How to persuade a 3yr old to sleep in a bit more in the mornings

[zulubump]

Hi everyone. My dd's waking time varies from dead on 6am (sometimes 5.50ish) to sometimes 7.30. On waking she usually comes straight into our room declaring it's morning time. 6 is a bit early for me and for her too I think. Right now she is asleep at the kitchen table having woken at 6 this morning.

We got her a clock with a display that shows stars in the nighttime and then a sun at whatever you set wake-up time to be. Only tried it two mornings so far. Sunday morning we'd set it for 7. She woke 6.30 and called for me. I reminded her what we'd said the day before about staying in her bed (or at least her room) until she sees the sun. She managed until about 6.50 and then came in our room. I took her back to her room and stayed with her until the sun appeared.

Today same sort of thing. This time we set it for 6.45, but she woke at 6. I had to go in and remind her again. Then she came into our room at 6.35 and this time I couldn't be bothered to take her back.

I've done her a reward chart and she got a sticker yesterday (even though I had to sit in the room with her), but not today. She didn't seem too bothered though. Can anyone encourage me in persisting with this and/or offer any tips? I'd just like to not have her wander into our room at whatever time she wakes. Oh and we have a 1yr ds whose wake up time is a bit erratic too, so that doesn't help!

I don't think 6am is classed as early waking...we have 5:30 pretty much every day here from both DDs...tried everything nothing works, am waiting for the clocks to go forward now and just keep them on their usual times so 530 becomes 630...

wait for the clocks to change :)

Not early waking maybe, but would just like dd to learn to appreciate that just because she's up at 6 doesn't mean we all want to be! Plus there's the fact that she's shattered if she's up that early every day. Maybe the clock change will help, I hadn't thought of that! Come summer, though, I don't want her thinking it's ok to be up at 4 just because it's light outside!

black out blinds, make sure she's full of food/milk before bed, plenty of running about in the day. The clock change is good timing, it should kick start it. Last year DS went an hour the other way and instead of waking at 6am, he started waking at 8am BST and the light mornings didn't make any difference.

This time of year can be the worst because the sun coming up coincides with slightly early waking - once the sun's coming up before 5am they tend to sleep through it better IYKWIM

Thanks Jareth. Dd actually slept past the wake-up time on her clock today, so that was good.

It took my DD, at 2.5, about a week to get the hang of the clock. So may be worth persevering.

Though, as other posters have said, the clocks will change in a couple of weeks!:)

you could try pushing bedtime a little later say by half an hour...that did help with my two for a bit.

Oh! I remember this. We have black out blind and curtain! and he still got up early Now he is 6 yrs he gets up at 6.45am, he is almost like setting an alarm clock. I must say that we couldn't get it just right when he was little but I sometimes turned on Cbeeies on DAB radio so he would stay in bed listening to stories. That worked some of the time.

Thanks for the posts. We will persevere a bit longer. Dd does have black out blinds, but when she wakes she leaps out of bed and pulls them back. If it's a bit light outside then that's it - it's morning time! It's usually 6 onwards that she wakes which is kind of reasonable, I just wanted to start teaching her to have an appreciation that not everyone wants to get up that time! But at the moment she just doesn't get the idea of staying in bed a bit longer or maybe playing in her room quietly for a bit. Think we'll just have to keep working on that. Give her some things she can do. She does have a CD player so she could listen to music/stories. She's not great with the volume control though!

Don't let her sleep during the day at all, even if you have to suffer for it!
Also, we put a gate across DS's door, he knows that he can call from the gate if he can hear us up and about (he has been known to shout "good morning" when the alarm clock goes off!) but that he should stay in his room and play quietly until then. It did take a few repetitions of telling him to play quietly, not shout from behind the gate etc but he is briliant now.

Hi Zulubump

OMG, I'm reading my life story in your first message. My almost 3 year old son is exactly the same, from the "it's morning time" chorus to the whipping back the blackout curtains to look daylight and recently hopping out of bed to press the button the GroClock to make the Sun appear, followed by the morning chorus or coming into our bed, full of beans I might add! I'm at the end of my rope. He's exhausted by 5.30 - 6pm which is way too early to put him up to bed and then by 7-7.30pm he's got a second wind. Am hoping it's just a phase and it will settle down.

ps, meant to add in Good Luck at end of my reply!

We have the clock and it didn't work for us.
One very helpful mumsnetter suggested getting my ds a personal cd player and some story cds. I got the cd player on amazon and we borrow cds from our local library.
Our ds wakes very early (anywhere from 4am onwards) but now will listen to a story cd until it is time to get up. On a few occasions he has even fallen asleep again but, in our case, this is rare.
By borrowing the cds we can keep it fresh and he finds it very relaxing.
We also have black out blinds and heavy curtains. A friend of mine actually velcros her black out blinds to the walls round the window so that no light can creep in. Her dds sleep until after 10am so it must be worth a shot!
I would heartily recommend the cd player though. We keep it on his bedside table with a cd in it so all he has to do is put on the headphones and press play. You could put a sticker on the play button so your child knows which one to press.
Good luck - it is not a serious problem but it can make things a bit more of a struggle than they need to be.

Just thought I'd post an update to give people hope if they've been having this problem! Dd has made so much progress. We continued encouraging her to stay in bed or at least in her room until the sun on her clock appeared. She had a couple of mornings where she actually slept past the time we'd set. Then a morning where she woke just a few mins before the sun was due to appear and she managed to stay in her room and play (after I'd shouted encouraging things through her door!) until the sun appeared. She was so proud that she'd did it and chuffed with her reward chart that it really motivated her to keep going. She's not been prefect every morning but she's getting more consistent. I even heard her wake one morning around 6 and heard her pottering about and then silence! She told me she took a toy into bed and went back to sleep!!

I have just wandered into this topic in a sleep deprived haze looking for a thread like this :o

Where can I purchase one of these clocks? And what sort of rewards do you have on your reward chart? I hope you are still around somehere to notice my post .

just wandered in too. it's called Gro-Clock and you can get it off Amazon, didn't work for us though