The early mornings - when did it end for you?

[houseargh]

DD (19m) is a reasonable sleeper - gets herself to sleep quickly and generally sleeps 'through' but my god, the mornings. A run of 5.30s is a luxury, right now she's in a phase of waking up at 4 something. Today was 4.20. So I have to keep her entertained for well over 3 hrs until my DP's once weekly proper lie-in is over, and at that point I'll probably have to go back to bed myself for a while, just to get through the day. Tomorrow we'll do the same in reverse. It's grim, and definitely contributing to my desire to stop at one (though not the only reason).

I need some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, so if yours was a chronic early riser when did it stop being a problem for you, and how (ie. did they finally start waking up later / get old enough for the gro-clock to work / get old enough to sort themselves out in the mornings)?

Give a shattered mother some reassurance that at some point before all my hair has gone grey I might be able to go to bed at 10pm confident of getting the 8 hrs of sleep I so desperately need!

I can’t actually remember. Which makes me think it wasn’t that bad. DS started sleeping through at about 20 months, and it was soon after he was waking at 5ish. With the odd 4.30 creeping in. But I reckon it only lasted a couple of months or so. He’s 33 months now and has definitely been doing 6.30 starts for at least 6 months if not longer. I bought a gro clock, but got confused by the instructions and never bothered!

What time does your DD go to bed? Is she still napping?

Oh and we did the same with alternating lie ins, which meant we didn’t see each other for a big chunk of the weekends but it’s only temporary!

She's been a horrendous early riser her whole life, so it definitely doesn't feel temporary from here but god I hope it does improve.

She goes to bed at 8. We tried earlier but it definitely made things worse on balance. She still naps and definitely needs it. She's currently in our room but will have her own room when we move (hopefully soon!) so I'm hoping that might help a bit but trying not to get too hopeful in case it doesn't!

Interestingly it never changed! DS was always an early bird and remains so as an adult. He’s often in bed by 10 and up with the lark. We thought being a teenager would reset his body clock but it didn’t.
I do remember in the early days desperately waiting for CBeebies to come on at 6am. We ended up going to bed earlier to get more sleep at the other end.

My 2 and a half year old has woken anytime between 4.20 and 5.20, every day, for over a year. I can't see an end to it so am watching for any responses which might provide some hope. This is not proving to be a phase. It has come to something when 5.30am is a lie in. I wouldn't mind so much if he entertained himself in his room, but he has to involve the whole family in his being awake. Before having my youngest, I could have put the gate on his room door and explained that it wasn't getting up time yet, which would invariably have led to him crying until we went in, but now we have a baby too, we are powerless because his noise wakes her up. We tried a Gro Clock but it didn't work for us. He just wanted to play with it and had no intention of following the instructions (which he understood very well). He is extremely strong willed and simply too excited to see what's going on in the world to stay in bed. He takes an age to get off to sleep in the evening too, and he naps some days but not others. Nothing seems to change whether he naps or not, or despite how early or late he goes to bed. I envy those people who say they're fed up of 6am wake ups - if only. To look at the clock and know you have three hours of entertaining children before it is even 8am is draining and makes it such a long, hard day.

We used to alternate mornings to cope well mainly weekends we took turns.
my kids once I trained then to get their own breakfast and watch tv all three my kids did this by the time my youngest was 3 so it took about 8 years. I had an 8, 6 and three year old.

6 is a lie on for us, 5.30 more normal (2 and a half),

I suspect/ hope it will be when she drops her nap.

Oh god, please tell me it does end. DD is 14 months and 5.30 is slowly turning into 4.30, and I can't see any sign of it changing. It's inhumane starting the day this early

The trick with mine was to keep them up in the evening until 8pm every day (you need to persevere, takes a while to reset sleeping patterns) and no long naps after 2years old. Black out blinds help too

Oh and make sure they eat around 6.30, if you feed them at 5pm, by 5am they are hungry

So if it's helpful my little one is now 2.5 and can completely understand her gro clock so even if she wakes early she has books to read before 7am and understands it's night time before that so knows she isn't getting up. She's probably had it for a year and we've talked about it over and over in that time but she's understood it for ages and it counts down to morning. She seems quite happy to wait as long as she has books etc to entertain her.

I would also recommend podcasts on early risers. And if it's really bad see if you can pay for a sleep consultant, I bet even a telephone call would be really helpful to be sure she's sleeping at right times and for right length etc and steps to cut out the early mornings.

My ds2 is still an early riser at nearly 8, every day awake between 5-6. Once he was about 3 though he could get himself up and watch tv or play quietly. Although he does still wake me/his brother up sometimes.

My DC are 6 and 3. Both wake at 5:30 generally. It just feels normal now.

Same. 8 and 5. Always been early risers, usually up 530/6am even if they've had a late night.

My 16 year old son was up at 5.30 this morning. There comes a point where you don't need to get out of bed to look after them and they then bring you a cup of tea in bed.

We all have blackout blinds and blackout curtains which did help to regulate their sleep when they were younger. Dh and I just went to bed earlier so we got more sleep and did the alternate lie ins on weekend mornings.

My 19m old was waking at 5am every morning! We moved his bedtime half an hour later and now he wakes at roughly 6am! X

Definitely over by 3 for us, now my 3 are 10, 7 and 3 - we have to drag them out of bed for breakfast club / nursery quite often. I do agree with blacking out the room as extremely as possible- dc2 had the longest early waking phase and it was definitely worse in the summer.

If mine had a late nap he would still go to bed on time but would wake up to early. What time does yours have a nap? And for how long?

When he dropped his nap it started to slowly get better but he is still a lark at 5 - usually up at around 6:30, has literally never slept past 7:30 in his entire life.

In retrospect the worst phase was when he was gearing up to drop his nap - 2-3 ish when he was up around 4-5 am routinely.

Mine are 10 and 11. I’m dead on my feet because the little buggers are up at 5:30 every morning.

I LOVE early mornings. On my own. Without the sounds of moaning and bickering.

sure they’re old enough to fix their breakfast and be quiet - but why would you do that when you could have a physical fight instead? 🙄

I retired to my room at 7:30 last night with my kindle and left them to it.

Sorry but was 4yrs old here. But we were on 5:40 for a year which is better than 4am. He gets up at 6:30 now, turns 5 next week. His sister is set on late so between the two of them there's only about an hour child free!

Have you tried a Grow Clock? At 19m my son understood that he couldn’t get out of bed until the clock turned into a sunshine.

My early riser is fairly consistently now up between 6-6.30am at 4yo. The only time it’s been later than that is when they are ill. But they didn’t sleep through consistently until a few months after nap was dropped at 3yo.

No advice really. One of mine has always been an early riser, bedtime doesn't make a difference. He doesn't nap anymore and normally wakes around 5.30 (used to be before 5), but he thankfully understands his gro clock which is set for 6.10. Any later and he starts shouting out. The other has never been an early bird, used to sleep until 8ish but has now fallen in sync with DS1. I think it's just the way they are.

When mine woke me at this time I did not entertain them. They played alone or watched TV. They soon learned to stay in bed !