How to get 14mth old to entertain himself in his cot when he wakes at 5.30am!

[louielou]

My 14mth old DS wakes most mornings around 5.30am. He has definitely had enough sleep and is ready to start the day, but will cry until I go in and pick him up, and take him downstairs to play with toys/have milk etc. I am desperate to have a bit longer in bed, so we have tried leaving a few books in his cot for him to read, but he ignores them, and cries for us. We give in after 5 minutes of crying! Any tips for getting him to entertain himself? There seem to be lots of threads out there on little ones happily playing and chatting to themselves on waking up, but I need some practical tips! Thanks!

not really answering your question but have a look at old threads on mn about 'wake to sleep'.

it works

i think the entertaining themselves is something they either do or don't.

I'd see if you could gradually push bedtime a bit later, as if he has genuinely had enough sleep then he'll want to be up and at it as you say.

My lad doesn't usually go to sleep until 8-9pm and he's 15mths.

I was wondering what time he went to bed - thinking along the same lines as Whatknot, general idea being put him to bed later, blackout curtains / blinds if it's the light that wakes him, and hopefully his whole routine will move later?
Nothing wrong with leaving him a cup of water or weak juice out if you think he'll drink it - (or indeed if you want him to) but ultimately I think that moving everything a bit later is more practical.

What time does he go to bed?

If the usual 7pm then I agree with whatknot. It goes against the grain but IME early bedtimes = early waking for babies/children that don't need 12+ hours in a row.

None of my 3 children ever went to bed before 8pm - more like 8.30/9pm at your DS's age - and we have never had to deal with early waking (ie before 7.30 on a weekday).

To achieve this it might mean altering his entire routine if he's got into the habit of needing to go to bed early because of the timings of his daytime nap, meals etc

ds went through a phase of waking at 6.30, i put up with it.
then he started waking at 6, i put up with it.
then he stared waking at 5.30.

i didn't want him up later in the day for the reason that by 7.30 i want to watch tv and relax.

i tried the wake to sleep thing and it worked for me. give it a go and if it doesn't work then maybe he doesn't need so much sleep like the others say.

it's worth a try

One suggestion (and you may not agree with it/may not work) that we have started using with DS1 who is a bit older than your DS (he is 2.7) - when he wakes up, how about bringing him into your bed, maybe giving him his milk and then seeing if you all fall back asleep for a bit longer?

We always used to get up when DS1 woke up (anytime from 6 usually) - but for the last few months, we let him get in our bed when he gets up and we all just lie there until the time we say it is 'get up time'. He doesn't always go back to sleep and fidgets like mad but me and DH manage to doze for a bit longer!

What time is his morning nap? If he's having a nap before 12.30pm then I would push it back 15 minutes a day until 12.30. This is what we did - it was very painful for a couple of weeks as I really needed a nap too after getting up at 5.30am, and we were both very cranky. But it worked wonders for the early wakings. His body clock realised he just couldn't stay up from 5.30am until 12.30pm and he started getting up later and later, and sort of settled somewhere between 7am and 7.30am, having gone to bed at 7.30pm. Thus took about 2 weeks and it was horrid but very much worth it in the long run.

Hey, My ds is 14 months also and we have been going through the same lately. He has slept through since he was about 14 weeks so i think we have been taking that for granted. He is teething at the moment, and has had three new teeth this week, so i thought maybe that had something to do with it. But we have some cot toys hanging in the cot, one is a little piano, there is an octopus, a panda (i think), a caterpillar, em and another couple. I think that the lighter mornings have been waking him too maybe, but now instead of us being woken by him crying, we are woken by him playing music and banging things of the bars. He laughs to himself and babbles for a bit and before we know it he is asleep again - upside down with all the sheets off, but happy!
I also got him a little teething ring, from mam, it has a clip so you can attach it to his pjs, but he throws it away before morning - but if his teeth are bothering him this might be a good idea.
Here are some of the toys we have attached to the cot.
here
here
here
They are the only ones i can find, but my ds loves them. Hope it helps.