3yr old wakes at 6.30am - what do you do with them?

[omri]

Just want to know what people do with their kids when they wake so early. I've a 4 month old baby and am tired so early in the morning. My 3yo ds has started waking at 6.30ish every morning and I've started letting him watch tv for an hour or more until baby wakes at 8ish for a feed.
I know it's bad but can't face getting up with him! Ds is never v hungry in the morn and can easily wait til 8.30 for his porridge.

Just wondering what others do in similar situations?
It's a bad habit now ...

6.30am is really not early. My eldest dc has always risen at 5.30am, even now at the age of 11! I allow him to go downstairs and watch TV so I can doze if I am not working. Sometimes he raids the fridge though.

We've just shifted our day forward so that we all wake up when the dc do, anytime between 6 and 7.30.

Dc are also at their best first thing in the morning, so it works for us.

That isn't early. 90 mins of TV every day is a bad habit.

I wake up with mine, watch a little TV 30 mins if its very early then have a play etc. I'm used to the early starts now - actually makes life easier for getting to work/nursery.

black out lining in bedroom?

cut nap down to 45mins?

have 'quiet time' instead of nap - watching a bit of TV then instead?

make your DP get up for the early starts?

I don't think ninety minutes tv is that bad. We have two mr tumbles at 5am and one after dinner - out of a whole day of playing and chatting and trips and drawing etc that's not much time!

When I was sleep deprived due to tiny baby or toddler, I would send dh out to deal with ds1 and sleep until the baby woke me.

S'only fair, I did the nights.

We did the light on a timer thing too - worked a treat! If the light doesn't come on, it's not morning time!!!

Word of warning on the timer - remember to change it before the clocks go back in October otherwise you won't get a lie in and they'll get up an hour earlier than usual!

It doesn't matter in the spring as you actually do get a lie in then!

I just get up at 6.30am with my ds, have breakfast, play around the kitchen with him while I tidy up then get ready and go out. I need him to get up at 6.30am 3 days a week so I can be at work and I can't expect him to distinguish between a work day and a non work day! I go to bed between 10-11pm. I'm a morning person anyway and I love being out before everyone else as everything is so quiet.

Sorry to break this to you but my dses (7 and 9) still get up at 6.30 and always have. Tvtvtvtvtvtvtvtvtv.....

Telly or baking. Depending on how well we've slept.

I don't see why letting him watch tv is a bad habit. Why would you feel bad about it?

If ds wakes early he comes into my bed and watches his programs on the iPad until he gets bored or I feel like getting up.

It's a nice way to start the day!

We've managed to push our DS to 6.30am using a groclock from a regular 5am wakeup. I am 36 weeks pg with DS2 and cbeebies is my saviour.

We're in a small flat so living room is next to bedroom and I turn it on and leave him to it for a bit if exhausted. When baby arrives I guess I'll do the same.

Not ideal and, before children, I'd have thought I was a terrible mother, now I recognise the hideous beast I become when sleep deprived and hormonal...

I too have a 5am/530 riser, and a baby who feeds at least once a night.

630 is a huge lie in, I can only dream.

If you can keep the, in their room quietly (impossible in our case), then that's the best. Otherwise we report to you tube on the iPad and peppa, Ben and holly. Thomas etc and try and get an hour or so more sleep.

Our biggest issue is our 3 year old waking baby, who sleeps to 730 normally.

I wish this phase (2nd year of it) would pass. I'm shattered.

I wish for a 6 we've got a 4.30 am at the moment its killing us

Not numer10. Oh my god. Your poor souls. I totally feel your pain. I hope you get some. Sleep tonight.

Try and push back the nap by an hour. It works for us

we get up early. the kids watch loads of tv. but try cbeebies radio instead. we love it.

By push back nap do you mean move it earlier or later?

Both my DD's did the early waking thing. When they realised TV was their "reward" for waking early they did it every day.

When I did craft time instead they slept 1.5 hours longer. Mummy doing crafts while drinking coffee was nowhere near as exciting as watching TV.

May not work for you but helped me & my TV obsessed AS DD

5.15 a.m. start here. I usually just get her in bed with me and let her watch stuff on the iPad while I read. We do loads of interactive and interesting things during the day and I'm fucked if I'm going to get up and start conjugating Latin verbs (or whatever 'good' mothers do) with her at 5.15. She's 3. She's just awake and that's that.

Just to be clear, my DD's are obsessed by TV/ screens/ whatever/ no Ipads here, sorry.

Volunteering to do crafts at 6am was never my 1st choice :( An alternative to the TV they were used too.

But having a family rule of TV not on until 8am made a huge difference. Both DD's, the AS one and the NT one, both slept for 1.5 hours longer after they got used to it. Bedtimes are slightly later but I have a 7am wake up call, not a 5am wake up call.

DD2 (3.5) has started waking at 6-630 instead of 730. I could live with that if DD1 (5.5) wasn't an owl who I have only just got to bed tonight. 2100-2230 is her usual final put to bed, though I found her awake and playing at 2330 a few weeks back when I went to check the house as I couldn't sleep probably could just hear her and it unsettled me

One owl and one lark. Gah! I usually put a DVD on in the morning and then got on with my study or crochet for a while.

I've tried shifting their sleep/ waking patterns over the last few years. It took 2 years to get DD1 to around 10pm from the midnight that was her natural pattern as a baby, half an hour at a time. I've tried getting DD2 to sleep later by shifting her bedtime, but it's not taking. She just wakes early and gets grumpy mid afternoon.

I have a 2.10 year old and a 4.2 year old. 2 year old goes to bed anytime between 7/8 depending on what we are doing and 4 year old stays up for extra 20 mins. Both wake around 7.30/8 am. They still have 2hour ish nap after lunch.

However if they don't nap they are up same time and grumpy. Routine is your friend. That's not to say we don't break the nap routine and suffer the consequence for days out, birthday parties etc. But they know when it's bedtime.

I am havering trouble with this my baby is waking between 5-6 gurr and I can't leave her my older son has school and she just keeps falling for brother until somones comes