1 yr old waking at 5am!!

[stansmomma]

my 1 yr old wakes every morning at 5 am and thinks its time to get up, we've tried keeping up him later, giving him a bottel of milk (usually sends him to sleep) and pick up put down, (but that just confused him and made him hysterical) the thing is once up, he's miserable and just cries and throws tantrums for 2 hrs till we just have to put him back to bed! its absolutely pointless getting up with him because he's a nightmare, but i dont know how to make him sleep longer, or break this bad habit, does anyone have any ideas (or a magic wand)that could save me from this ever-so-not-morning-glory!!!!

Apologies if this is too obvious... have you got blackout curtains? Can any light come in via the door?

I have a 5 year old that wakes at 5am , we are going to get black out blinds.

yes we have blackout blinds hun,and curtains. was going to attempt the wake to sleep method last nite so set my alarm for 4am.....and he woke up crying at 3am! the childs a mind reader! none the less he slept between mama and papa last nite because he was really upset and think he just needed to snuggle. he never usually wakes crying unless he's ill. going to try again tonight though, unless he beats me to it again!!!

well i went ahead with the wake to sleep thing last nite....he woke at half 5! that's half hour later i guess. dont think i really woke him enough though. i was to scared to in case i couldn't get him back off to sleep! going to do a better job tonight and actually (nearly) wake him. thing is after i woke up at 4am it took me ages toget back to sleep again, so i'm still really tired. he's not being too grouchy at the moment, but i dont think i'll be winning any beauty contests today......

well so far this waking to sleep thing is doing nothing at all. woke him again at 4am this morning and he woke up again himself at 4:50! crying of course, wouldnt go back to sleep at fisrt so had to stay with him till he dropped off,which is now becoming a problem in itself because hes always gone down ok by himself, we've never really had to pat or shush him, now it seems he's worked out that we'll stay with him if he cries! oh i'm so confused and tired, what am i doing wrong? help!!!!