monkey still sleeping! Blackout irrelevant, just wants to get on with life and being with me! We have never had night on our own since she was born but now taking too much of a toll. She doesn't sleep with us and actually won't as she is too busy wriggling. What is the limit of waking early - wondered about taking her to the loo (she is potty trained) but didn't know whether this would be too much for the 'wake to sleep'?

joinedathipmummy · 01/05/2010 21:18

Sorry - should also say that cannot drop day nap as she will actually just drop whether we like it or not especially if she has to sit for eating which means eating is also an ordeal as she knows this! Tried half hr nap but feel asleep again at 5.30. In spite of hour long bedtime routine she still resists sleep at bedtime of 7.30ish. Tried later bedtime but still woke 5am!

Notdirtyenough · 02/05/2010 20:30

My DS is an early riser. Putting him to bed later makes no difference, in fact if he doesn't go in at 7 he is not easy to settle and he is pretty good at bedtimes.

If he is up before 6, we tell him its not morning yet. Occasionally he will go back to sleep but now we accept that 6 is the time he gets up. DH gets up with him and they watch Peppa.

I tried putting toys in the cot and DS wasn't remotely interested.

I'm looking forward to him understanding that clock that 'wakes up' and they are only allowed up when the clock wakes up.

janx · 02/05/2010 21:12

Its hell - ds did it for ages - nothing made any difference. We had to move dd out of the room they share as she was knackered at school. Dp did most of the getting up (my hero). In the end we used to go into his room and lie on the floor with a duvet and shhhh him into sleep - he now sleeps to 6/7 but it took months and months and he still does it every now and again. I found it really hard to cope at work and would sneak to the loo - just to rest my head on a wall!

StarExpat · 02/05/2010 21:16

Sorry if it's been mentioned but wake to sleep seems to work for us sometimes, when I do it properly. It usually works for a while... until something happens like he is ill and sleep is all messed up again. Where you wake them about an hour before they would normally wake - just stir them awake a bit and then it disrupts their sleep cycle and reprogrammes them... or something... and they sleep longer... I'm describing this horribly. DS is just getting over chickenpox (18 months) so we're in a horrible 5am wake pattern again and as it's a bank holiday weekend, I'm goign to give wake to sleep a shot tomorrow morning... have my alarm set already for 4.15am.

StarExpat · 02/05/2010 21:18

ROFL janx at resting your head on the loo wall!! well, not lol at your situation, of course. It's just funny in retrospect... the way you described it... oh damn sorry if I've offended you... it just sounded funny.

joinedathipmummy · 03/05/2010 21:21

Have found that our little one's mood distinctly off when tired! She feel asleep at 10.15 today when out with D so he had half hr of overtired child before he got her back to car where she went out in seconds! Thanks for directions!

nagoo · 03/05/2010 21:56

I got a gro clock off Amazon and it changed my life. You have to be hard core about it, but My DS knows he has to stay in bed until the sun is up on his clock (I set it for 0730 so It's not like I'm staying in bed til noon. Don't think he'd fall for that). I was £35, and I did worry about spending the money, but it really did work.

janx · 03/05/2010 22:20

No offence taken StarEx - you have to laugh at these things otherwise you'd go mad

canvasdomain · 04/05/2010 08:58

Yeah my 2 year old up at 5ish most days my 4 year old used to be the same but she now lies in til 7 - 7.30. I tried moving bedtime but it was worse it just made evening a nightmare as they were sooo tired even although it was only an hour extra and they woke up even earlier in the morning, (hmm)but as i said my 4 year old now sleeps til 7 - 7.30 so i know 5am is not forever (hopefully)

www.canvasdomain.co.uk

joinedathipmummy · 04/05/2010 21:58

Have actually managed to get her to stay in bed - gave her a choice! Stay in bed and door stays open or get out of bed and door closes - third night in row okay but now she is saying that M comes in early too! Clock looks at her with eyes closed! Lots going on in little head and words tumbling out everywhere but looking forward to a rest. Haven't had lie in for 3 years as she has always fought sleep - hey ho!

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