2.3 year old suddenly become an early riser - any tips?

[ceebeegeebies]

I know this one has been done before over and over again but please humour me

DS2 (2.3) has suddenly started waking up between 5.30 and 6am and I need to do something about it!!

He is (and always has been) a fantastic sleeper and generally woken up around 6.30ish so I don't know what has changed

He is wide awake aswell so have no chance of getting him to go back to sleep (have tried putting him in our bed and sending him back to his bed but neither has worked). He will happily go back to his bedroom (he is very obedient most of the time) but he shares with DS1 and will just wake him up and then we have 2 of them running round before 6am as happened this morning.

Any thoughts??

Bump

Hi CBGB. Am going through same thing and have read all the threads going on mumsnet. Choices seem to be:

try putting him to bed earlier as he is overtired.
try cutting down on naps as he is getting too much sleep and doesn't need as much during the day.
try controlled crying or bribery or some time of gro / bunny clock to keep him in his room

any of the methods need about a week plus to work so you have to try them completely before trying something else or you'll just not know if it is working.

For my DD, I think she is overtired, so we are putting her to bed half an hour earlier. I read on one thread the adrenaline is high in chronically overtired children which makes them very very awake first thing, but also naughty and cheeky and difficult when it isn't their normal temperament.

Good luck and keep me updated if you sort it! I'm on night two of the early bed routine and we've moved from 5.15am waking to 5.45 so hopefully it will start being after 6 soon.

I seem to be harping on about this to everyone at the moment but this really sorted out my son's early mornings....honestly it was a miracle and I was super sceptical as he was a morning screamer at godawful o'clock and not at all return to his room obedient!
www.gro.co.uk/Gro-clock.html

took a few days to keep him in bed then after about 2 weeks he simply stopped waking up before the clock set up time as his body clock adjusted....we got it for him when he was 2 - he is 3 now and still works with it.

moflee.. I have one of those and couldn't get it to work for me! They didn't like the brightness of the nightlight and in the morning DD just went and pressed the button so the sun came up . How did you do it????

I have to say I was very very surprised that it did - he is quite ritual obsessed and its just become a thing that he says goodnight to the sun and good morning to it when it wakes up. We did have a few hilarious mornings of him lying there shouting at the star to turn into the sun for about half an hour for the first few mornings but strangely didn't get out of bed. Now his body clock has adjusted its easy but he does insist on taking it with us whenever we go on holiday and it's a mission to set up - mind you useful now I have a 5 month old and use it when away to tell the time by night feedings (futile - as they are ALL NIGHT!)
Hmmm...not sure what I'd have done if my DS had learnt to press the button to get the sun up...clever DD of yours - she's got me there! Guess he quite likes the suspense of waiting maybe? We did make a big deal of the story book that came along with it....

thanks! will dig out the book and give it another go. She is so impossible during the day as she is permanently tired!

may the force be with you