If your 2 year old wakes up unreasonably early what do you do?

[stormymcstormface]

As in no chance of going back to sleep - wide awake

What do you actually do to entertain a 2.5 year old st 5 am?

Our 11mo old often wakes at 5am. I know this will be frowned upon but personally I make a cuppa and pop Peppa Pig on the telly for half an hour while I wake up. I need caffeine to function (especially as I will definitely have had 1-2 wake ups prior to 5am if not more).

No that's almost exactly what I do - bit longer than half an hour though to be brutally honest ... that's why I'm asking. Wondering if I should be doing something worthy ...

Watch tv and weep quietly to myself

Quiet television time until normal wake up time and then put him back on his normal nap schedule. If not then he is very grumpy.

CBeebies!!!!

Yes.... the telly is your friend. Your best friend forever at Silly o'clock in the morning!

It was quiet television for ds until he got a kids kindle.

He doesn't move a muscle when he's on it and it's age restricted to content for under fives atm (ds is 4.5)

So now he gets his kindle with his headphones (over the ear volume limited kids ones) and I have a nap on the couch until about half six.

We're very iPad dependant. If I'm feeling good I'll prepare a discovery box of toys the night before (Or just random tat he's not played with for a while) which might fill half an hour. Best thing we did was get a gro clock - started once he turned 2 and used with a sticker chart. He's now 2.5 and wakes at 6.05 (Yes, that 5 minutes is important!) for the day. It's saved our sanity!

I love these responses! Yes no longer feel a shit parent!
I also have an insomniac 2yo!
She was wide awake after 7 hours sleep the other night! 7 hours!

I give him to my husband. Ds2 is up at about 4.30, I bf to try and keep him down a little longer but by 5.15 (and with me having been up a few times a night), it's the husbands turn. I think they watch telly till 6.30 when they come and get me so he can get ready for work.

Bring the ipad in our bed and let him watch cbeebies for as long as he'll tolerate before he wants to go in the living room (usually about half an hour)

DS is up at 5 most days. Either the TV goes on or I give him his kiddie tablet to play on until 6.30 when I can function. It's usually his full quota of screen time on any given day.

We had this, the only way around it was the gro clock, and it worked from them being about 2 and a half.

No leaving the room except for wees and poos until orange sun, and only out of bed if there's one little star or less showing.

Ours still wake up around 6, and stay in their room until 6.45 with this system. To get it working at first (and get them past the half 4 wakes ups) we had to sit there with them saying nothing except "sleepy time, bed now" to get them to stay in bed, and constantly remind them to be quiet when they were playing, for the first few weeks.

I asked this exact question here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/parenting/3139068-Things-to-do-with-a-toddler-at-7am-on-a-Sunday ... Thrilled to report that it's several months on and DD is still waking at 5am

TV while I have Tea and mumsnet

My 19 month old is going through an early phase I keep him in his room until 7 so as not to wake his brother

He's got plenty to keep him amused and as there's a single bed in there i quite often get comfy and let him play

Standard issue really, cartoons and cawfee for me.

DD is 2, if she gets up early then I put her in bed with me, Peppa Pig quietly on the tv and I snooze until it's time to get up.
She's quite happy lying in bed with me and sometimes nods back off herself.

Another vote for tv/tablet and coffee whilst weeping inside and wishing I was asleep. 5am is too early for worthy activities.

Dd1 I got up with and just started the day at stupid-fucking-o'clock but dd2 I just bring her into bed and try to ignore her until 7 am. She's 2.5 and can be annoying, mummy mummy I want to get up, but mostly now she accepts we get up.when I'm ready.

DS has just turned two and has been in a single bed since he was about 14 months old. He still wakes anywhere between 2 and 5.30 but I’ll get in with him and he’ll normaly go back to sleep —and then I fall asleep too—

It’s not often he won’t go back to sleep till 7ish but if he’s awake I refuse to let him out of bed before 7. He doesn’t seem to mind, just fidgetsabit and will play with his trains that he currently brings to bed and it means I often drop off back to sleep!

Oh god, brings on cold sweats just thinking about when DD was like that. You all have my sympathy!

For me, it was quiet tv and (with all baby gates closed) a nap on the sofa. Sometimes she'd drink her milk and join me, sometimes she'd leave me to sleep and for the rest majority of times she'd jump or sit on my head.

Other than that, a large cup of coffee and some matchsticks.

We had a whole year of ds2 waking up anywhere between 4:30-5:30 EVERYDAY. In fact 5:30 was good. The tv just went on until breakfast time while I lazed in the sofa trying to doze off for a bit. I loathed the fact that he was often watching 2 hours of tv before the day had even really started but there is no way I would have had the energy to play so needs must and all that. I finally managed to drop his nap when he was about 2.5 which pushed wake up time to closer to 6 and now he’s 3.5 and we use a gro clock and he doesn’t get out of bed until 6:45.

Oh god it’s absolutely heinous. Interestingly, my DD did this for months when she was 12-18 months old. I did all the things like blackout, ensuring her room was fully dark, making sure she was warm, blah de blah.
However what actually fixed it in the end was that we moved country. And specifically we moved country on the weekend the clocks went forward.
So we put her to bed at 19.30 in Switzerland thinking it was 18.30 in the UK but she was knackered from all the travel so needed an early night.
In fact it was 17.30 by her body clock. She rolled around for 30 mins chatting then fell asleep and slept until 7.30 the next day. I put her down early every night for the next week and she slept 12-13 hours and continued that for a year!! I think she was in a terrible overtired rut when we were in the Uk, always waking at 5am and never quite making up for the lack of sleep. Turns out a SUPER early bedtime was the ticket.
Then we got a gro clock when she turned 3 and we never see her before 7am any more.

DS is 2.3 and has been an early riser since forever. The people I know who tell me they have to wake their kids up in the morning to be ready for work 😡

However things have improved slightly as he's got older. A while ago we decided we simply weren't entertaining 5/5.30am wake ups anymore and began to treat them as if any other night waking. Go in, say shush it's still nighttime, back to sleep, leave. For at least 3 months this had no effect whatsoever in getting him back to sleep or being quiet, but we just ignored the shouting/singing and did not get him up until past 6. Just after he turned 2 we introduced a gro clock. Slowly, slowly things have improved. About 4 days out of 7 he still wakes early but when I go in and tell him it's still nighttime he actually lies down and either goes back to sleep (win!) or at least stays quiet for another half hour or so. The other 3 days he actually sleeps in until 6.15/6.30! Mega win!

This is a long game and you don't see instant results, but oh how I love not starting my day at 5am and then doing a full day at work pumping in the caffeine.