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?

It wouldn’t even occur to me to get up that early! They’d get sent back to bed.

Tried that for 5 months umbongo, and he just lay there crying until 6. He is ready for the day at 5.30 regardless of if he goes to bed at 7pm or 10pm, regardless of if he naps for 3 hours or has no nap at all.

Jesus! May the force be with you

Gro clock, game changer

Ah it's really not that bad, I am an early bird anyway. I go to bed at 10, asleep by 10.30 and up at 5.30, so I get a good 7 hours which is fine for me.

Gro clock did sweet f all here!!

Scoop him into bed with you and see if he'll go back to sleep. FIling that, telly. And more telly until you're ready to face the day. Anyone who says they don't is lying.

I send her back to her bed to look at her books quietly until a reasonable time!

Yes mine is likes Freezers (early wake up, no matter what)

You’ve all made me slightly relieved that
A) it’s normal not to want to get up and start a craft project whilst still in dream sleep cycles
B) he will be fine watching trains and then CBeebies

Yes it’s screen time, but he’s really not that bothered by tv most of time so if it helps me get through it (lone parent) then, so be it

My kid has loads of screen time tbh. I don't feel bad about it, he is much loved and cares for.

I give mine a nappy change, a bottle, brush his teeth and do a bed time story. Can often get a couple more hours like this if my older two don’t wake him. Once he slept till midday.

Mine woke at 4.40 this morning. Ignored til 5.45, she was just singing in bed and taking to toys.
Then CBeebies with bowl dry cereal whilst I caffeinated.

We did used to give milk which sometimes sent him back off but then he started waking earlier and earlier expecting milk and I was not about to undo all our night weaning efforts just for an hours' extra sleep, so we stopped.

He gets out of bed and comes and finds me. No getting him back near his room (and certainly not in bed)
I’ve just been feeling guilty about shoving a screen in his direction and trying to snooze...

We don't get up before 6, just say it's too early back to bed. Maybe you need a childgate on the door and something he likes to play with? Lego duplo? But when she does come in at 6 she sits in our bed with the tv on, volume low, while we try and get an extra hours sleep. She gets plenty of exercise and outings in the day so I feel no guilt, it's totally worth it.

I love the idea of these 2 year olds who will sit quietly in their darkened rooms with duplo at 5am for an hour without waking their parents. Where can I get one????

Lol, ours does have a little light she can use, but she loves her duplo in the mornings and the dark doesn't seem to bother her. We only have the one dd so far so no idea what's normal for a two year old

I fondly remember marching around the neighbourhood at 6am with DS in the pram - anyone on their way to work would be looking at me why is that woman walking a baby at this time in the morning. You tell me.

DD doesn't seem to wake that early (touch wood)

We don't get up before 6, just say it's too early back to bed.

Really?

When I say we say it's too early back to bed, I do mean we physically put her back to bed but she understands that if it's dark it's still time for sleeping and usually stays in her bed for a while or goes back to sleep.

OMG who feels guilty about screen time at 5am. My 10month old wakes at 5, bottle and then it’s infront on CBeebies whilst I mumsnet and coffee and sometimes snooze a bit longer on the couch- nothing productive happens at 5am

I honestly don't know what else is feasibly possible at 5am apart from tv.

Ds used to be early riser and there was no way he would go back to his bed. He'd get into our bed, Netflix would go on and DH and I would snooze for a bit longer.
Don't feel guilty.

Just got up and put telly on. Now she's nearer 3 (we were in denial) it's become glaringly obvious this is not a phase so we now have a gro clock which is set a little later every few days. We're all wide awake by 5.55am but it used to be a lot worse

'it's become glaringly obvious this is not a phase'

Ha, we got to this point too, after what felt like years. We also did the 'if it's not 6am it's still nighttime' thing and it totally worked, after one very cross (her) morning. She still tends towards being an early riser but it's never been as bad, its 6s, sometimes even 7s - wish we did it sooner. No household should be starting the day in the 5s all the time, unless that's their thing of course!