2.5yr old waking at 5.30am... Used to be 6.30-7am. How can I push it back?!

[Magicrabbit]

my ds is nearly 2.5 yrs old and has always been a brilliant sleeper thankfully. In the last 2 months he has started to wake earlier though which is slowly making me really tired (now 8 weeks with dc2). If I put him back to bed he get really upset and when he does wake up, he seems ready for the day most of the time rather than being tired. I've cut back his lunchtime nap to 1 hr for the last 3 wks but it's made little difference. He's always needed sleep in the day so it's ready to drop it yet. I've bought a gro clock, which he ignores!

Any ideas on how to get him back to a later wake up time?

Thanks.

Any advice anyone??

Hi Magicrabbit,

Our ds is about the same age as yours and has gone from being a brilliant night and day time sleeper to being very unsettled in the last few weeks. I too am knackered!! He started waking at 5-5:30am and did this for about 2 weeks every morning, then he started to get unsettled at night too... he has also started refusing to nap in his cot during the day, although I know that he is tried. In the end the lack of sleep seemed to be making him even more unsettled. he has even have a few nightmares, screaming and crying with fear. of course, we rush to him and resettled him but if this happens in the later earlier hours then getting him back down was so difficult.

The other thing that I noticed at the same time is that he is developing some fears about things - bears, dragons, lots of concerns about being left alone. He can articulate this and constantly calls us back to him when we put him down to sleep at night, although going back to him seems to just prolong it all as he calls out again as soon as we have left him.

The early morning wake ups seem to be lessening... basically he wakes up saying, "It's morning, mummy, time to go downstairs." and I say that it's still night time, that daddy is asleep, the doggies are asleep etc etc We do have black out blinds on top of black out blinds so that does help but the darned light still changes in the room around this time. The first few mornings, I weent back to resettle him so many times - he screamed and yelled and was utterly furious. One morning it took him nearly an hour and a half to go back to sleep by which time the rest of us were getting up. But, I know him too well - he'd just do the same again the next day if i didn't insist. This morning he slept til 8am... thank goodness... after being just a bit unsettled in the night.

Getting him to bed tonight, though, was still a drama with negotiations worthy of a trained UN professional.

I wonder whether having a night light at bedtime would work on a timer - anyone else used a night light with a little one at this age?

Hope it's getting better, Magicrabbit?

Thanks very much for the response.

We have also been trying to get him back to sleep when he wakes early by saying 'it's still night-time, etc' but hasn't worked too well so far, with todays wake up at 5.30am turning into 40 mins of off/on crying in his bed when put back there. I think we do need to persevere with it though as if I'm honest, I don't think we do it consistently as sometimes just so tired we let him come in with us (but he won't go back to sleep!) or we just get up. After chatting it through with dp last night, we've agreed to be 'super nanny' in our consistency in putting him back to bed if up before 6am, hopefully pushing it back to 7.30am, knowing that well have some tough days ahead. I'm not sure What else we can do.

I don't mind him being up early if he sings or plays, just not roaming the house or crying!!!

Thanks again, and I'll give some thought to a light. Are you thinking in terms of a nightlight coming on when it's morning? Or always on, in they're scared, etc.

Other thoughts I had were if he's hungry as he's desperate for a cup of milk when he wakes (he still loves to have a full cup before bed or when he wakes up). Not sure if that's adding to the issue in any way? Who knows!

x