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

Ah, sparkling- me too (dc3 due in Jan). Am telling myself that at least having a newborn again won't be such a shock!

Ok, mine in bed a bit earlier last night, down by 7.30, so we had a "lie-in" till 5.30 today. trying same again but now am a bit confused and panicked by the later nap theory, the poor CM gets barely a hello at the end of the day, just "did she sleep?" "how long?" what time?". Anyway my early evening plans stymied a bit by the Apprentice....Wow, the high life really is a 10 pm bedtime for me!

Postman Pat all lined up in the DVD for the morning though

We're a Night Garden family here (for DS2 at least anyway). :)

DS2 just settling off to sleep about 7.30 so let's see what tomorrow brings...

DH away, phoning before 9.30 so best stay awake til then...

Floradora, we do the same at the Apprentice finishing at 10pm!

Ds was asleep at six, dd 6.30pm so we will see...

5am wake up here.
That means he had 9.5hrs sleep, that is surely just not enough!!

Oh and DH texted at 9.25 to say he was still busy so wouldn't phone, grr, could have gone to bed at 8!

4.50 here. Also 9.5 hours - a little less than in fact. Seems too little bur he manages fine on it.

Plan for today: nap after lunch ( later for us) and try and edge bedtime later - ignoring the late to bed early to rise theory I was proposing a few days ago! I am totally inconsistent but have to try something! Also turning boiler off at night (it's in his room) and trying electric radiator for him.

What temp should I aim for? Is 18 degrees a bit luxourious? (can't spell today)

My top tip - watch the apprentice the next day on bbciplayer while child naps? Have also made ds watch it while eating his lunch!

Have already decided if he naps today i'm going straight to bed, no book no laptop, no tv, am too tired. Must remember to set my alarm before i lie down though.

re temp, i think even lower would be fine, 15/16?
I've been trying all sorts with boiler & heating, nothing really makes a difference. Except that i sit here freezing waiting for the house to warm up - he doesn't seem the least bit bothered.

I love to nap when he does. Me too today.

You've got to try something though haven't you? Apart from waiting it out til they can be bribed!

Surely there us some kind of method between leaving to cry and waiting for maturity to kick in for gro clock / bribery?

Do you think if you do refuse to get them up before 7am for the first year it works? Just thinking ahead for número 2. Tho I could never hack the crying tbh.

I doubt it would work Dycey, some kids are just early risers, for a while anyway.

DS1 went through a 5ish stage a while back, he gradually got old enough to bribe, clock/chocolate/whatever. His digital clock was the breakthrough as he learnt the number 6 and not to get up before that. We've moved it to 7 now, doesn't always work but still.

DS2 though, his understanding is pretty limited and he doesn't get any kind of bribery at all. Just have to take it for now :(

At least DH should get back tonight (maybe!) so he can do early duty for the weekend.

So how old was yr ds1 when the bribery worked? And how old is ds2?

My ds is so so desperate to get out of the dark and into the light to play with his cars. A bit obsessive and driven! Slightly like living with a mad person. Can't imagine anything could motivate him more!

DS2 is nearly 3, but developmentally delayed so about 18months. And when you think about explaining to an 18mo old to stay in bed you realise it's futile.

Can't clearly remember when it started to work with DS1, must have been after he was 3, he's 4.5 now (still quiet upstairs so assuming he's still asleep). and it has worked that sch has tired him out more - started in Sept.

DS2 due to start at a SN pre-sch in April, maybe that will help....

You could try (not saying if a good or bad idea btw) having a light on a timer that comes on in his room, have his fave cars in there (maybe put them in after he's gone to sleep?) and tell him he can play quietly in his room?

5.30 here! (Though dh is up at 5.45 anyway, and I sleep til now)

Yes, my dc are happy to play by themselves but it doesn't stop them actually waking early (hence the early, early bedtimes so that they get enough sleep).

I remember when dd was little (pre 2) and my 'rule' was that I wouldn't get out of bed before 8am.

Ds wouldn't sleep last night. Decided to leave him for a bit and he fell out if his cot . Brought him downstairs with me which I never do but only thing to stop him screaming.

He finally went to sleep at 11pm. Awake at 5. He looks broken, as do I. I have no idea what to do.

Cant leave him to cry it out ad he can now climb put of cot. Surely he's too young to go into bed and that will just make sleep worse.

I am actually crying a little bit now.

Oh fruitstick, it's horrible isn't it? Will he sleep with you? Ds woke at 10pm last night (after I was saying to my friend how he NEVER wakes up in the evening ) sobbing (think from being just so bloody tired) and just put him next to me. Plus I had dd too as she had a scary dream...

That does sound like a particularly horrific night - I wouldn't be surprised if he started throwing up or something later today. Hopefully, he will sleep later and you can too. Take it easy.

How old is ds btw? We put ds in a bed at 15mths (straight from our bed, no cot) and dd at same age but she went from a cot, but then yes, the major disadvantage is that they can get out! So you can't just leave them to cry (not an issue for us). Well, you sort of can but not quite as 'easy'. We used to have a stairgate on the door/top of stairs.

I have to work today. I started a new job this week do no napping for me .

He's 22 months. I'm pretty sure ds1 was
In a bed by this age actually. It just makes me weep as I can't see it will solve the sleep situation.

Although maybe better to do it when he's not sleeping anyway.

Oh poor you fruitstick! Why do you think he wouldn't go to sleep? Us he is a sleeping bag? So far this gas stopped ds from thinking if the cot climb.

So awful when they still wake early after a late night.

Lots of sympathy.

Oh poor you, I look forward (many, many years into the future) when I will actually get some sleep. It's why we are having the third now... so we can get it all out of the way. I am a 'whatever works right now' mindset with sleep. Just hard when Nothing does.

Not sure where you work, but maybe you can try and do less think-y stuff and might be easier in a way than being with a toddler anyway... (hopeful).

Fruitstick - i think moving to a bed is worth doing actually.

Like you say he's not sleeping much at the mo anyway so you haven't got anything to lose.

And, DS2 amazed me at his move to a bed (only moved him as he started dropping his daytime nap so was exhausted at bedtime and didn't just get straight out) he slept better (for a while anyway) and i've heard of lots of others who slept better in a bed.
Almost as if they are rebelling against the cot.

Of course, if i was you i'd keep the cot handy in case it goes totally tits up and put him back in that

Right - he's asleep in his big boy's bed.

hmm

So 5.10 with boiler off and a later nap and later bedtime. Will persevere with this plan for a few days and see how it pans out.

Kind of hoping that like the clock change, it may take a little while to kick in...

How are the others?

another 4.30 here. but both kids have colds, so hoping that's why...

Fruitstick - how did it go???

Well, Dh got home last night so it was his early duty.

Ds woke at 5.45 (latest in days) and didn't make any more noise until 6.10 &

Said to DH, "you're lucky it's 6.10" and his reply? "I'll try and put him back to bed"
err, no! take him downstairs, let DS1 & me get more sleep and just be thankful it's so late you dunce!

and DS1 waited til 7 :)

Mixed bag. Big boy's bed didn't go great. Struggle to get him to go to sleep in it. Then he woke at 2am and point blank refused to get back in, Exorcist style. In the end he came into our bed as I was so tired. And he slept until 6:30.

I'm really confused. Don't know whether it's better to get him back to sleeping, whereever it is, or better to make him stay on bed right from the off.

Grrrr