Early waker

[georgie127]

I`m having a nightmare with my 20 month old and need to know other people are going through the same thing, or have survived and lived to tell the tale

For the past month she has been regularly waking at 530 ish every morning and ready to play. She gets very upset if one of us doesnt come down and play with her. Im very tired and find it hard not to get angry with her when she wants to get up and I want to sleep for at least another 30 minutes.

I know I should sleep when she sleeps during the day, but I find this hard to do.

Does anyone have any survivial ideas ? I`m wondering about cutting her naps but I think if I do that I will just end up with a grumpy toddler

DS 2.3 did this for a very long time so I was up with him every day at 5.30 and it nearly killed me!

It only improved when we dropped his nap at Christmas. For a week or 2 he still needed the occasional nap but now he never naps and sleeps from 7.30-6.30. Sometimes he may fall asleep in the car or buggy but I try to make sure it is no longer than 15/20 mins or it will affect his nightime sleep.

Initially the thought of dropping the nap filled me with dread but now it's done, life is so much easier.

Your dc may not be ready for this but it certainly worked for us.

Good luck!

some children have had more than enough sleep by then my ds has always been an early riser dont get angry as if someone tried forcing you to sleep when your not tired would be horrible

what time does she go to bed? how long does she nap?

You could either:

drop a nap
put her to bed later
set an alarm clock for 5:30am for a couple of nights so it rings, then she wakes. Then gradually increase the time you set it for so she wakes on the clock. Do this until it'sa reasonable hour - say 7am and hey presto! I know this last idea sounds a bit harsh (Pavlov's dog etc) but I have a friend who did it and it worked!

Welcome to my world. My Dd2 is nearly three, doesn't have a nap any more in the day and STILL wakes at 5.30am to 5.45am most days. bed at 7/7.30am. We managed 6.15am this morning, I was like and

She's still too young to reason with/bribe at this stage. I am currently trying to train her to go downstairs alone and turn telly on while I stay in bed, but I guess it's a few more years before we'll be at that stage!

But no, You are not alone... I am here with you....

Oh yes, and putting to bed later? Doesn't work. One NY's Eve, she stayed up at our party until after 10pm. Was up (me too) at 5.55am the next day.

Putting bed to later by half an hour/15 mins more at a time should work over a few weeks. Yes agree about a late NY eve at 10pm wouldn't work as the child would be overtired but doing it gradually really should work in the long run.

My ds (now 4 yrs) was up at 5:15 every morning for his first 2 years. It was hell and you have my sympathies.

I was so obsessed with getting him to sleep longer that I kept a colour coded excel spreadsheet with sleep/awake times trying to figure out some kind of pattern. Sad I know.

The only way he started sleeping a bit later when we gradually changed his day time naps. We cut out the morning one and then pushed the afternoon one back til after 1.

He still gets up early, but sleeps 19:15 - 6:15 now. That extra hour in the morning makes all the difference. Good luck.

at the colour coded spreadsheet. Now that does sound like a good idea..

have three DC's and all have been early risers (5.30am on average when they were around 18 months to 20 months old ) solved this like other posters by cutting the afternoon nap - nightmare at first especially trying to keep them awake at tea time! however I never had the problem like a lot of my friends of getting them to go to bed at night (generally in bed for 7.00 pm) and also they stayed in bed all night asleep so at least we had the evenings to ourselves! they are now 13 11 and 7 still get up relatively early on a weekend (no later than 7.30/8am)older two go to bed 9pm weekdays 10/10.30 pm weekends younger goes to bed 8pm weekdays and 9.30pm weekends.

My oldest ds is 6 and has always been an early riser. Awake at 5ish when little --he still gets up at 6-6:30 every morning. Eliminating a daytime nap does help a bit, but I've found later bedtimes just lead to grumpier child awake and miserable at 6am.

When I was pregnant with 2nd ds, 1st ds was about 2. I found it really difficult waking at 5:30 (very tired). We started giving 1st ds a warm milk and letting him play in his room until 6:30/7:00. If he played nicely and quietly, we would try to give him a special breakfast. It did help with my sleep deprivation.

Now, he can get up and make a bowl of cereal and pour himself a glass of juice in the morning. I can sleep to the very reasonable hour of 7am!