Heavily pregnant, shielding, working from home with a toddler who starts the day at 4:30

[Mazzatron]

Is anyone else in the same / similar boat?

How are you coping?

Some days I feel ok and others I feel like I'm losing my mind and feel really low and like every little thing is a huge effort.

We go out for fresh air walks to countryside and sometimes the beach. That's it.

9 weeks til baby arrives.

Anyone got any tips to help me get through this 😕

Yikes. Why does he start his day at 4:30am?! That must be so tiring for you. My 15 month old sometimes wakes 5:45am. But we put her to bed 6pm. She normally wakes 6 or 6:30am. Have you tried cutting his nap time? Or keeping him up later? Noise machine?

I’m afraid you will only get more tired after the baby arrives. It’s tiring having two young ones. But if you can at least get them on a good sleep schedule that helps. My first two are 20 months apart. When second one was born my first slept 7-7 and I got the second one sleeping 6:30-6:30pm. And now my third it’s 6-6 😀

Some babies just sleep better then others. Unfortunately my youngest is a light sleeper and can wake easily so we have a noise machine.

You must be bloody exhausted.

How old is DC1, what time is bedtime and what are naps like?

No advice but massive hugs - sounds really tough.

Oh this is horrible and I'd forgotten how bad it can be... .. My eldest was like this.. No matter what I did he was up before 5... Cutting out naps, changing bedtime nothing worked.... We tried all sorts suggested by HV... including time at my no messing mothers who was adament she would sort.. Didn't sleep 'in' till 5.30 till about half way through reception year....

When pregnant with my 2nd must admit I went to bed at 8 and my husband did more than his share of earlies....

I wish you strength.... Can anyone else help? How far are you hoping to be before start holoday/maternity....

Have you tried a gro clock? We’ve started using one for our toddler and he now waits until 6am to shout us. You can phase the wake up time to get later and later.

Also the clocks change soon which may help 🤞🤞

@Mamabear12 @BunnyRuddington @LordOfTheOnionRings @happytoday73 @HillbillyHol

Thanks for replying. Well he's always been an early riser but was always more around 5:30. Then sometime just before turning 2 he started waking at 4:30 and fighting naps. We've tried so many different tweaks with nap times, no naps, earlier and later bedtimes - nothing has helped! It's pretty bizarre. We do have a gro clock and he went along with it for a couple of weeks but he didn't go back to sleep if he woke and it was a blue star he would just stand in his cot and stare at it until it turned yellow. Now he just wakes up and shouts until it turns yellow. Often telling us its yellow when it isn't!

We've tried various different approaches to how we handle the mornings too. Had a long chat with the health visitor on Monday but she couldn't suggest anything new. We are currently trying a shorter nap and a later bedtime. Dropping the nap made him completely hyperactive and overtired, we tried it for 2 weeks and it didn't change the 4:30 wake up.
Earlier bedtime used to work really well with him but it doesn't make a difference anymore and I think possibly I relied on it too much in the past and may have caused this early rising by putting him down early too often at the first hint of tiredness (as he got older and needed less sleep).
We are keeping going with the Gro Clock and telling him 'mummy and daddy don't get up until the yellow sun'. We are on day 5 of this new regime, no change yet but got to stick with it for longer to see if it works. The HV said this does happen with some kids and it's possible the only thing that will help is the clocks going forward in March!

My husband and I take turns each morning and I go to bed at 8:30.

Felt very bad in my head about it all this morning - just so tired. But we've had a good day with fresh and sunshine at least...

I don't know if this will work but my DF had the same problem and her HV told her to try 5 or 6 small meals instead of 3 meals and two snacks. It took a couple of weeks to get used to but it worked like a dream. It had just not occurred to my DF that her DD might be hungry.