Parents of slightly older DCs - share your positive sleep stories - give us all hope!

[JustKeepSwimming]

I and many others on MN are struggling with poor sleepers, whether they are babies (my 10mo old) waking in the night or toddlers (my 2.5yr old) waking at dawncrack ready for the day.
I could really do with hearing about how life really does get better and they do start sleeping properly once they are older.
So please come on here and share how wonderfully your slightly older (not talking stay-in-bed-all-day-teenagers ) children sleep - give me (& others) hope

(Of course I realise none of you are up at this time and I will have to bump it after my 2 have; watched an hour of cbeebies, had breakfast, done 2 nappy changes, ds2 will be back in bed for his nap, ds1 will have found a new thing to destroy, etc. etc. ...)

Have you seen the bunny alarm clock - this was a life saver for us from about 2.5 onwards . . . when bunny is asleep, dd should be asleep, when bunny is awake, then it is ok for dd to get up.
If its any help, our dd was a horribly bad sleeper up til about 3, but then kind of got it together and now is completely fine - in fact we now (age 6) have to use the beeper alarm on said clock to wake her up on school days.
Re early morning waking, a bit under 3 we started leaving a snack by the side of her bed and toys out for her to play with, and she would then get up (when bunny woke up ) and play with them on her own.

Thanks Takver - got the bunny clock, got a Thomas clock too...
Have tried milk & snack before bedtime in case he's hungry.
Don't think hunger wakes him up though as he can wake at 5 but not have breakfast until 7.30 some days...
Has toys in his room but wants out/us. Plus it's dark so he can't see to play with them so i have tried turning his light on and closing the door but that's no good either.
Have tried getting into bed with him, him getting into our bed, etc.etc.

Glad that you have to actually WAKE your dd now though, need more stories like that please