3 year old keeps waking at 5am!

[Sophiemoulds1999]

So I’m reaching out as a last resort as me an my fiancé are desperately sleep deprived.

my daughter use to sleep 3 hours at lunch and would go to bed at 7pm and wake up around 7:15am.

we took the side of her cot off and nothing changed in her sleep schedule.

for the past month she has started waking at 5am and refusing to go back to sleep. She is now refusing her naps full stop and is just constantly tired and I don’t know what else we can do! She will occasionally wake up at 3am too.

we’ve tried keeping her in bed, delaying breakfast till 6 ish, putting to bed at various times between 5:30-7pm. we have out the cot side back on, she goes to bed fine just won’t nap and wakes up at 5am!

any ideas on what we could do?

That's pretty normal toddler wake up time. Then they hit 13 and you can't get them out of bed until midday.

Have you tried black out curtains / making certain no light is getting into her room early morning? That could help.

For what it’s worth - my 3 year old stopped daytime naps months ago (unless unwell) and usually sleeps 8pm - 6:30am / 7am ish.

She does have black out blinds, she only just turned 3 last week.

I worry she will be extremely tired by 8 as can barely make it to 6pm! X thanks for the advice

My 3 yo hasn’t napped in months and months, dropped it around about 2.5. I’d drop it. I’d far rather deal with a grumpy toddler for an hour at bedtime than have a 5am start, personally.

I wake not long after 😂 you'll get used to it. Can you go to bed earlier yourself?

My 3 and a half year old hasn't napped for a year! He wakes most mornings around 5ish because he needs the the toilet. I just let him stay in our bed then because he'll sleep for another hour or 2. There's no way he'd go back to sleep in his own bed after going for a wee at 5am.