12 month old wakes at 5.30am every day - any thoughts?

[happynappies]

He wakes up and initially chatters to himself but tires of this within 5 or so minutes, and starts crying, which gets louder and more frustrated until I relent and bf at around 6am. Have tried keeping him awake until after lunch but can't go anywhere in the car or buggy or he'd fall asleep. Not sure if he's ready to drop his am nap - he's asleep now, and if I'd let him would probably have an hour and a half. He has a pm nap too, and settles himself to sleep at around 7.30pm.

Have got a 3 year old and am 13 weeks pregnant, and am shattered. Don't know how to break the routine, as he wakes up regular as clockwork at 5.30am, and is exausted by 9.30...

Any advice?

Watching this thread closely as my 10mo DS has kept moving his waking time back from 7:00AM, then 6:00AM, then 05:00AM, then 04:00AM. This morning, it was 03:50AM!! So far, I've tried cutting down his daytime naps, moving his bedtime forward etc, but none of it's made a difference. I've even tried leaving him in his cot to see if he'll go back to sleep. No such luck! He whines for a few minutes and then promptly does a massive poo - he never does a poo at that time of the day if he's picked up and taken down straight away!

Having said that, I do not know how you are managing what with being pregnant as well! I truly do take my hat off to you!!

Bless you it's not fun my elder child did this to me and his second year creased me. The solution that eventually worked for us was to help him recognise when it was morning time. We used a lamp with a timer switch.

When the light comes on in the morning it's morning time and acceptable for child to come into Mummy's room and if they wake up before then they have to stay and play quietly in their room. We had a train lamp which helped to capture his imagination but just get what ever your child likes. Then in the morning bleary eyed parent askes child if 'train' (whatever you use) is 'awake' i.e. lit and if it is lots of praise for being good, if not then back to bedroom.

Start light off coming on very early i.e. just before their normal time i.e. we'd start at 5.15 for a 5.30 waker so they are impressed that light wakes up at about the same time as they would and once established (within a couple of days) start slowly to creap timing of light coming on back. Just by quarter of an hour every three or four days until you get it to a time which is acceptable for you.

This also helps as the seasons change and they aren't sure when moring time is.

Hope this helps

I just used to let my DS come in with me,
I would then give him a cup of milk (kept in a cool bag over night next to my bed) and a cuddle, he would usually go back to sleep,

eventually he just started waking later

I like the idea of training him with the timer/lamp - I'll have a look this afternoon what we could get, although I'm not sure he's old enough to make the association, anything is worth a shot! Thanks for your messages, good to hear that I'm not the only one with experience of this!

Hello again, just a thought it doesn't have to be a lamp you could use a radio or CD anyhting electrical that you can put a timer switch on. (Preferably something not too vivid in case that once in a blue thing happens and they sleep in - we wouldn't want to wake them!)

Most timer switches have two on times and two off times, so we would set the lamp to come on at 7pm which was when we were getting ready for bed and then off again at 7.45pm to show it was night time - 'look train has gone to sleep, time for you to go to sleep'.

I should warn you though that by the time he got to four he'd sussed it out and used to tweek the timer switch, but without it there were times I was sure he wouldn't have made it to four without it!