Toddler waking early again!

[dycey]

So after a good week of ten hour nights my ds is getting up from 4.3am. With patting or rocking he will doze but wakes 10 mins later. He will come into bed but does the same thing - doze and wake.

He is napping as usual for 1.5 hours at 11 or 11.30. Goes to bed after bath, books and milk around 7.30.

I have had some success getting him to sleep10 hours by making sure he's asleep by 7.30. If it goes past that he tends to get up earlier. Last night was 7.40 and up at 4.30 but dozing like I described.

However he is falling asleep on the bottle at the moment - maybe he is overtired?

Can he really wake early because he went to bed 10'mins too late?

Once he would have woken at 4.30 but gone back into a decent sleep. Not any more!
Is he overtired or needing to drop nap? It looks likeboth to me. No idea what to do apart from try and get him to bed awake at 7.30!

Any advice v v v welcome as pretty lost about what to do. Thankyou

No advice, I'm afraid Dycey, but sympathy. I thought our 5.15 starts were bad!
So is it true about settling them to sleep earlier? Our DD is 2yo and we were putting her down about 8 after bath bottle, etc and she settles herself to sleep ok but wakes early. Sometimes she is so furious and crotchety because she's knackered, litlle mite. For the last 2 nights we've tried an earlier bedtime, so in her cot by around 7.30. I reckon it'll take a few nights to have any effect if it does work. We go to bed so early, my colleagues think I'm kidding when I say I don't watch stuff on TV because ti's after my bedtime (i.e after 9pm)

Thanks floradora - I have no idea! The overtired thing does seem to be true on our case but it never used to be. Children change!

But I still can't figure it out- overtired or not settling self or both?

Is it the cold or teething My 2.5 year old wakes early if teething (those molars take a long time!!) or if cold. I too find a later bedtime = earlier wake up. We do best with a bedtime by 7.30pm latest (but no earlier than 7pm).

It might be teeth - molars - or the boiler clunking in.

Tonight I got him to settle himself in bed by 7.25 so that rules out 2 factors! See if it's them in the morning.

White noise to follow (to mask boiler clunks) when I have worked out how to loop one track all night. Dh tells me it is a ridiculous idea and a waste if money - but at least I am trying to do something!

4.40 today ugh. And got work and evening out with in laws so feeling sorry for myself. Add to which DH says it's all my fault for always getting him up whenever he asks.

So I don't think he is overtired. And he settled himself.

Boiler could be the 4.40 bit but he had had enough sleep by 5.

Reduce nap? What do the mums think?

Mine too! I'm on my knees. Today it was 10 past 4. I gave him some milk but didn't work. I decided to not get him up but he carried on shouting til 550 so i gave and brought him into our bed. He carried on chatting and shouting for half an hour so we got up.

I'm now on ep3 of postman pat.

I thought it might be the cold but DH left heating on last night so maybe he was too hot. DH is furious that I got up as he thinks it's just encouraging him.

I start new job today. I feel sick. ..

Ds has no nap (he is 2.4). Bedtime is between 6 and 6.30pm-ish. Awake any time between 5 and 6am. Like you we find that if they go to bed later (than 7ish in our case) they are more likely to be up at 5am. And no, they are wide wake and ready to start their day (though get tired later...)

Fruitstick, we had a few of those super earlies (scary that I don't consider 5.30am super early anymore ). I tend to doze in ds's bed while he plays with lego/fuzzy felt etc - it's better if they both are up cos dd entertains him. You have to take it easy today - lots of cbeebies .

My DS2 (2.10) is an early riser too.

He doesn't have a nap during the day, though often crashes/tries to crash about 5.30/6pm.

I put him to bed normally at 7 and he goes off fine. Up at 5.30, today 5.45 (woohoo ).

He did go through a 4-something stage, in fact record was 3.45. And yes he was awake and ready for the day (unlike me!). Thought it might have been a 'developmental spurt' as he did lots of new things around that time.
He's got all his teeth so not that.
Have experimented with boiler on/off/constant, desn't really make a difference (must remember to put it back on low constant for tonight, was freezing for my middle of the night wee!!).

I try to just accept it, think of it as a 'phase' and hope it passes. It did with DS1, he normally wakes about 6.30/6.45, maybe even 7 if we're lucky.
But some mornings i want to curl up in bed and cry!

I would say work on dropping nap, it might help.

Ouch Dycey! We were bright and early at 4.55 today...And Fruitsick we are on Postman PAt too, on mute, on a loop....Is there a subliminal Postman Pat message urging toddlers to wake up as early as possible? In fact our DD may well be cutting last set of molars and she does have a cough/cold too. Have given up trying to think of rational explanations, yawn

Maybe it's like the omen. When PC Selby rings his bicycle bell they'll rise up and conquer mankind.

So we are not alone! SOrry there are other such early risers.

Am at work but my Mum has him and didn't go out this morning and he's still going strong (usually naps in pushchair engineered by me at 11.30). So she is going to see if he wants a sleep in his bed / rocking chair and if he doesn't then try and keep him up all day.

SUCH a long day for a toddler. It can't work? Can it?

Will he be overtired and impossible? Feel quite nervous (from a distance).

Dycey it is possible, though my DS2 often tends to quietly creep off and fall asleep somewhere random about 4.30 just as i'm sorting tea
I have got him up after 15mins and he's gone to bed ok so it's not a disaster.

Meanwhile, DS2 did basically that (took himself to bed!) whilst i was watching a film (playgroup cancelled) and i left him far too long, oops.
WIll pay for it later & tomorrow probably. hey ho.

Oh and if he wants to conquer mankind/the world, he's welcome, just leave me my bed

And in anticipation of tomorrow morning, I'm off to bed! Although I did get her down to sleep before 7.30 so still working on the "early to bed, later to rise.." premise

DS2 spark out by 7:30 (And apparently fell asleep while eating his lunch at CM).

Fingers crossed.

If not, can we synchronise watches for postman pat episodes at 5am?

He's been yelling for 45 mins now but I'm not getting up.

I've turned the heating on, given milk and nurofen.

I genuinely think he's just throwing his weight around

how old is he? Mine dropped naps at 18 months..

Ugh, morning.

Knew i would pay for allowing yesterday's nap.
Firstly he was up playing about until nearly 8pm.

Allowed myself a crazy thought that he might sleep later in the morning....but no, your theories about later to bed = earlier up are true.

4.45

Put him back in bed a couple of times but he was disturbing DS1 who needs more sleep and has school later (maybe!) so we've come downstairs.

He's happy as larry, i'm death warmed up. joy.

There's one school of thought that says putting them down for a nap much later in the day can help to fix the early starts.

So, OP, I would try putting your DS down for a nap at 1:30 instead of 11:30. That way, he definitely won't be overtired at bedtime and then you could try pushing bedtime back a little.

That was the only thing that stopped my DS1 waking at 5am. Now he wakes up at 6:30/7 (going to bed at 8 instead of 7). But it did take ages for it to be consistent.

Bah, being on this thread has jinxed me.

4.30am.

(he was in bed nearer to 7 than 6, always a bad sign. Thankfully he woke up big sis who then played with him til dh got up at 5am and let me sleep til now. Sooooo, one of those 'just get through it days'. Again. )

Suzi, in our case, that results in ds being awake for a bit in the night but then sleeping longer... so sometimes better yes! I prefer broken nights to early mornings tbh.

Urgh. Postman Pat duly applied, DS2 now fast asleep on sofa

Ah hello all. Sorry for absent OP! Had to go out to posh parent in law function and only in bed at midnight - UGH.... and good thing is he slept til 5am (not 4.30)...

But Suzihaha - thanks you for that idea! There's one school of thought that says putting them down for a nap much later in the day can help to fix the early starts. I had just thought I would try it.

My Mum (who is looking after him while I work) did just that yesterday (but only allowed 45 mins) and is doing the same today. We are starting with a 12.30 nap for 1.5 hours. And then bed at 8pm tonight and if I give that a go for a few days??? maybe maybe?

Thank you ALL so much for checking in.... I will keep updating!

Sorry for any jinxing! I was always scared of late naps because of fear of him not going to bed. But I must be bold!

(tbh, with dd I should have learnt that There Is No Rhyme or Reason - too hungry/too full, too hot/cold, no nap/late nap/too much nap arggggh. We drive ourselves crazy trying to fix it, when really maybe I just need to deal with it... Kids going to bed for six tonight, so at least we'll get our evening!)

Hurrah for 5am start... er...

I am planning on going to bed at 9 tonight so I can be ready

I'm in bed before 9 anyway (pg with DC3) and thank goodness for that!

DS2 had a lovely nap this morning, an early one 10.30-nearly 12, so we'll see how bedtime/tomorrow morning go as a comparison.

I had a lovely bath in peace so can't complain but am so tired now and have achieved almost nothing with my day