EARLY WAKER at 5am. Help me, my marbles are toppling!

[onetiredmummy]

Aaargh. 3 year old ds is waking at 5am & I can't handle it much longer.

He's usually awake but not ready to get up, so what I have been doing is bringing him into our bed for a cuddle until 6:30ish & he's ok with that.I didn't get much sleep after he woke, but at least I was lying down & dozing, being 20 wks pg I need it. But now dh is complaining its waking him up & as he does a lot of driving for his job, we can't afford for him to lose said job as finances are perilous.

So for a bit I have been bringing him downstairs at 5, but I'm knackered, I work 4 days of the week & its a struggle for me getting up that early & then doing a full 8 hours of work.

What I need is for him to stay in bed a bit longer. Training clock doesn't work as he ignores it/resets it & putting him back to bed makes him scream unstoppably.

Is there an answer ?

I'm not sure if it is the answer you seek but both of mine did this and eventually just grew out of it, nothing I did or said made any difference, they just stopped. Eventually, my body just got used to starting the day at 5 and by god, you get a lot done although I'm not trying to belittle how tiring it its. BTW, I suggest your dh is being a bit unreasonable is he not? We are all working hard here, no special dispensation for men... Hang on in there baby.

Poor you. DD (just turned 3) has always been an early riser (anywhere from 5.00am to 6.30am) and quite frankly there's little you can do about it. If you try and persuade them to get back in bed they just strop out completely, largely because they're bloody knackered.

After the clocks changed this time though, we decided we had to do something because she was waking at 4.45am which is just insane. She was also shattered which didn't help her mood either. We got her a bunny clock AND a star chart which together seem to have done the trick - I say trick, she now lies in bed til 6.30am which might be early by other people's standards but it heaven compared to where we were.

The bunny clock by itself was useless. She just ignored it or shouted it if it didn't say it was time to get up. Combining it with the star chart worked pretty well though - if she stayed in bed til the "bunny is awake now" she got a Dora star for her chart, a chocolate and a day closer to the Silver star at the top, which meant a trip to Mothercare to buy her a toy of her choosing. Yes, absolutely massive overkill in terms of reward but it did work and quite quickly. Also, we started to bunny clock pretty early (I think about 5.15am) and slowly brought it round so it was achievable for her.

Of course there were days when she got up before it and various amounts of tears and distress about not getting the star - "the bunny is awake, I'm a really good girl" (in the face of the blindingly obviously opposite) but it did work and now she seems to get the general hang of it without the need for non-stop rewards!

If the clock doesn't work (didn't with dd) could you buy a lamp and a timer and set it to come on slightly later each day - start the first day slightly earlier than he normally wakes, so he gets the idea, then move the time later by 5 mins each day. Worked for dd combined with some gentle bribery...