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21 month old is such an early riser!

3 replies

AAHL · 06/08/2019 06:28

My son will be 2 in October. We have always struggled with sleep, I breast fed him until 18 months so he didn't start sleeping through the night until 19 months ish. We co-sleep as I found this the only way to cope with all the breast feeding and still haven't done the transition into his own bed. But he is just such an early riser! Lately it is 4.30 am, the latest he will ever wake is around 5.15 - which I now class as a lie in! I know some toddlers are just early risers and will hopefully grow out of it but I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do?

He is often still very tired when he wakes up but insists on getting up/having a snack/going downstairs, but will then need an early nap. So I'm finding he is still often having two naps a day. I want to try to get it to just one nap but he can't seem to get past 9 am without a nap. So any advice on transition from two to one naps would be good too? I have read that this can help with them waking up later, or is that a myth? The days he does only have one nap don't really seem to make a difference.

He tends to go to sleep about 7, or between 7 and half 7. Which I know is quite early, so should I try to make this later? I do just love having my evenings to cook/spend time with my partner but if it will help then I can make it later, but how do I do this? As he is always ready for bed by then.

Will putting him in his own room help? We are planning to put him in a toddler bed rather than a cot as he hates his cot. So I'm prepared for it to be harder at first but hoping it will help in general.

Just feeling very tired, I have to do most of the early get ups as my partner works longer hours than me and I'm getting a bit desperate!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
JoMumsnet · 06/08/2019 16:35

Just bumping this thread for you, @AAHL, in case anyone's on hand with some advice and support. Brew

Pantheon · 06/08/2019 18:54

Hi OP, I posted recently with a similar problem - 18mo waking up at 5. My dd has gone down to one nap a day now, usually around 11.30. And her bedtime depends on how long she naps for. If she only naps for 1 1/2hr or so, she's in bed by 6.30. Any later and she's overtired. Hoping to slowly push nap and bedtimes back. This seems to be helping so far - 5.30/6 rather than 5. (Every minute counts, as I'm sure you know!) I get out every morning to the park or shops with her to get her through until nap time. Hope that helps!

iwillbemummy · 07/08/2019 15:56

I know controversial round here but I did refer to the Gina Ford routines when adjusting my 22 months old DS’s naps when he was waking similar times to your little one. I didn’t follow her routine fully just her concepts.

I found that my DS started sleeping later when I cut back his morning nap gradually. Kept cutting it back by 5 mins every few days until it got to 15 mins. Then his body clock won’t depend on this nap and hopefully he will know to get that extra sleep in the morning.

I’ve never co-slept with my son but know if he did sleep with us he would want to engage with us the second his eyes opened. Where he used to wake early he would occasionally fall back to sleep in his cot as he had no distractions (no toys or stuffed animals have ever been left in his cot).

Can only mention what worked for us, hoping it improves for you....early rising is a killer.

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