2.3 year old early wake ups

[fletchandmum]

Ahhh please help! My son has always been an early riser but the past 2-3 weeks it's been 5am starts every day, and I wouldn't mind as much but all he does is whinge and demand from 5am. It's so draining. I'm heavily pregnant and it's really getting me down. I'm jealous of DH getting to go to work. He's clearly still tired but we've tried everything and he won't go back to sleep.

It's so hard, isn't it! Mine gets up at 4.30, every day. It's been 1.5 years since that started, so I have no advice on how to make it stop (haha, if only). But to endure it, early to bed for you, no alcohol at all, and in the mornings cartoons for your ds, a hot chocolate for you (my body started expecting a sugar rush at 4.30am, made it easier to get up), lots of cuddles together. In our house, parenting starts at 6am.

@Cathy31 aww sorry to hear that, it must be so hard. I'm really hoping it's just a phase, surely it can't go on forever 😩 I'm due another baby soon so I would really love for him to start sleeping in longer x

I'd be inclined to push bedtime later. You'll need to be consistent with this because it takes about 3 weeks to see a body clock shift to establish.

Is toddler still having a day time nap? If yes, then 10-11h over night sleep would be normal. So if your bedtime us 7pm then 5am wake up us yo be expected.

Gro Clock sorted this for us. She clearly needed more sleep as she was so grumpy in the mornings, so having to stay in bed quietly until the sun ‘came up’ eventually resulted in her going back to sleep, then not waking at all.

I do think there’s a window for this though - they need to be old enough to understand it (for us that was 18 months) but not too old to just think sod it, and get up anyway.

@Timeturnerplease I might get one of these but I just don't think he would understand it? X

We didn’t think ours would but she really did - we read the story for a week beforehand to get her used to the idea.

She’s always been really good with understanding/speech though - just rubbish at the physical stuff!

Bumping this as I'm going through the exact same thing. My 2 year old screams the house down at 5am without fail, we end up having to get her up because she will wake her sibling if not.

I have tried (with no success):

• Gro Clock (worked at first but ignores it now)
• Later bedtime (still wakes up at 5 but more tired)

-Dropping nap (still wakes up) -Snack before bed (barely touches it) -Leaving her in her room (screams herself hysterical, wakes up her sibling and as of late escapes the cot anyway)

Losing the will to live, it also really limits plans e.g I feel bad taking her stay at parents or in laws and I don't want to book a Christmas getaway or a summer holiday as waking an entire hotel up at 5am is not on.

Later bedtime (still wakes up at 5 but more tired)

It takes a long time to see changes in the body clock, it's rarely instant.

I would suggest 3 weeks of significantly later bedtimes (and naptime adjusted accordingly).

You are right that initially you will get, say, 9pm bedtimes and 5am wakes. You can expect 21 nights of similar back to back, so prepare yourself for dealing with grimpy/tired toddler. Not just for a couple of days, for a couple of weeks.

But if you are consistent, you should start seeing body clock shift by around 3 weeks.

Thanks @FATEdestiny I'll try it for a bit longer, will get some strong coffee in 😂

When mine had a period of doing this I put the TV on and snoozed on the couch. I refused to play.

So I'm up at 4.27 with the clock change, urghhhh