20 month old waking too early - can we do anything?

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Hmm, both getting a bit knackered atm as our 20 month old dd has taken to waking up at 6 or 7 and yelling until dh gets up.
We have a 2 month ds who is not a great sleeper so it's getting us down a bit.

We would really like her to stay in bed till 8 - is there anything we can do at that age or do we just have to put up with it?

Thanks....

If I wanted my DS's to get up at 8, I don't think I would put them to bed much before 8.15/30.

I do think the birds are a culprit - sunrise is at 7am - they normally start wittering away an hour or so before dawn.

A few years ago we had a family of very noisy birds living in the loftspace above DS1's room. He was always a fab sleeper and suddenly started waking before six - took us a while to cotton on to what was happening. It was quickly resolved after the birds were evicted.

Maybe I should not have used the British understatement 'bit knackered' in my OP.

The sleep theory is interesting - I was always afraid to try putting DS2 to bed any earlier in case he started waking at 4!
But we gave it a go and started putting him down at 6pm (instead of 7), and while he hasn't woken any later he has stayed waking at 5, which has shown us he needs the extra hour.
Goodness knows why he cant have that extra hour in the morning!

Appreciate it won't work for you with your dd at nursery though.

Hmm, just been up to stick my head out of her window and listen - there is also a big holly tree a few feet away that is currently twittering loudly (you'd think it would be too prickly for them), but as it happens we are having a tree surgeon coming next week to cut it back.

Many thanks to all for advice re birds and bedtimes.

my ds has always had his bedtime at 7pm. He used to wake at 7am but now wakes about 6.30am.

on the odd occassions that he has gone to bed 1-2 hours later, he has still woke at the same time, sometimes even earlier! but never later

"Goodness knows why he cant have that extra hour in the morning! "

Quite, Hippmummy. Can't somebody tell them?

I'm consoling myself with the fact that the clocks go forward in a month so 5 will become 6

I tried a later bedtime with my two. They still got up at 5, just more grumpy!
Even now aged 4 and 6, they are on half term going to bed late...still get up at 7am.
Swines!