Waking up early - leave to cry?

[Annabellemary]

I have spoken to various friends about my 18mo dd waking up and wanting to get up at 5.30/6.00 which for me is sooo early as I am up in the night feeding newborn who at 5.30/6.00 is sound asleep.

Either myself of my dp have been getting up with her but a couple of people have advised just leaving her to cry and to maybe fall back to sleep. I don't know if this is right or not? She is good at going to sleep but just recently wants to get up early regardless of whether she has a sleep in the day or not.

Has anyone done this?

Yes we had it until DS1 was at least three, DS2 was the same. I have a DD1 and a DS4 too. I'm afraid one of us always got up regardless of what newborn or how much sleep we had. I ensure that I go to bed no later than 10.30.... at the moment I have a 12 week old and am feeding a lot at night but still up by 6am at the latest....otherwise I can't get anything done.
Your DC has had enough sleep leaving alone to cry is pointless.

we used to go and put a quiet story tape on and tell our dd3 that it was still too early for everyone to wake up..used to buy us at least 45 -60 mins...

It is hard isn't it. We are going to bed between 9 and 10 ourselves after putting her to bed at 7, I might try her a little later. I'm sure it will be fine once ds is sleeping through - we're just sleep deprived at present.

A story tape is a great idea! worth a try!

No way - I mean, yes, 2 minutes to see if she will fall back asleep but beyond that I think it would be unfair.

I don't see how this would work once they have their sleep quota for the night.

We made bed time later and that made waking time bearable... Alternatively drop a nap/shorten nap time, something else we did. DS now wakes the right side of 6am and frequently more like 7am, which is fine.

I'd pop my head in to make sure ds is ok first of all and then I used to leave him for a few mins to see if he'll settle himself. Now before I go to bed, I put a few toys in the bottom of his cot, they sometimes keep him amused for half hour or so and sometimes don't.

DD went through a phase at around this age of getting up at 5:30-6am no matter what time she went to bed. It lasted for about 3-4 months no matter what we did. We did leave her to cry for 5 mins a a time, over a period of half hour and it never worked. Once she was up, she was up. Now, she has dropped her day nap of her own accord and gets up at 7:30am ish (although not now as she is poorly).

I hope it gets better for you soon x

Ignore. She will fall back to sleep, and her wake-up time will soon be later.

You could maybe wait and see if she would settle again. If she's like ours though once she's awake, she's awake and you'll have to get up.

Is she still napping during the day? Maybe change the times a bit or shorten to make her want to sleep longer?

DS2 goes through phases of this from time to time. Things we do that have worked are, put him to bed later by 15 mins or so in the evening. Secondly if he has woken earlier than usual don't let him sleep/nap in the morning until his usual nap time. If your DD normally naps in the morning you could try moving it abit later and not for longer than hour and a half. I do ignore him in the morning until a reasonable hour unless he is really crying. I also put lots of books in his bed to look at which gives a little bit extra time. Hope this helps.