Hideously early mornings with 1 & 3 year olds.

[MrsJamin]

I am so fed up :(

Ds1 (3) has always been prone to waking early (5.30am when he was 1-2), but had been getting more towards 6.30. However now he shares a room with DS1 (15months), who is waking every day between 4 and 5. He just wants milk when he's up so in the end I'm giving him cow's milk when he's been up and crying a while (will try to settle with water first). But DS2 just wakes DS1 up and by the time I've given milk DS1 is awake and if DS2 is resettling DS1 will then mess around to keep DS2 awake. It's just so horrible and I can't see a way out of it. They are both so tired especially DS1 who does not nap and has dark circles under his eyes all day every day. We can't move until get a job which is pretty unlikely at the moment. I am getting so angry with the situation. Help.

Oh that sounds grim. Would DS2 settle back down quicker if given milk straight away? Could you take him out of the room to go back to sleep elsewhere, e.g. your bed?

Yeah I guess but sometimes it's as early as 4.20 which basically constitutes a night time feed- ie he's so not sleeping through and bloody should be at his age. Giving milk seems like giving in. I don't think he would sleep in our bed, just cry, did that for a while but he wasn't having any of it, plus if he did ever settle DS1 would come out of their room so i'd have to move him and he'd wake up. At the moment the only thing I can think is if we move.

Does DS2 nap in the day? What times? Could you try re-adjusting his naps so he doesn't wake so early. DS1 used to wake 4-5am, DS2 was a baby so I was knackered but we didn;t have the problem of them waking each other. The thing I read then said that children who did this used to have a morning nap, and this would be the finishing of their night time sleep. It recommended moving this nap to later in the day, maybe an hr or so later. Could you try something like this? Sounds like the waking is habit rather than DS2 being hungry, but could you try extra milk/food at bedtime as well?

I'd just 'give in', personally, with the milk. The difference is do you give him milk, call it a night waking, and get to sleep till 6.30, or do you call it an 'early wakeup' and all get up at 5? Given that everyone's exhausted, is it that important to avoid a 'night time feed'? It's only terminology, isn't it? I mean, either way he's waking up for milk.

As the parent of a 5am waker, I've just put extreme black-out on his windows. Made not a bit of difference but it's something you could try. We've also shifted from having a morning nap to one nap a day (he was doing that classic catching up on sleep thing) but again, it hasn't made a difference as yet.

We're in same boat here with a 3 yr old and 2 year old who share a room. DS2 is waking around 11 and then 4.30/5 and will only settle if we stay inroom with him. It's driving us mad and I've no idea what to do.

Read a thread on here the other day which said that a walk outside in the early evening just before bath and bed can really help with early wakings. May be crapola but you never know.

Thanks everyone. We've had a hideous morning so far but ds2 is back in bed after we all "got up for the day" finally at 6, and he screamed until 7. I think the morning nap does have to go but I am stuck in a cycle of him needing a nap at 7 as he's been up so blooming early. I can't imagine him just having one sleep between 4am and 7pm. He's a crap eater and doesn't have a lot of tea, just picks at it- I'm not surprised he wants milk so eagerly. It's really dark in their room with a blackout blind and a curtain. Gah children.

I would do as Tortoise suggests and just give him the milk, at least for a while so you can get some much needed rest. It isn't going to be forever. Also with our early riser here we have recently introduced a sleep clock which has had some success and complete blackout also definitely makes a difference for us. Though I am pretty certain that none of that would work if she had a sibling waking her up, so I would get in there with the milk asap!

Are you me? Dc2 is now nearly 2; we've 'sleep trained' him a few times by moving dc1 into our bed (and one of us decamping downstairs) as soon as dc2 wakes up and left him to it. This works for a bit ie he goes back to sleep eventually and this prolongs his sleeping but not dramatically.

I do tend to 'give in' and bf him tbh, though can understand why you want to try anything but. If he is waking up because he's hungry, could you try giving him something like rice pudding for tea - this might be appealing as it's sweet and fill him up a bit.

Sorry-x-post, maybe try giving the milk straightaway for a few days and hopefully he will go back to sleep and you could drop the early nap, at least it would break the cycle. It helped no end with DD when she went down to one lunchtime nap, probably at around 14-15 months, was hard as she woke so early but really helped with night time sleep once we had. Now we have to drop the lunchtime sleep too, the thought of that leaves me feeling v,v !

Yes good idea to give milk ASAP to try and give everyone a rest and get rid of morning nap. Ah the sound of a microwave ding at 4.30...