HELP 5am wake ups 😭😭😭😭

[AmieB]

Hi guys, I'm at my wits end with our 15mo. He is waking between 5-5:30am EVERY morning 😭 his current schedule is as follows :

Wake 5-5:30am
Nap 1 9-10am
Nap 2 1-2pm
Bedtime starts 6:15pm
In bed around 6:45pm

Ideally I know he should be heading to just 1 Nap a day at this age but with 5am wake ups he is impossible by 9am. 3x days a week he is also with his childminder who has to do school drop offs so he falls asleep.

Help PLEASE any tweaks tips advice xxx

No tips. We’re in the same boat with our 5 yr old. It’s been 5 years of 5.30-6am wake-up's. Some kids are just early risers.

It's horrible ! Our 3yo is an amazing sleeper and from about 8 months old has done the whole 7-7 sleep, so with this little one it's a nightmare, WHERE AM I GOING WRONG?!

It's hard because with our 3yo I took 3years out of work, had all the time in the world to focus on her, work on naps etc but now I'm back to work I have no time to faff with naps and schedules etc so it's hard :( xxx

Could you bring the middle nap forward for a bit to erase the need for 9am nap so try it at 12 instead? Might help I’m not sure! Hard to control naps when he’s at the childminder but might be worth a try? What does he do when he wakes at 5-5.30? I only ask cus our baby will often wake at 5.30 but she doesn’t cry and seems fine entertaining herself for a bit. She woke up an hour or so before making a noise the other day so we just leave her if she’s happy enough. Sometimes she’ll fall back asleep but sometimes not.

Have you reached out to a sleep coach? They can be super helpful with schedules and early wakings

No help here sorry - my twins are up and raring to go at 5am 😂

I've tried to stretch him out in the morning but we made it to 10am and he was getting clumsy, inconsolable etc was horrible to watch he was just beyond exhausted. Its also hard like you say because when he's with the CM I can't control it, I mean she's happy to follow our routine but if she's putting him in the buggy/car at 9am he's gonna fall asleep and not much she can do about it.

I would love to speak to a sleep coach but aren't they SO expensive 😫 xxx

I also have a 15mo and she wakes anytime between 4 and 7, obviously the 7am wake ups are great but it's usually nearer 5!

Could you gradually try and move his bedtime later?

My almost 3 yr old is up at 4.45/5ish every morning. She's always been that way.

I've given up trying to "fix" it and am now just waiting for her to be old enough to get herself a snack and turn on the tv so at least I don't have to wake up with her.

Sorry, that's probably not at all helpful... But at least we're all in this together 😁

Oh and when he wakes at 5/5:30 he cries, it starts with a bit of whinging which I can usually ignore for maybe 15mins but it soon escalates.

I've tried giving milk, resettling, leaving him to cry but nothing works :( xxx

@theworldhasgoneinsane
We've tried a later bedtime, did 7pm then 715pm for a couple of weeks but it made no difference to his wake ups :( just meant he was horrible by bedtime 🤣 xx

I'm not sure that 7-7 sleep is actually that common? Certainly mine and most of my kids friends kids have never slept that long and mine are 4 and 6 now. I'd maybe allow second nap to last a bit longer, til 2.30 and push bedtime back by 15 minutes each day until its at least an hour later. Hopefully thus will mean they sleep an hour later in the morning.

I am sending you all hugs sympathy. My DD was like this - all I can say is that she is still (now 11) an early riser but it’s more
Like 6-7 than 5.15 (which it was for about 18 months) and of course now she just lies there and reads and doesn’t disturb us. I also had an older DS who slept 7-7!

Google “wake to sleep” - I was never brave enough to try it but there is a school of thought that if you wake your child earlier than 5 they will go back to sleep and eventually break the habit.

15 months is a bit young, but also look at getting a groclock.

Hang in there - it gets easier. I survived from help with a lovely support thread on MN for those with early waking babies.

Yes with my first Dd she had a gro clock and that was brilliant, probably can only really do it from about 2yo though. I am waiting for mine to be old enough for this!

You're not alone and sometimes I just think there isn't really an answer!

My daughter was on one nap a day at that age around 11-2 I think and that helped. You have my sympathy. Like everything, it's a phase.

We have just been through something similar and it was due to needing to drop the am nap.

My DD was awful pushing through but I spoke to a sleep coach who said to push through.

I did lunch early and nap at 11

DS1 who is 5 and DS2 who is 10 months are both early risers, never asleep past 6am!

I've tried everything, pushing bedtime back, giving them bigger dinners, grow clock, leaving them to see if they settle themselves and the endless putting them back into bed over and over. Nothing has touched it so I've resigned to the fact they're just early birds and will eventually (hopefully) grow out of it!

It's hard work though, and makes the days seem soooooo long. I also find they're both pretty over tired for the first few hours of the morning which makes them a complete joy (joke!)

Here's to bottomless coffees!

@donutosaurus I feel like this is what my gut instinct is telling me but how do I even get there?! 10am was the latest we could manage and he was like a drunk angry person by then, clumsy and inconsolable, laying on the floor etc. Also with the CM she has to do the school runs, surely I can't expect her to try and keep him awake when she's driving/pushing the Pram with other kids in tow etc? It's just impossible 😪 xx

We stayed home and didn't go out - luckily, it was over Christmas, so other than family, we didn't have too many commitments and could limit am activities.

My DD turned into a different child and really was awful and I gave up on my first attempt - that was when I sought help. We were recommended dinner, then before bed a bowl of cereal/ banana milkshake (home made with oats) and milk before bed. We struggled with this as we do dinner at 4.45/5 and bed by 7 so it just wasn't always feasible.

I think the key to dropping the nap is getting them into bed early enough.

I'm not sure what to do re CM as you're right they will fall asleep. My DD used to on the preschool drop off but because we had a month of Christmas holidays she seems to have gone through the am drop off or if she's dropping I open all of the windows.

Might be worth giving it a go?

Fyi - my daughter loved an am nap and would always need waking after an hour

Sorry I meant to say our nights/wakeups aren't perfect but they tend to be 6am onwards and it is improving all the time.

We have even had a couple of 6.45 wake ups which was unheard of in our house!

Could teething be bothering them at all? My DD (16m) has about 5 teeth coming and it's been an issue for a few weeks

Good luck, pour a wine tonight and remember it's a phase (doesn't help your sleep night but relish the though that one night, sometime, will be you final regular early waking 🤞🏻🤞🏻🥂🥂)!

@donutosaurus thank you! Yes I tried the whole dinner followed by bowl of weetabix with banana and yes that does help sightly (maybe 530/5:45 wake up!) It's definitely not feasible as the evening was then such a rush.
Maybe I'll just have to take some time off work or wait until the half term to give it a good shot. 👍

@donutosaurus haha I love your positivity!! I think I definitely need to give the 2-1 nap transition a good go so half term is my best bet. I'll have a good 9 days so it's a start 😁

We had this until we cut to one nap. So my 15 month DD now does wake up 6.30/7am, nap 12-2, bed 6.30pm.

Works well for us. I have a 2.5 year old who has dropped her nap too so the early bedtime works for her too and means we get an evening x

Sounds like half term is a great opportunity to help with the transition.

Someone more knowledgeable might have more to suggest re CM.

I've had a few threads to do with early wakings and our situation has improved so much.

My 3 year is much better in be mornings now (I appreciate 3 may feel a long way off 😬).

GL x

Dd2 is exactly the same and she's 14 months. She too falls asleep at 9 am on the school run so im forced to let her have two naps as she wouldn't make it to bedtime on a 9-10 am nap. My dd1 would always sleep later but her natural bedtime was later, she slept more 8pm-7am. I wonder if you could try shift his bedtime a tad later he may stay asleep a little longer. We try and keep dd2 up a little later as she'd quite happily be in bed at 6.30 pm but then she'll defo be up early 😒 I do think it's just how someone natural body clock is too 🤷🏻‍♀️ xx

My DS8 has been waking at around 5am since he was 12 months.

We tried everything to get him sleeping longer - it was largely a waste of time but what helped us to keep our sanity:

• when 12-18 months, we put a large wooden gate on his bedroom door. He could open his door and see through the gate but not get out. Then we got him around 5:30-6am.
• when he got too big/could vault the gate, we slept with him in our bed. He would sleep maybe an hour longer this way.
• we moved our bedtime earlier and shifted our day.
• quickly cut off anyone trying to give us helpful advice to move his bedtime, buy a gro clock…as if we hadn’t tried it all!!! not engaging in the conversation helped us accept this was our ‘normal’!

He’s 8 now and for the past 2 or 3 years has been able to wake and play independently until we get up. He’s still up at 5am!

On a positive note: we never have issues getting him out of the door for school. We never have to wake him. He leaves well awake, happy and ready for the day - unlike friends who are dragging their kids out of bed!

My son was an early riser - if he made it to 6am it was a good day!
Sorry to say some kids are like that. My son is 18 now and still gets up around 6am, though now he heads to the gym!