OK so the early waking thing...well he's 4 years old now and I'm getting mighty sick of it

[katierocket]

DS has always always been an earlier waker but having just had his 4th birthday I am getting very fed up with regular 5.30 starts. Sometimes it is 6 or 6.15 but this morning was 5am.

He's got a bunny clock, we've tried sticker charts. It makes no difference what time he goes to bed i.e. if he goes to bed at 7 he wakes up early and if he goes to bed later he still wakes up early but is just more grumpy.

If anyone has a magic cure or at least some suggestions of what could help I will gladly sell you my soul. Or even if someone can say "heh, give it one more year and when he starts reception he'll you'll be dragging him out of bed in the morning...."

i'd love to know the cure too! ds2 (3.8) has always woken early whereas ds1 (8yo)has always been a late riser, so when ds2 came along it was a shock to teh system, dh and i get really fed up that even on a weekend morning one of us still has to get up about 6a.m at thye latest, as he will juat cause havoc if we let him stay up by himself and most of the tiem will just hammer on the bedroom door until someone gets up with him!

ok Cod, I agree. I think I need to be more consistent with my approach.

Roisin, thanks - interesting. I agree that a new approach is needed, this one sure 'aint workign!

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Do none of yours share Cod? Mine always have, since ds2 was 6 wks old. They love it: they could have separate bedrooms now if they wanted to, but don't want to.

The only downside is, ds1 actually doesn't like sleeping in any room on his own even if we're away.

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kids love to share - mine ds's did until they were teenagers

I have 2 dsis (less of the d if I'm honest) and 2 db, and we had 4 bedroom house, (though at one point used one of the 3 reception rooms downstairs as a bedroom too), so we all used to share with all sorts of different combinations too. I didn't like sharing though. I like my space.

I think my boys just like not having to tidy up. They have the small room as their bedroom with just bunks, wardrobe, and chest of drawers in. The big room is the playroom, but I don't insist they tidy it up every day. They have to keep their bedroom tidy!

ok so we had 4.30 again this morning. We had talked about it last night and he said he would try hard to go back to sleep/not to get up before bunny clock woke up etc but by 4.50 he was up and dressed . So I made him get undressed and get back into bed and then at 5.20 he was getting dressed again. I put him back in bed and he messed around until 6.15 when bunny clock woke up. So I told him no TV at all in the morning due to fact that he had ignored what I'd said about staying in bed etc

That upset him a lot so maybe it will help him to stay put. I do feel mean because I know he can't actually help the waking up bit and he physically cannot get back to sleep but there is just no way we can have him getting up at 4.30 everyday! Jesus 5.30 was bad enough.

In a way I think he just needs something to break the cycle/habit of waking up that early, not sure what that is though.
Anyway, to add insult to injury he's so tired that he fell asleep on the way to my mums this morning - at 9am!! I mean that's just not right is it, he's going to struggle at nursery school tomorrow if he gets up early again (which I'm sure he will!)

Katierocket. We too had an early one, 4.40!!! 5.30 was bad enough and now that seems like a lie in. I don't know what's wrong with my ds - he used to sleep till 6.30 or 7.00 but the last 3 months he's been 5.30 or 6 if we are really lucky. He's only 19 months and i have been leaving him to scream in his cot until 6 and then getting him up but now the clocks have changed I can't leave him in there until 6 because it's not his fault he has to change it. I can't believe that we just have to accept this. Good for you with taking the privileges away. If it works that's great. My ds is too young to understand that sort of reasoning at the moment.

One thing that I used to find worked with dd was my mum having her for a night. That used to often break the habit god knows why. My mum is having ds this weekend to see if she can break it. Is there any way your mum could have ds?

tillysmummy - vile isn't it. yes my mum sometimes has DS but to be honest if he's away from home he tends to wake up earlier (mind you if he wakes up any earlier he'll be waking up before he goes to bed....)

I am having the same problem-eldest wakes up on the dot of 5am and his walking on the laminate floor to our bedroon wakes the youngest up. Needless to say ,I am really unhappy every morning! Threatened no television,no drink,no breakfast to the eldest but nothing is working at the mo.

Well it's reassuring to know we're not alone but not so reassuring that nothing is working. HOH - my DS looks terrible, big dark patches under his eyes. I swear school must think I let him stay up until midnight watching TV.

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I know but the odd thing is he is so not like that the rest of the time. In fact is is frighteningly laid back and non tantrummy with rest of behaviour. FOr e.g. he would never really go against what I said in teh daytime, if I asked him not to do something 99.9% of the time he does what I ask. The waking up early thing is his one achilles heel.

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Im probably going to get myself in all sorts of trouble here but the threat of a trip to the naughty school often works with dd.

Im probably going to get myself in all sorts of trouble here but the threat of a trip to the naughty school often works with dd.

but not with ds coz he can't speak / understand a lot yet.

Maybe he needs some help to change his habit. How about putting him back in bed over and over again until he stays there, you never know he might just fall asleep. Is this too mean? It would take a lot of hard work on your part.

What time does he go to bed? Surely he is still tired at 4.30am? So if left in bed for long enough he would go back to sleep? Just an idea.

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Am fascinated by these threads as dd is an early riser, though not too too bad. As she is only 18mo, there is little I can really do at present other than 'pretend' it is still night (eg ignore, go in and give her a shhshh patpat, leave, let her scream, repeat pattern). However, I was thinking that once she was old enough I would combine a bunny clock with a reward chart (eg rewards for staying quietly in bed/room until bunny wakes up). Has anyone tried that?

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