toddler getting up before dawn - any tips?

[kissmummy]

Until the last six weeks, we have been incredibly, unbelievably lucky - our DS (two and a half) would sleep a solid 12 hours, till at least 8am. through the winter he sometimes slept till 8.30am or even 8.45am. But in the last few weeks it's literally got earlier by about 15mins a day, culminating in him now waking at between 5.30am and 6am. there is no obvious reason for this pretty sudden and dramatic change. now, i know we have absolutely no cause for complaint, and I am guessing there is nothing much we can do about it. but i'd be interested to hear how others deal with this - do you just give up and get up, and start your day before dawn? do you try to entice your LO back to bed? (we've tried; he's having none of it. he's raring to go.)
Putting him to bed later doesn't seem to have any effect. (he goes down at 8pm.) Do you let your LO watch TV for a bit while you doze for a bit longer? his room doesn't have black out curtains but i'm fairly sure the light isn't the issue, since the waking is before dawn.

snap! our DS is also like this atm and it's so draining! I've tried encouraging him to play with his toys but he starts to get really restless so I just give in and get up, and been up and dressed for 7.15 quite a few mornings recently - it is truly depressing! the only bonus that comes from it is I've got loads of washing done when the weather's been good, odd bits done around the house - then bored to tears for the rest of the day! and it's a LOOONG morning...esp at the weekend.

sorry for jibbering on, I've not got any practical advice for you. Just want you to know you're not alone!

if I can, I treat anything before 6am as a 'night waking' and put dd straight back to bed in a rapid-return fashion, sleepy cd and nightlight on, firm goodnight (we have blsckout curtains).

if it's after 5.30 and she resists bed, I have started using a timer (set to 6.30) and saying 'you don't have to go back to sleep, but please play quietly in your room till the bell rings', and then doing rapid-return to her room (not bed) if she emerges before 6.30.

I only do tv-and-back-to-bed after 6am at weekends else no-one would ever get up and dd would have square eyes

ha ha mrsbadger - we did TV this morning and even that didn't work! the novelty has worn off! he sat there for 20mins before bounding back into our bedroom again. there's no escape! oh well, i'm sure i can achieve an awful lot of housework between 6.30am and 8am! perhaps look on it as getting the chores done before breakfast, then won't have to do them in the evening, but it doesn't quite work like that, does it, because there's always more to do by evening....

the problem i have is my DS1 who is 6 takes great delight in shouting from the top bunk down to his little brother (who is 3) "are you up yet" usually at some ungodly hour around 5am.

It did occur to me this morning that someone could make millions inventing a "snooze" button for children. Like an implant where you push their nose or tickle their ear and they automatically go back to sleep for another half an hour.........

Hi, We used the 'Rabbit clock' with all our children - it even worked with triplets!!(available at Amazon/GLTC/Letterbox..) The idea is that child and rabbit go to sleep and the child mustn't get up or make a noise until the rabbit wakes up. Said child is welcome to read/play in his/her own cot/bed, but has to stay quiet until the rabbit wakes up.
We used to set it for 6.30 or 7am. I guess part of getting children to stay asleep/quiet is whether they think you mean it. There were a few occasions when I put a stairgate across the child's bedroom door so they couldn't get out until the rabbit woke up & I moved the gate.
Ours are heading for teenage years now and we have the opposite problem!!

I would get a blackout blind anyway - DD has started waking earlier than usual and I'm sure it's because it has been getting lighter earlier and we haven't bothered to get a blackout blind in her new bedroom yet. We're off to ikea this weekend!

Otherwise, does he still nap during the day? Maybe if you cut out the daytime nap he would sleep longer?

Otherwise, friends have used the rabbit clock and say it works. Generally speaking, if she wakes before 6.30 we either go in and say it's still nighttime, or just ignore her, bad parents that we are!

My kids wake early with light (even if it is before dawn proper it is still getting a little lighter), dirty nappies, hunger or because they are cold. If you rule all of those out, then you will have to manage it with rabbit clocks and the like - good luck!

It's the time of year I'm afraid.

DS did this last year then slept well all winter (by well, I mean not waking until between 6.30-7am) but now he's back to waking at about 6am. Luckily, he's happy just to chunter away to himself until we're ready to get him up but he's very noisy, so we're all awake anyway.

I'm hoping that the clocks changing at the weekend will help a bit as it won't be so light in the mornings. He's already got a black out blind though so who knows if that will help?!