If you have a toddler up at stupid o clock, what do you DO with them?!!

[PussinJimmyChoos]

DS (3.5 yrs)woke at 5.30am today...granted it doesn't happen every day but its still a killer.

I was so tired and had work today so I just gave him his breakfast/drink and then I semi dozed on the sofa while he watched DVDs and wondered what other parents do when they have an earlier riser??

If you do crafts or baking with them in the early hours, then please, don't reply to this post!

i am lucky. while 22mo dd rarely makes it past 6am, dh cant get back to sleep if woken after 5am

he goes for sky sports news for as long as possible. then cbeebies. dd used to wake up shouting "daddy! daddy! teee-veee! daddy! teeeeee-veeeeee".

about 3 months ago dh started putting books in her cot and giving her a drink. it buys him ten min to make a coffee. but far more importantly she now shouts "daddy! daddy! books!" which makes us feel much better about our parenting.

how awful is it when the clocks go back? it seemed to take her forever to get on track.

Yes, I'm up at six every morning snoozingwatching TV on the sofa. It doesn't last forever though, DD was like it, worse in fact, but now has to be woken up for school. And you can't get teenagers out of bed can you?!

My DS 2.2 goes to bed at 8.30 - probably sleep (on a good night) by 8.45, then he will sleep till past 7am, we didn't plan it this way but he has never needed lots of sleep and I couldn't cope with 5.30. I am hoping that eventually he'll go to bed earlier.

Lots of tv here as well though, especially as he has a 4 month old sister...

Although I know it will be equally infuriating, I can't wait for the day I have to drag DD out of bed!

The trouble I find is that DD is not consistent, even though her bedtime is, e.g. she has woken at the following times over the past few days:

5:40
6:45
7:45 (RESULT!! and a one-off miracle)
5:13
5:55

etc etc - we never know what is going to happen!

Oh, thanks Adair, I'm just glad I'm not the only one!

Extreme sports on Sky worked well for me with ds 1 who regularly woke at 5. We both became experts on the Paris / Dakar rally I recall, yet he couldn't 'tell' on me because all he could say was 'big trucks' and 'sand' which gave the impression I'd been interacting with him marvellously. He is now 13 and still needs relatively little sleep ( functions well on 6-7 hours though I encourage more) and is very intelligent , so maybe seeing this as incipient genius might lessen the resentment I'm sure ( if you're anything like me) you're feeling .