Blackout blinds again...

[Fionn]

I need some advice on our 23 month old who has started waking at 5.30am again after being "trained" out of pre-5am waking a few months ago. The curtains in the boys' room are really thin and let loads of light through, so light probably is the culprit, though I'm not 100% convinced. It never affected our oldest (and still doesn't in the mornings), but he is now suddenly very reluctant to go to sleep at bedtime, which is 8pm ish for both of them. The youngest sleeps from 8.30pm to 5.30am or so then has a 2-hour nap 2-4pm, which I'm reluctant to stop, but would gladly cut it down to add on another 1/2 hour to his morning sleep. I can live with 6am but before that is just too uncivilised!
I got a quote from a local curtain shop of £150 for blackout lining plus £50 to sew it in. I don't mind the labour cost but the cost of the blackout material seemed very high. I'll ring John Lewis for a quote, but don't want to pay loads for something that might make no difference. Does everyone swear by blackout blinds or could I just have a natural early riser?

I just went to John Lewis and spent £5 on a metre of blackout fabric and stuck it up with drawing pins around the window! Does the job!

John Lewis do blackout fabric in lovely colours these days too!

I got a black-out blind from Littlewoods.com, very cheap and easy to put up. It isn't completely dark as I chose a natural coloured blind ( it was for our room), but if you got a dark one I'm sure it would be great.

Fionn I had blackout lining put on ds's curtains when he was only about six months old because the sun rises on his side of the house, which means it gets very bright in the mornings (especially in summer). I don't know if the lining has helped but he's never really woken early since then - the earliest he seems to wake up is about 7.00am, and in winter it's usually between 7.30-8.00am. So I'm glad I have them, but I don't know how much difference it would make if the curtains weren't lined.

Fionn, our son's room is inky black - we have a blackout blind and curtain and sometimes he will still wake at 5.30am. I suppose my point is that blackout blinds do help in that if they only lightly rouse they may fall back to sleep but if they really wake up then you will have to resort to other tactics. Our ds is now 31 months and we have got pretty tough about early mornings. I give him some milk (so I know its not hunger), tell him it is still the middle of the night and put him back to bed. If he gets up again, I'm afraid I put the stair gate on his bedroom and tell him that I'll come and let him out when it is morning (6.30am). Sometimes he'll go back to bed and to sleep and other time he just plays in his room but at least it means I am not having to start the day at 5.30am.
If you do decide to get blackout lining, John Lewis do ready made curtain liners at a very reasonable price. I think we paid about £45 for our ones.
Good luck

As you have probably found out John Lewis / Peter Jones (if you are in London) do blackout fabric for 5 pounds/m. I just folded over the top, hand-sewed in place and fixed underneath the existing blind with that plastic-coated curtain wire with hooks onto metal loops screwed into the frame in the top corners. Then used safety pins to attach to the blind down the sides and along the bottom so it goes up and down with the blind (too lazy to sew in properly!)
Mothercare do 2 lengths of blackout curtains which are designed to hook onto the back of curtains hung using curtain tape/track systems. Can't remember the price but I'm sure its cheaper that your quote!

Bugsy I had the same problem with my slightly younger son... here is how I resolved it(also have black out blind).
I have premamently left the stairgate at his door (he doesn't mind, he "enjoys" closing it).
We are lucky (never thought I'd say that) that our heating system makes a certain noise when it tuns itself on at 7 AM.
DS use to wake at 6.... and we went for several days in a row (no letting up here!) to tell him that he had to wait for Big Noise before getting up or leaving his room! He would then open his door but can't get out, and have some light... he started playing with his toys usually until 7... sometimes not as we are talking a whole 1 hour !!! But he would not disturb us for at least 45 minutes.
Now he sleeps until 7 AM (for the past week) and slept through the Big Noise 3 days ago and told us off for not waiting for the big noise.... cute, we thought

I have to say that we have been amazed by this result - maybe it's luck...

Even cheaper than blackout lining you could use pieces of hardboard (or even old cardboard), cut to the size of the window.

OK so it doesn't look pretty, but it does the job !

Incidentally I have found there are various smaller curtain outlets (eg Harveys) that do sell blackout curtains (cream coloured) which you attach to the back of your exisiting curtains, and then to the curtain rail which are cheaper than John Lewis.

Thanks Pupuce. We have had considerable success with the stairgate now. I think he got so bored of trying to play in his dark room that he stopped waking up. As always, I'm convinced that children get into a habit of waking at a certain time and it is just a question of cracking the habit. It annoys me that I seem to have to take harsh measures to crack the problem. I hate the idea of trapping him in his room with the stairgate, but nothing else was working. He has much happier days when he sleeps that extra hour and a half/ two hours, so I guess that says something good.

All 3

I myself am using the idea that madie mentioned. My dh cut a cardboard piece the size of our window. We just put it there at night and during naptimes. Its not the most styleish way of making the room dark but its easy to put up and the room is almost pitchblack. Just enough light to not scare my ds. He seems to sleep well with the room darker.

Threeangels, my dh did exactly the same thing, as you say, not very stylish but it certainly seems to have done the trick and dd sleeps really well now for all her naps.

You can order blackout lining that fits to your own curtains from the Blooming Marvellous catalouge. It works as long as you have the sort of curtains that take those little plastic hooks. I don't know the exact price but it's got to be less than having them custom made!