Toddler waking before 5am.

[swirly3468]

18 month old waking every day around 4.45/5am. He's absolutely shattered by 9am, can push him to about 10 sometimes for a nap. Bed time is 7 and he's shattered from around 6.
Can anyone suggest a better routine?
I've tried a later bed time but it doesn't make a difference.
He naps for around 2.5 hours. I was thinking of maybe capping the nap? But then I enjoy the break and he gets so grumpy if he's tired.
Just finding the early wake up so hard. More so when I'm working and have to do a 10 hour shift and already been up since 445am sometimes. Even a 6am wake would be much more manageable. Sorry for the moan!

Could you push for a later nap in the day OP? Perhaps by capping the nap to get him a second one late afternoon or pushing the existing one to a bit later. 6-7 hours of no sleep in the afternoon sounds very long to me.

Following as I have exactly the same. I could have written your post.
goes to bed at 8pm, wakes at 4.30/5ish and needs to naps a day. No chance can function without 9am nap (we tried lots of times), gets grumpy, moody and shouty. No advice but following and hoping someone will have better advice soon.

Sounds strange but could you try an earlier bed time?
My first baby cut out naps really early on so we put him to bed about 6, he never slept through (still won’t now unless co sleeping) but he did start to wake up a little later 6-6.30ish

So I could try because he's quite good at staying awake. But when he's napped after 12 (say 12-2) he's not ready for bed Time sleep until 9-10pm?? And that's worse because I get no evening then. I could try it again though and maybe cap the nap? We go out most mornings and by 11 he's literally falling asleep (in pram or car etc).

Yes could try that and did read sometimes that helps. Might try a half 6 bed time but seems soo early. We co sleep anyway. He sleeps on his floor bed though in his nursery until we go up to bed around 10/11

@LiloP it's a killer isn't it! I'm like a zombie in the mornings so the TV goes on whilst I drink copious amounts of tea and coffee 😅.

I feel you. I have a 15 month old who was waking up at those exact times last week: tooth broke through which explains it.

She's now back to her normal wake time about 5:30-6 but isn't much better. She's always been this way so I'm just used to it now!

@swirly3468 yes absolute killer! I am
home alone for two weeks too and have to do all the mornings myself 😩😭my DC still has 2 naps (also an afternoon one), I know we need to cut out the morning one.

In the same boat - had a blissful (in retrospect) period of 5.30/5.45 wakes and now back to 4.30/5 latest. Asleep 7.45/8.00. We’re still doing two naps - usually a short 20/30 mins in the AM then 2-3ish. I really want to try to switch to one nap because it feels like it might be the answer to early wakes but like you say he gets so tired waking up that early. We tried on Sunday and he refused afternoon nap and was a hot mess by bedtime.

like others say I think you’ve just got to play around with naps and bedtime a bit… I think the issue with mine might also just be habit, as he’s so clearly still tired when he wakes in the morning. Was thinking I might even try ‘wake to sleep’ method where you wake them briefly a bit before they usually wake up, to restart sleep cycle and try to break the habit… terrifying tho!

So yesterday he was so so tired and back to sleep for 830am for an hour. Obviously then he was exhausted in the afternoon so needed to sleep then too. Big mistake. He napped for an hour. He wouldn't go to bed and didn't actually go to sleep until 11pm. He was then up at 5.30 still!!!
Honestly I'm so so shattered. That's the last time I ever let him nap in the afternoon (unless he's unwell obviously).
I'm beginning to think this is some kind of regression .

How old is your child? I would deffo cut the afternoon nap and see if that helps. It might be your answer x

Sounds ghastly. no time to yourself and no sleep xx can you get any extra sleep? My partner and I take turns getting up with him or going back to bed for an hour, takes the edge off.

Also, the dreaded question of how he falls asleep? If you’re involved in some way then helping him learn to fall asleep without you could help… 🤐

Mine is 17m - I agree about dropping afternoon nap, just can’t work out how to - he’s knackered by 10am like yours but then 12-6 is too long for him to be awake before bed, he gets really overtired and upset.

I think it’s just a really awkward age for some kids - nap transition taking forever. I’m sort of hoping that mornings gradually getting darker might help too.

I’m sorry to say that I had to wait until DS was 3 before the mornings went from 4:45/5am to 7am. I tried everything: earlier bedtime, later bedtime, modifying food etc. We had to wait until he was potty trained and dropped all day naps.

We just changed our life schedule and went to bed super early every night. We both have early jobs, so it wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed early morning walks in the park at 6am with a coffee actually (I’m a morning person). On the weekends we’d alternate who would wake up with him so we could each get one lie in per week.

Now we have a 10-month old who screams the house down at 4:30am so we are back there again 😂😭

Solidarity OP

Did she always wake at 5 though? Cus this is a fairly "new" thing for us. He used to wake around 6/6.30.
seems like this is our new wake up time though. He didn't go to bed until 9pm last night and woke at 5am on the dot. He's absolutely shattered by 9am and falls asleep and then he's really grumpy by 3 in the afternoon and wants another nap???
I've tried letting him nap and he won't go to bed till 10/11.
I'm just stuck what to do and I'm so so tired every day. We do take it in turns to get up with him but I'm already awake because he wakes and I feed him and he spends the whole feed pinching and scratching me.

I have the exact same with my LO and same age. Tried everything we originally had to fight to get 7-4:30 doing controlled crying as he was up every 2 hours for months i was on the edge of insanity with lack of sleep I had too. Controlled crying wouldn’t even work on him at 4:30 he had none of it (because he wasn’t tired) However I thought bringing his bedtime forward to 8pm helped a little it took 1 week to finally get to sleep to 5:30-6 (like if the clocks went forward) but it was better than the 4:30 wake up. His daytime naps aligned with nursery’s Routine so after dinner 12 for an hour or 2 so I can’t really do much about his daytime naps he’s in 3 full days a week while I work. Sorry not much help but it could possibly be teeth

I’m dealing with this exact same thing right now! He’s 14 months but the schedule is almost identical. Except his nap is a bit shorter, around 2 hours. He used to wake around 7, nap 11-12.30 and bedtime 7. Recently we’ve had so much trouble that started with skipping the nap at nursery and then falling asleep the minute I picked him up at 1pm and then bedtime was super late. We’ve managed to fix that and had some more normal nap times but now he’s up for the day at 4.30-5am 😭 and then he starts losing his mind by 10am when I’m trying to nudge everything a bit later again.

We are attempting to get to 11am before he naps, and then aiming for 8pm bedtime. But I can’t seem to be able to make that happen because he’s getting sleepy by 9am and any small issue will send him off the rails and I have to get him to sleep. Today it was denying him playing with dad’s computer while he was working. Major meltdown, asleep 3 minutes later.

Sorry I have no advice, just solidarity!

Dawn waking is a toddler thing, it will improve in the autumn!
Meanwhile, check that not the teenyist chink of light is able to get in the room they sleep in.
Light can creep in around the edges of blackout blinds, you might find putting gaffer tape or something around edges could work.
As they and you are waking so early, you need an earlier bedtime yourself. Having DC up till 11 is not going to work, so you need careful planning to get napttimes sorted. It means making sure that they don't accidentally fall asleep at the wrong time. They are probably too young to drop the afternoon nap, but that nap needs to be over by 3 ish to make sure that they are tired by a 7pm bedtime. As you've found out, a later bedtime doesn't necessarily mean later morning wakening.
It's a pain, you have to be absolutely vigilant to make sure they don't nap at the wrong time, but getting a proper bedtime established makes a big difference to your wellbeing.

@swirly3468 if this is fairly new, is there any chance they could be cold? This is a classic wake up time if they feel cold. I've had it with both of mine and adding extra layers / warmer sleepsack has sorted it. I find this time of year so tricky because the temp can vary night to night, unless it's really hot, my general rule is to take whatever the starting temp of the room is and then allow for a 2-3 degree drop and then dress them for the dropped temp. Eg last night the room temp was 23 but I knew it would drop to 21/22 so I put lo in a PJ top and a 2.5 tog sleepsack. The night before she was in full PJs and a 1 tog sack because it was slightly warmer. Worth a try maybe?

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I don't let him nap too late usually and he has one nap about 10 till 12.
He's definitely not cold @Aria2015 because he's in the middle of us in bed! Xx

@swirly3468 I had 3 4.30am wakings this week. I want to cry I am so exhausted (DH was away as we usually take turns). 5.20 was my longest lie-in!! 😳

DC2 also sleeps between us, maybe he would slee longer in his cot by himself but that’s a whole other habit to tackle!!
he still has 2 naps during the day 🙈😬

We got to sleep until 5.30 this morning! 🥳

This is what happened yesterday, in case this helps anyone.

5am: Wake
10-11.40: Nap. Shorter than I was hoping for, and earlier, but he was a wreck!
4pm: Dozed off for no longer than 3 minutes in his pram. This was an accident but I think it was just enough to get him to bedtime without being too clingy and cranky because of the short nap.
5pm: Dinner and then changed into pyjamas as he hates getting changed and I think that might be making it harder for him to then fall asleep.
6pm: Milk and dry cereal watching Something Special
6.40pm: Take him down and change nappy, bounce and song
6.50pm: Asleep

He woke up once at 10pm for a quick cuddle, then slept through.

So bedtime wasn't later but he still slept better and later. Maybe there is something in it when sometimes people suggest an earlier bedtime instead of later, and also maybe we just have to accept that in the summer he will wake when it's light? He has blackout film on the windows in his room but I didn't do a perfectly precise job of it so some light comes through the edges.

Maybe try capping the nap and see if there's a change, sometimes some children just wake up early
My son wakes up at 4:50-5am every morning and hes nearly 3 doesn't have naps goes to bed at 7pm I've tried everything 😩