2 year old wakes at 5am

[Newtothis2005]

Has anyone had success using a gro clock with a 2.5 year old? Regardless of what we do (long nap, short nap, early/late, no nap, late bed) our daughter wakes at 5am latest everyday.
Bedtime is normally 7.15/7.30 but we’ve tried as late as 9pm.

Unfortunately not! We tried everything, black out curtains, gro clock, late bedtime, early nap, no nap, DD still woke early for years.
She's now 11 & some days still wakes at 6, others it's later. I'm a lark and usually awake at 5.30/6 so it's not surprising she is too

Hopefully someone can tell you how but DS was generally up at 5am at that age. He’s still awake at 6am at age 10.

Suck it up, sounds normal to me. Just be disciplined and go to bed earlier, you chose to have kids... ours are 6 and 4, I was playing with my son at 5:30am today, on my day off, after he woke. The time is precious, soon enough they will want less and less to do with you - yes it's exhausting but embrace it, neck an espresso and crack on.

We did. Long slow process but it worked

Never made any difference to ours, he finally slept through to 6am at about 4 but he's still up at 6 most days and he's almost a teenager. I just learnt to accept it, fighting it just made it feel so much worse.

I had an early riser too. Nothing worked for me either!

The only thing that worked for us was school. A few weeks in he started sleeping later and later - 7.30 once! His little sister thankfully has always liked to sleep in until 6.30-7.30.

Both mine were early risers, but so am I. DH isn't, so guess who was always up? I had to be disciplined and go to bed early, this meant I had a short evening. Some battles you are not going to win.

Same as above. Two early risers here, usually between 5-6am for both of them, since birth. Never found anything that worked. It's brutal, but accepting it has made it (a bit!) easier. The 5 year old can now come down quietly, make some breakfast, and put the TV on, so that's something. Just waiting for the 2 year old to get to that point now!

There's not much you can do really but we did have some success with a sunrise alarm clock from age 3-ish. Found this better than the gro clock as it was easier for her to understand - when the light comes on she can get up. We set it pretty close to her wake up time but it would keep her in bed for 15-20 extra minutes or so. We have the Lumie sunrise alarm clock and set it for 7.30 if we want her to wake at 7 as it lights up half hour before the time. She's now nearly 5 and we still use it.

Just part of parenting now, my 5 year old gets up anytime between 4.30-5.30 and it's what time we all get up now. It'll become normal for you once you get used to it.

You can try.
It might or might not work.

It worked for us but not at 2.5yrs old- too young to understand. Do they still nap? If so drop it.

The gro clock didn't make mine sleep later but (after some painful mornings) they do now stay in their room until the sun comes up.

I think what helped here was:

Getting a Tonie box at the same time so they had something to listen to

Not setting the sun too late - we started with about 5 mins after their wake up time and gradually moved it to 6:15.

I think setting it too late would have set them up to fail

I've just tried one with my 2yo this week 3 out of 4 days I've had to enforce it in the night reminding him no one is allowed downstairs until Owl wakes up. The second day, he really didn't like the owl, so I said if he can't sleep, he can look at books in bed, which he did somewhat reluctantly. This morning (day 4), he woke up at 730, which felt amazing and something we hadn't seen in a couple of years.

I got mine on try before you buy on amazon, so I had 7 days to check it wasn't a waste of time, but unless it's a fluke, I have seen some improvement. Just be prepared to keep reinforcing it. Make sure your toddler has a good understanding of colours and basic instructions and don't set the time really late or you're setting yourself up for failure. (Mine is set to 615, my son usually gets up anywhere between 4 and 630am.)

The Gro-Clock won't make them sleep longer, but might keep them in their bed/room and quiet longer so you can sleep.

It can work at 2.5 depending on their understanding/personality, but likely.to have more success when they're a bit older. No harm in introducing it now though.

The key is to start setting it at the time they normally wake up anyway so you can massively praise them for getting up when the clock is yellow. Then set it a few minutes later, so it's a manageable amount of time for them to wait. Increase it slowly as they get the idea. It won't work if you set it for 7am on day one.

Make sure they have some books to look at/toys to play with so they have something to do while they're waiting.

@5thCommandment Wow what a horrible reply. No need to be so rude when someone is just asking for advice. Yes I chose to have a child and I do go to bed at 8pm. I have health problems and early mornings are a real struggle

The groclock (ok actually different brand but same idea) didn't help us, our daughter has woken before it every single day then comes into our bed then may or may not go back to sleep for a little while longer so never actually seea it change colour. Still hoping that one day it might work! A colleague swears by it though.

It depends entirely on the child imo and if they're waking to enjoy the day or waking to come into be near to you.

Ds1 was a Clingon and it wouldn't have worked, as he needed to coslept half the night. I think I only used it for nightweaning him around that age. When he was older and sleeping on his own all night (around 5 when ds2 came along ) we used it and it worked but by then he could played in his room till it was time.

Ds1 still wakes at 6:30 some days and is 11.

Ds2 is such a different child -always slept longer. Is more able to entertain himself. He can actually go back to sleep on the rare occasions he's got up early. I found him downstairs with the iPad at 4:30 last week and he grumpily stomped upstairs but did actually go back to sleep. Ds1 could never do that.

So It probably would have worked with him but we didn't need to and I co slept till 4. Using it to at the moment for calendar opening (not before 7!)

it's worth a try but you may need incentives. Again depends on the will power of the child!

You can try it but it's unlikely to work. It's a perfect to normal wake up time at that age, unfortunately.

The gro clock didn't help making DC wake later but did help teach them not to wake us up. Obviously it didn't work at such a young age- they were a tad older.
It's such a tiring stage though - you have my sympathy.

Nothing helped mine, until they started school they kept their own hours. I went to bed at 8pm for years.