If you had an early riser...

[Rowlie]

DS 12m has woken at 5-5.30am since around 8m. He sleeps through most of the the time so I am grateful for this. We have tried everything to move wake up time forward, even just to 6am, but nothing has worked. This has included changing naps, earlier/later bedtime, etc. I thought that with the darker mornings it would improve, but it's now dark at that time and no change. We have changed things for 3 weeks at a time to give it time, no difference. Occasionally we can get him to resettle with a cuddle and he'll then sleep until 7ish (when I wake him). Once every few weeks he'll randomly sleep until 6.30-7am, but there is no rhyme or reason to it. I have been driving myself mad for months (I preferred when he was waking at night for milk but would then sleep until 7am!)

I am comforted by the fact this early wake time seems to be relatively common however I'm just wondering if there is ever an end in sight, or do we just have to wait until he's old enough to have one of those clocks and be told to stay in his room. I'm finding it hard and I'm sure he needs more sleep.

Did your early risers eventually grow out of it? Or did you do one thing that immediately stopped the early wakes?

Really sorry to say my eldest is almost 4 and been waking at 5:30 most his life. He's old enough to have a Gro clock but he disregards it! We have tried everything over the years. The best thing you can do is accept it. Go to bed a bit earlier. Some kids are just like this. There are some benefits and on the odd morning he does sleep later me and DH always feel discombobulated and like we don't have enough time to get everything done!

Interestingly my youngest son is 17 months and he's a great sleeper now. He's never been an early riser and most mornings I have to wake him around 7:30.

My DC was always an early riser . He was a fab sleeper but always ready for the day at 5.30 he's just turned 2 and literally about 3 months ago one day he didn't wake up till 7 and now that's him every day . He would sleep longer if not for nursery wake up. So don't lose hope! Weirdly my friends late riser who used to sleep past 8 has done the exact opposite and is now up at 5 everyday

Didn't get to 6am starts until he was four. I just accepted it as he slept through but we kept to an early bedtime for a long time, because he woke at 6 regardless. Still waking at 6am at age 12 can't see it changing anytime soon.

My now nearly 15yo woke at the same time as your baby at that age. He has been an early riser ever since and still is. Generally awake at 6am daily. I now count my blessings, this time last year it was 5:30am. Daily.

I should at that he went to sleep well and generally stayed asleep as a baby/young child, so I always took the view that I couldn’t expect to have the evenings with him asleep and the early mornings with him asleep too. It had to be one or the other.

@WellTidy this is very true. My LO, on the whole, is a v. Good sleeper, bar teething or illness. He settles himself to sleep and it’s rare we hear from him between 7pm-5am so I do count my blessings in that regard as I know many have it much worse. I think I’m finding it hard at the moment as my friends babies who have been much worse sleepers up to now are now starting to sleep through and get up at 7am. But I suppose you can’t have it all.

@LIC1985 this is hopeful! Did anything happen at age 2 do you think? Less day sleep?

@Mazzatron yes very likely mine will probably ignore a clock too 🤣 just something else to try I guess

Ds2 is nearly 8 and still wakes up 5-5.30 every day!! Gro clock didn’t work. When he was younger he just came in our bed though neither m me nor him went back to sleep…when older we let him watch a bit of tv in living room (bungalow so all rooms close to each other)

@Sleepbabysleeppls well we had a few good weeks with grow clock tbh so it's worth a try at some point. Sending a hug and a big coffee, I have had my moments of utter despair with it too

My 11 month old wakes 10-10.5 hours after going to bed no matter what time that is, we do a 9pm bedtime now so he'll sleep until at least 7am. Occasionally, if I know we're going someplace the next day that will require him to take an early nap, I put him to bed at 8 and he wakes at 6.

I've heard really good things about the Hatch, similar to a GroClock I think but has more features.

Our 5year old is still an early riser. We set his grow clock up when he was 2years old, so he knew/knows he could/can only come and wake us up at 06.30.

We tried everything, but its just the ways he's built for now, so we just deal with it. We had people say ohh he will sleep longer once on solids, he will sleep more once at nursery, he will sleep longer once at school, but he is just an early riser, its just him.

Although he does love singing 🙄😍 so he will have a little sing which wakes me anyway, but only rarely now.

So he has always had a pretty set routine and goes to nursery so is offered a nap 12-2 and he usually takes it . I think he's just so much busier all the time now so he's more tired!