nearly 2 years old, waking at 5am, any ideas?

[Rebecca41]

I know this is probably something I just have to accept, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

DS2 is nearly 2, and for as long as I can remember he's been waking at 5am. It doesn't matter what naps he has, what time he goes to bed etc, he still wakes at 5. Sometimes he's clearly still tired, and scrambles around on my bed intermittently lying down for a few minutes. Other times he's wide awake and ready to start the day.

He's quite good at playing on his own, but of course I can't go back to sleep while he's up because he's still only little, so at best I doze.

The other problem is that his noise wakes DS1 (age 5).

I'm a single parent, so no chance of ever getting a lie-in.

I have black-out blinds, there is no noise - nothing wakes him, he wakes up himself.

I'm completely exhausted. I try to go to bed early, but you know how it is - by the time you've done the end-of-day jobs and eaten, it's hard to get to bed before 10.30pm.

Can anyone tell me some positive stories, about toddlers miraculously sleeping longer having been 5am starters?!

DD was always an early riser (normally between 4am - 5am). When she was 22 months we bought her one of these and it worked! We were pretty surprised, only bought it because we were desperate. She's now 2 and a half and sleeps until 7am most days. It really did work quite quickly (couple of days). There are many other similar products around as well.

My dd started sleeping longer on her own after months and months of 5am starts. Just had run of 7am wake ups and last couple of weeks been between 6 and 6.30am. It does happen! I know how tiring it is and we got through it with 9pm bedtimes for ourselves but appreciate this is not always poss!

I've done this with my two boys at around 2. It wasn't very successful with my more internally motivated daughter.

Reward chart, sleep rules - stay in bed until your light comes on - much cheering when it happens!! Light attached to a timer (a few pounds from DIY shop).

Lots of people on here recommend the gro clock as it shows them when it's nearly morning or the middle of the night. The bunny clock is not as good IMO as child can't see it in the dark!!