Early rising toddler- wake to sleep? Yes or no?

[TerrifiedMothertobe]

He's always been up early 6am was the norm, 630 was a lie in. But now we are seeing in too many 5/530's and yesterday was 430.

The room is dark and quiet so he has clearly got in a bad habit. He goes to bed at7 and asleep no later than 730, ever. We tried a later bedtime, no difference, and same for an earlier one.

We tried knocking out his remaining 1 hour nap (he's 2.5) but he's very full on and can't cope. He also falls asleep by9am within minutes of being in car if we go off for the day, so clearly is exhausted.

We also have a 5 mo old I am still feeding at least twice a night, so I need some sleep!

Tonight I am planning in waking him when I feed the baby, probably around 2/3 am. Am I mad?

I am getting very desperate.... Help!

Oh bless you. I know, it's sucks. Last night baby had me up every 2 hours and the. Toddler was up at 5. My head may explode soon. Xx

So, we had the sleep specialist in, we had to keep him up till 930 for three nights. By the third morning he should have slept until 7/730.

It hasn't worked. He is now even more exhausted, as lost almost 12 hours sleep in les than a week and still waking at 5. he feel into a deep sleep in the car at 8am this morning and his behaviour is dreadful.

the next suggestion is to sleep in with him for a fortnight and get him back to sleep as soon as he wakes, it's not very successful so far as he just thinks it's a game, no matter how strict I am or how much I threaten him.

Anyone else having better luck?

Hi sorry ur stil avin a bad time, I Wudnt av thort keeping him up til 9.30 Wud help I'm no expert but they say kids need routine, did u try porridge r weetabix b4 bed as u thort it may be hunger, with bobby it works he does occasionally wake up at 6am but we still leave him and he plays in his room. X

I would move everything by 2 hrs. If bed at 7pm when is he eating dinner? I think you can't expect then to go more than 12 hrs from dinner. So 5pm dinner expect 5am wake up.

To break the habit I would do 7pm dinner, 9pm bed. Keep nap 1-2pm so not overtired. Eventually 7pm dinner with 8.30pm bed.

We're doing the Sleep Fairy method too - we're on day three, and I am so so tired. LO is currently down for a nap, due to wake him in ten minutes.

Quick question....

do we just go back to the normal routine after this 'Sleep Fairy' 3-day technique, or do we stick with the very short nap and later bedtime forever more?

(if it works that is!)

Hi op, did you do wake to sleep in the end? We had some successful but I did have to set my alarm to go in and do it.

We were told to do 830 for the two nights after after and bring naps back slowly until sleep is balanced.

I would love to know if it works for you, as epic fail for us.

Oh, and only did wake to sleep once, so not sure whether it worked!

Artandco- that us a tried and rested route- another fail.

I'm officially giving up!

So the magical forth day, and LO was supposed to sleep longer this morning. Nah. 6:15am is a good wake up time apparently.

I don't know what to try next.

Well we have a exhausted toddler so I am just letting him sleep. Yesterday he didn't nap and was up at 445 so more sleep can't do much worse!

It worked when I went in approx an hour before he was waking, wakes him enough to disturb but not wake up.

Ok, much better today.

Yesterday, I got him to nap between one and two pm. No longer. He a then ready for bed at seven, and slept till half six. Today, I pushed it to half one thirty to half two instead, so he asleep at half seven.hopefully http twill mean he is asleep until seven tomorrow. We'll see.

Sorry for the crappy typing, iPad hates mumsnet.

Slept I'm with him for 3 nights now. A poke In the ribs at 430 didn't do much. Neither did trying to bribe him back to sleep at whatever indecent hour he woke at.

We're going for relaxed sleep now, and just take ut as it comes. I can't deal with overtired toddler, he needs some decent naps to get him back on track.

Early bedtime, again, for me, that is!

Visualise a horse. Any joy?

We let him sleep today and he went for 2.5 hours and shattered by 7 still. But, so nice to have my sunny little boy back instead of work of devil toddler. Be interesting to see what time he wakes. Although we have out his lamp on a timer for 6am and told him to stay in bed unti, then. We put him back this morning until it came on....

The best luck I've had so far is with an hours nap - no more than that, I figured that an hour nap and 12 hours at night is actually quite a lot, so I'm keeping the nap short, with the plan to shorten it over the next few weeks.

So he had an hour between 1.30 and 2.30, woke him with alarm (both light and sound), and then asleep by 7.30pm resulted in a 7am wake up! Yesterday he didn't get a great sleep as we were in the car, but he woke this morning at 6am, so I put him back in his bed and said he can come through when the sun comes up (code for alarm going off, he has a gro-clock), and he came through to us at 7.03am! Result!

I'm finding that using the gro-clock during nap time is having a good effect, and means more for the morning wake up too.

(forgot to say before, LO was 2 in April)

So Sunday he had an hours nap between half one and half two, bed at seven, woke at 6.50am!

I think he was napping too early and too long (naps before this week were usually starting at half eleven and lasting two and a Half hours). Moving it later and shorter seems to have made a big difference.

Wow. I'm so so pleased you have found a better solution!

We are a bit stuck as our little one is in nursery 4 days- maybe I will try the later nap At the weekend though? We are tring putting a light on so he knows when he can get out of bed, not massive success recently, still 5am wake up but delaying his arrival in bedroom.

Yeah, it's taken a while for the light clock thing to actually make sense to him. But yes, success! He's been waking about 6/6.30 then I put him back to bed, and say he needs to stay in bed till the alarm goes off.

I do feel much better with more sleep. I think I will just have to admit that he is an early riser, but that's ok, as long as it's not 4am!!

Watching this with interest as my DS has been getting up at 5 for the last few weeks. He's wide awake and ready for his breakfast and to start the day so no hope of him going back to sleep.
I'm going to set some things up in his room for him to do when he wakes tomorrow and see if he'll play for a while.
Don't think there's much chance - he usually runs straight for the gate on his door and rattles it shouting 'muuuuuuummmmy' at the top of his voice!

Yeah, the playing thing doesn't work for us either. He might 'read' a book for five minutes, and then proceeds to bang on the door again....

This morning he came into our bed at six. I told him if he talked or wriggled I would put him back in his bed. The little thing tried his hardest for about thirty minutes not to move an inch! Impressed with his self control!

We are getting on on with the light, he is still waking early, but he is staying in his bedroom until it comes on, currently set for 615. So although he doesn't come into us at 5am he is still waking, I'm just letting him sleep for hour/ hour and half nap now as he was so sleep deprived.

I'm just hoping it will go away some time soon!

If you get after 6 it think that's probably pretty good, most kids are up around 630, apparently....!

Oh I miss those days!

Make sure you keep me updated with any breakthroughs!

Well, today we had a long picnic in the hot sun, and he napped for THREE hours! Finally got him to sleep just after nine pm, so we will see what tomorrow brings.

How early did he wake!?