Please help with early riser

[Kungfupanda67]

I can’t do this any more, I’m so tired and I don’t know what to do.

I have a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a 7 month old. 6yo has always been a bit of an early riser, 5.30-6ish, but when he was younger he would just get up and play quietly and now he just reads a book until his sun comes up on his clock.

My 3 year old is a nightmare. This morning he was up at 4.40, and has woken the whole house up - the baby doesn’t usually get up until 7 but she’s up too. He’s grumpy and miserable, so he hasn’t had enough sleep, I’m grumpy and miserable because I definitely haven’t had enough sleep and I’m risking getting depressed again if I can’t deal with it. Most nights he’s up at least 4 times. The oldest 2 share a bedroom so it’s impacting on my eldest’s behaviour at school because he’s so tired.

He has a grow clock, his room is dark, he has a fan on at the moment (makes no difference whether it’s on or not), he has a bed time routine and falls asleep on his own between 7-7.20. He’s toilet trained in the day but still in a pull-up at night time. (I’m trying to give any info that might be relevant!)

Anyone any tips? Either to shut him up in the mornings so he doesn’t wake everyone up or to make him actually sleep until 6 (or even 6.30... I’d pay someone lots of money to make him sleep until 6.30

Oh and he doesn’t usually have a nap during the day any more, will very occasionally in the car or if he falls asleep on the sofa, but never for very long and doesn’t seem to have any impact on what time he gets up

I wish I had a magic answer for you - that sounds v tough. Have you thought about a sleep consultant? Feel free to pm - I can recommend the one we used.

Sounds so so tough. I have a 12 month old who loves getting up at 5, 4.30am if i'm lucky and is up in night too. I feel your tired pain. Luckily elder two do sleep through. What is 3 year old waking for in night? Can he articulate what he needs/wants? Would a reward system work or does he not respond? When he gets up super early what happens (does he get to watch TV, this could motivate him in the wrong way!)

No he doesn’t get anything until the sun comes up, nothing to eat or any tv until 6.15, which is the time the grow clock is set to.

His speech is very very good, so no trouble articulating anything - he just wants to get up 🤦‍♀️😭 but because I won’t let him put the tv on or get him a snack or any of the other things he demands at 5am he shouts and cries - loudly 🙄

@thirdlittlepig I’ve a couple of friends who’ve used a sleep consultant and it didn’t help, did you find it helped your sleep problems? It might be worth a try - I’m reluctant to spend loads of money because I’ve read that early rising is the hardest sleep problem to fix

It did but the problem wasn't early rising at that point (it is now though...!). Completely understand not wanting to spend money on something that might not work.

We've tried everything: gro clock, earlier to bed, later to bed, total blackout blind. Just wants to wake up at 5.30.

Had a tip on here to spend some time outside in the evenings between dinner and the evening routine and that worked for a few nights and then reverted...

You sound like me, I’ve tried everything too 😣 I even tried wake to sleep, which is when you set an alarm for an hour before they usually wake up, go in and nudge them a bit so they stir but don’t wake fully and then go back to bed - you do it for a few days and the idea is it resets their body clock so they sleep in later. It works, for about a week lol

Kids are such hard work aren’t they. I just wish he’d get up quietly and not wake the whole house up 😫