Early mornings getting me down!

[SnowWhite26]

Hi.
I dont no what to do anymore. My 13 month old wakes anywhere be between 5 and 5.40 mostly nearer 5. He goes to bed at 7 although have tried pushing it back but didnt really work. I go to bed early my husband and I take it in turns but I its starting to get me really down even when he gets up. I go through what I did yesterday to why hes woken up later or earlier. Its pitch black in his room. Heating coming on some mornings. I hate the in continuity of it all. I went to bed at 9.30 last night and he woke at 5 i fed him in a desperate need to go back to sleep and he just chatted until he got upset. Yesterday he slept till 5.40 why later? I analyse every thing. The one thing i have noticed is that he eill happierly go down for naps in the cot in the day but if we are out he will happily stay awake. For instance yesterday he had half an hour at about 9 in car and then was fine until left about 3.30 and slept im car for an hour. If I am in he will go for a 1-2 hr nap at 9 then either a car nap in pm if im out or cot if im in. Nothing makes much difference but wondered i should not let him sleep so much in the day. Ahhh my head will explode. I think its having 2 children so im so tired from running around all day. I dunno. My 4 year old woke really early and i think it slowly started to improve once she was walking. My baby crawls loads in the day. Anyway I just need a rant some ppl that might understand how much it takes over your head. My friends who have children that do it say im not strict enough and i should leave him etc
.. I can still hear him im still awake!! Thanks for reading xxx

Sorry friends with children that dont do it haha

. My 6 yo came in at 5.15. I’ve been woken between 5 and 5.30 for the past 7 years. Occasionally they just go downstairs and switch the tv on. There was a stage when they were 3&2 when I was regularly up 5 times a night. We did EVERYTHING. Nothing worked. I know lots of other people with early risers. It does get better, or you just learn to deal with chronic sleep deprivation......but the early years are tough x

I do think that some children are just early risers. My son has always woken up between 5-5.30, regardless of naps/bedtimes etc. It's a bit easier now hes 7, as he will entertain himself instead of waking me up. Whereas my daughter is a 6/6.30 waker and i haven't done anything different with her.
Does he cry when he wakes or does he chat to himself? Could you leave him to chat for a little while?

Some kids just do this, we have 3 year old twins and one is a super early riser and wakes the other (who would happily sleep until 8) and the rest of the house between 430 and 6 every morning, and when he's up he's wide awake ready for the day! His twin brother is the polar opposite.
Particularly hard now we also have a newborn im up with in the night.

Thanks for your replies. I try and be positive and get on with a few jobs but some mornings im so tired all i can do is play and watch tv with him lol. He wakes and chats and we leave him. If hes awake before 530 sometimes we give him a milk. He shares a room with his 4 year old sister so i leave as long as i seem fair but im awake anyway so think i may as well get him up
He settles on his own to sleep and for naps but has always had an issue settling on his own middle of the night. That skunds so hard for both of u that your older ones wake early. What do you do? X

Solidarity, both mine have have been up since 5.30. It's so monotonous. Good coffee and some the tasty to stick in the toaster is my solution. It does change though, my 5 year old isn't usually up so early, just the 2yo. Their dad is crap though and "can't wake up" and they would barely tolerate him at this time of day anyway.

Oh bless, I can understand how you feel. I hate being woken up early too. I remember mine waking at five, I used to change and feed, cuddle and we all went back to sleep until a more civilised hour. I realise some children don't do that though which must be difficult. I was fortunate mine always liked a lie in.

It doesn't last, trust me you'll soon be moaning that he won't get out of bed on time to go to school. That's not much comfort now though.

Set your timer for the heating to come on earlier.

Hi. Rachellover. I went in at 5.15 this morning and gave him a bottle and cuddle but he didn't go back to sleep. If i bought him into our room he would think it was party time haha thanks for your reply :) xx

It doesn't last, trust me you'll soon be moaning that he won't get out of bed on time to go to school

Not necessarily true. I was an early riser as a child and as an adult I’m still an early riser (even before dc). It’s rare that I would be in bed after 7.30 irrespective of how late I went to bed. It drove every bf I ever had to despair, and DH has just learned to live with it. My mum never once had to wake me for school. I fully expect dd to be the same.

I had an early riser too - even now he’s a teenager he’s usually up by 7.30 at the weekend. Feeling your pain, OP.

I used to take him downstairs, switch on the tv and doze on the sofa.

Do you get up and have early Breakfast and get dressed or do your children watch tv and chill coz they are older?

If he is sleeping through from 7-5ish then to be honest I think you have it pretty good.
My 15month old currently won’t go down till 8 most nights. Is up at least once in the night and wakes up between 5 and 6. I just accept
It as part and parcel of being a mum to little ones. I have two older ones and they have all slept differently and all been through different phases. Keep telling yourself “this too shall pass,” before you move on to another difficult phase in some other area of life.
In terms of sleep I try and go to be early every few nights to catch up. At least once a week I just go to bed with them.

I no its not bad and its great he goes through but its just hard getting up and not over thinking how we could get him to sleep later x

@SnowWhite26 my eldest will get up and read a book in his room or will watch the TV for a bit. This morning, they were both up at 5.30 so we came downstairs, and sat on the sofa with the tv on for a bit. They've just had their breakfast now x

We could have a full film watched by 7am here. I have a 4 and 5 year old. The 5 year old is always up before 6am. Now I send him downstairs to play by himself but he's so noisy he almost always wakes his sister. I'm used to it now but of course it still annoys me. No TV allowed on school mornings so I suppose at least there's no rush to get out the door because we'll have been up for 2.5 hours before we need to leave.

Your friends without children are full of shit. Hate when people when no kids think they know it all.

I did find that if I left him he went back off to sleep until 7 but he didn't cry so that was easy. If yours is crying to get up it's different I think.

Could you try earplugs on the days your husband gets up? I did that in the early days and it worked. The wax ones.

Good luck x

I wouldn't get up until I had to.
I dont see what jobs can't wait until the day
I used to treat any time until 7.30 as night and therefore dark.
Now they are 7 6 4 it means that they stay in their rooms playing /reading til then.
You don't have to go to him unless he is waking his sibling or distressed.

Its boiledeggs i do but he doesn't last more than 20 mins before getting upset so if awake at 5 its normally 5.20. If i give him milk he might chat a bit longer after. Thats what i mean me 'being strict' doesn't work coz he ends up crying quite early on.
Newbie yeah i could try ear plugs. I am trying to except in and at least get my own tv as baby just crawling around playing.

My little one tried this and like you it really gets me down. Read up on circadian rhythms and how to adjust them.
Basically go in when they wake in the morning but keep everything as dark as possible. Have some toys in the room (hidden away because if they can see toys when they stir in the morning they wake faster to play) Play really quietly (whisper and try not to say much) with the toys in the dark as long as possible. When they start getting upset give up and go down stairs etc. The goal is to stretch the dark as much as possible even if it is 1 or 2 mins a day. When you have stretched the dark playing to the wakeup time that you want you can try some dark cuddles. So go in and cuddle in dark as long as possible until they get upset and then switch to dark playing with toys. Mine started falling asleep during the dark cuddles with a bit of head stroking. This was when I knew I was winning!
When I say play with toys try to let them play as independently as possible you don't want them to think they get super special play with fun mummy time if they wake early. Mine had a box of random toys she would pull out and look at and then realise it was boring and pull out another.
Secondly try not to give any milk or breakfast. Again stretch this slowly. If I had breakfast every morning at 5 for a week I guarantee I would wake at 5 feeling hungry the followng days, kids are the same.

I have no idea if this will work for you but it worked for me. Took about a month.

Have you seen the Gro Clocks?

They stay blue for night time and yellow for day time. My little in gets up early sometimes but does tend to stay in bed with a book until morning now.

Try a gro clock. Set to 6am. Chocolate button if he waits for the sun.

Pear- i will have a look at this technique. I have tried noy giving him a bottle as soon as we get up but he crys and crys. It must be a settling thing as well
My older one huffs and puffs but can resettle herself now i guess

Hes only 13 months. I have a gro clock but dunno if hes to young?

I think you're expecting too much to be honest. A 13 month old that sleeps 10 hours straight through is amazing.

DD was up at 4.50 this morning, she was also awake at 10.30, 11.30 and 1.30 in the night.