Another waking early thread - toddler (longish)

[scampadoodle]

Ds is 2.7 & is waking up pretty early - between 6 & 6.30, sometimes earlier (&, rarely, later). I would take this as par for the course except that he is obviously still tired when he gets up. The past few mornings he's been really whingey & a pain in the a*se, basically. We took the sides down from his cotbed last weekend so that he could get up & play with his toys if he woke early, but he still just lies there shrieking for us to come & get him! (He loves having his "big boy's bed" BTW).
He still has a nap after lunch but the length of this makes no difference to the time he wakes in the morning. In fact he often sleeps better at night the longer the nap he's had. He was so tired by bathtime yesterday that he had huge panda eyes. Bath is at 7pm with lights out at 8. Any suggestions? As I said, if he seemed to be okay on the sleep he's getting, I'd put up with it, but I LOATHE getting up at 6 & being faced with Mr Grumpy! (Oh, & I'm 33wks pg...)

How dark is his room?
there was a thread recently with a babe that would wake at 5.30am!! there was talk of using a real clock and a pretend clock with the time the baby was allowed to get up.
Sounds like there is abit of transition and getting used to no bars around the bed to get used to.
Do you go and tell him to play.. leave him a snack if hungry and go back to bed?

here

This pre-dates taking down the sides of his bed, which we did now in the hope he'd amuse himself instead of waking us up.

He has blackout lining on his curtains, tho the light shines around the edges. He naps there in the afternoon no probs though.

It is possible he's hungry. Maybe I should leave some crackers or something by his bed.

Not stalking you , Papillon, honest!! We have this scampa, our ds is 2.7, he has always woken between 6 and 6.30 sometimes earlier, about 10 times later but never later than 7 unless ill.He too has an afternoon nap and seems to sleep better at night for it, if he misses it - he becomes irritable and upset and clumsy and invariably hurts himself. Bath is 6.45 and bed time 7.30 after milk and 3 maltesers.He too is often grumpy in the morning - we have tried everything, clocks, black out,a big club (!)- he is just ready to get up at that time. Like you I am also pg (27 weeks) and am finding it increasingly difficult to be cheerful when he shouts 'good morning darling mummy' at 6.15 but we are pretty much resigned to the fact that this is just the time he gets up. I am lucky as I only work 3 days so when he has a nap on the two days I am at home, I have one too, I have NEVER slept in the day before except when ill but can not help it at the moment.So, don't know what to tel you except that nothing has worked for us - it has got steadily better (it used to be before 5.30 most mornings) but that you are not alone - fingers crossed - our ds's will grow out of it - when they are 18 and won't get up we'll be posting about getting the lazy devils up!!!

try the crackers... and maybe leave him a drink as well
good luck

Helsbels, are you me?! I too work 3 days a week & nap when he naps on my days off. I finish work in 3 wks so will get more chance to rest.
I will try leaving food out but don't hold out much hope. Like you say, could just be his waking-up time. It's just frustrating though when I can see he's still tired. Ah well...be worse when the baby arrives!

Do you think it's got worse since the mornings have gotten lighter? Has he always been an early riser? I wouldn't go too much by the 'seems tired' when he gets up thing though as my dd was an early riser until a week or so ago (used to be 6-6.30 always, currently 7.30 but don't ask me how or why and it probably won't last) and I always thought she was still tired but now she's sleeping this extra bit she still seems knackered in the morning. I think the blackout curtains are a good way of avoiding lighter mornings but on the other hand the birds etc. are up earlier too and I think that wakes them up.

It could be the lighter mornings, although he went through phases like this in the winter too (albeit without being still tired). He's a very, very active child - if he's had enough sleep he hits the ground running & doesn't stop. This is how I know he's tired at the moment.
I particularly hate wednesdays as that's when the bin men come... I lie there thinking "please don't wake him up...please don't wake him up"!

I know, I do things like that as we live in a flat and people going to work in the mornings all slam their doors down our corridor which isn't far from dd's room. I lie there wide awake thinking 'please don't wake up ...'

If he's had phases of this early waking before, what caused it and how did you stop it? Can you repeat the same thing?

Also, is he perhaps unwell in any way? That might make him seem more tired as well as not sleeping as well as usual.