Anyone cracked 5am starts?

[angelp]

DD 20 months wakes at 5am for the day. No use trying to give milk and put back down she's just ready for the day. Trouble is she's ready for her nap by 10-10.30am which means any morning activities are scuppered. Has 1-2 hours sleep in the morning but if she has less she still wakes early the next day. Haven't tried this consistently though I must admit. Friends babies sleep til 7.30-8am. Am I doing something wrong or is she just always going to be an early riser?

I'll join the club too!! DD2 wakes at 5am most mornings, I am lucky thatDH gets up with her (he is becoming an amateur photographer so they go off to watch sunrises then come home with lots of fab photos for me!)
But the last 2 mornings she has woken at 5.45 - a lie in!! I am guessing it is down to having medised at 9pm both nights as she has a foul cold and has woken up coughing both nights at this time. I will be trying it again tonight!!!

Sympathies - mine used to be like this. She is now eighteen months and wakes up somewhere between 6.30 and seven.

I would say things got better around fourteen months when we started to put her to bed an hour later and only allowed her a one hour nap but at lunch time, not the morning.

I definitely think that allowing her a morning nap at this time is exacerbating the problem. It will be hideous keeping her (and you) awake for a while but you need to be consistent and I think it might even take a week to work. I remember my dd being a wreck in the day at first and then finally (Hallelujah) started making up for it at night. We had to be a bit tough about not going to her straight away though - on about the third day she didn't stay awake for long because she was so tired - Good luck, hope this helps

Happy to try to push daytime sleep back - have read that before just hasn't made a difference to mornings even when she's had an afternoon sleep - but maybe over a period of time it will help. Not sure whether to restrict daytime sleep or not - some say just one hour and others say the more they sleep in the day the better they sleep at night. Very confusing!

Am so glad that this is such a common problem!!! It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little sleep our 2 year old has during the day, he is still wide awake at 5.30. When he's at nursery he only has an hour in the afternoon, but on the days I don't work he often has a couple of hours in the morning. He has black out curtains so the sun doesn't wake him but he's still wide awake! Perhaps we should keep him up later in the evening but seven o clock has become such a routine for us and after this he just gets really grumpy. Am going to leave some books and toys in his cot tonight so hopefully he will play quietly in the morning...we'll see!!

jessica is 9 months old and is waking at 5am too - what is it with our kids and early mornings? What gets me though is how she can be so happy and chatty from 5am til 7.30-8am and then sleeps for 2 hours?! she then has a sleep after lunch for about an hour, and goes to bed at approx 6-6.30pm - she didnt go down til 7.15pm last night and was still bright eyes at 5am! when will they realise we need to sleep too and we cant go to bed at 6pm!!!

Weel 6am this morning, she had medised again last night as she is full of cold, may have to give it to her forever!!! (not really!) Perhaps we will break the cycle..

Mine gave the 5am thing a go at around 11 months. He seemed fully awake and ready for the day but then needed a nap around 10.30 - cutting big time into our activities. I went along with it for a week or two but then thought that it was getting all rather riduculous - noboday was happy, not even him. So, I would go in at 5am when he woke, change his nap in the semi dark, then pop him back to bed saying it was still "the night time". He took offence for the first couple of mornings and cried for about a 1/2 hour but then fell asleep until 7.30 ish. No nap at 10.30 but a big sleep from 12.30-2.30 which would see him thru till 7.00. Haven't looked back and he now wakes between 6.30-7.30 which is ok with me. Give it a go, she may think she's ready to start the day at 5am but given the op may want to sleep a bit longer. Good luck.

My ds (22mo) is either a 5:30 waker or 6:30 waker.. don't know why some days he seems to be able to drop off again for another 45mins-1hr. Things changed loads when he moved into a first bed over Easter, eg. difficult to put down, earlier wakings etc, but I guess this has coincided with the lighter mornings. Occasionally it has helped to usher him straight back to bed the moment I hear him on the monitor heading for his squeaky bedroom door, no eye contact, quietly "it's still night time" and back into bed. He sometimes drops off again, other times he seems to snooze for 20mins and then gets up again at 6am. Of course we're still trying to get back to sleep... (similar to what kiwicath has just said)

Agree with the others about trying to push the day nap to later. What mummylonglegs said makes sense to me. Hope things improve for you! (and the rest of us early risers!)

Lolly32 - we have DD's bedside light on a timer which is set for 7.45am. She has to stay in bed until the light switches itself on. That may be easier than a clock....Good luck!

Mine are early risers. DS (5) wakes up at 5.30 without fail. We have tried putting him to bed later and he wakes up at the same time as usuall but twice as grumpy. DD (3) wakes up at about 6, about twice a week will nap for 2 hours at lunchtime (doesn't need it every day). DS2 (11 months) sleeps through the night from about 7.30-7.30 with a 1.5 hour nap at lunchtime.

We try to make sure that they are all in bed by 7.30 but earlier if possible. The clocks changing did make a difference for a week or so. We have blackout curtains, so it is not the light waking them upb - at least DS & DD are old enough to get up and amuse themselves untill we get up with DS2.

If anyone has found a magic cure - let me in on the secret!!!!!!!

oh how i wish over the years that i had found a majic cure bothe dd now 11 & 12 were early risers, but it does get better when they can take themsleves downstairs and switch on the telly.

dd no.3 now 26 months is an early riser too, and i've tried it all, no sleeps, early sleeps, late sleeps, sometimes it makes a difference but we soon slip back into old pattern. thin g is as soon as her eyes are open she moans and grizzles so cant leave her, but she knows that we wont get up she has to come into bed with us and she just lies there.

if she doesnt then we send her with her sisters lol they did it to us, and even in the hols dd2 gets up fairly early so we lucky in some ways i guess.

then we add to the equation ds 13 months who sometimes gets up before 6 but is such a pleasure. this morning he slept till 8 for some reason.

one thing i tell myself is that now is not for ever, and when i look at the older two now and see how independant they are it makes me cherish the good and the bad things coz i know they wont need me forever.

speak to me on another day when i really tired and i may tell a different story lol

Just thought I'd post as we blacked out dd's room last night and as I write she is STILL ASLEEP! This is from consistent 5,30am waking for ages. I'll let you know what time she wakes. As you can see, my body is still on her old time, I woke at 6am! How annoying!

Wow, gld it worked for you WWW! Blackouts made no difference to us. Wondering if its the birds waking her.
However decided to follow Kiwicath's advice.
She woke at 5am as usual and I left her. Had put some milk by her cot for her to reach. She cried for about half hour then I went in and said "it is still night time", handed her milk and laid her down again. She screamed even more but I left her. I had already decided 6am was ok so it went quiet about 20 to, then I peeped in at 6am. She saw me so stood up and I got her up. Tomorrow I will do the same but leave her til 6.30 and maybe she will actually fall asleep again. She is quite capable of amusing herself in her cot for an hour anywy, I just have to get her into the habit I think. Much as anything its my fault because I've always gone straight into her. Thanks for advice and support everyone, it really does help!

She woke at 6.35am in the end but I can live with that. Here's hoping I'm not speaking too soon!

Mine is an early riser to, we put a night light in her room and leave it on now when she wakes at 5.30/6 she plays in her room till our radio comes on then she comes for a cuddle in our bed for half an hour before we all get up. She goes to bed at 8 regular as clock work. Tried keeping her up later but she still woke at 5.30ish so now we just let her get on with it as long as she is happy we are too.

my energetic ds woke every morning between 5.30-6.30 every am different time adn put to bed at same time every night, tried later but didn't work was just more tired. tried feeding him up, lots of activites, freshair etc but made no difference, then he walked.... and now more 6.30-7.30 but again different every am, always has been unpredictable in am maybe coz he was born at 4.34AM!! good luck

Mine woke at 5am as usual, went in said its night time gave her some milk and she screamed for snuggles until 6am. each time I went in (about 3) and said night time she went up a notch in noise!
Think I have to give up and resign to my mornings starting at 5am. Times like this I wish we had a big house where we couldn't hear her!! But then I'd only worry so its a bit of a no win situation I think. Wonder what age thet start understanding the bunny ears clock....

i sympathise with you, my ds2 always gets up early, not so bad now he's got abit older, but he's usually the first one up in the house. GRRRRRRRR

My ds2 gets up too early as well, today it was 5.40am.
I tried to get him back to sleep, but he gets louder and louder and I don't want ds1 waking up early too so I brought ds2 downstairs. And I'm working today....the joys of motherhood

Pants! It was 6am this morning but ds played with her and didn't disturb us til 20 past, the sweetie.

So frustrating as she is exhausted now and when we go out in the car at 9am she'll be asleep in seconds I know. And so perpetuates the problem!

my 3 did this but i was tough with 2 and 3 as it destroyed me with no1 you have to treat it as a middle of the night wakening - blackout blinds, no milk and leave them to cry if necessary till at least 6. its a killer and you wont get back to sleep yourself but it does work . they all need to sleep till at least 6 good luck

angelp - you need to be firm and not give in to 5am starts IME. Try not going to her at all. You find that once they see you they start crying more. If you ignore her she may get bored and go back to sleep. Definately do not go through to give her milk - she doesn't need it. I always kept an ear open but did not go through unless they screamed blue murder.

OK thanks for the tips. Will not go in at all until 6am. But if she is still screaming then shall I still go in or will she think she has won?

Haven't read the whole thread but ... when we had this problem, found that moving the nap until after lunch led to later morning waking. You will have to do this gradually, but it really does work and is worth it in the long run. IMO a 20-mnth old just needs a 1 1/2 to 2 hr nap in the early afternoon, and should then be ready for bed at 7.30 pm. or 8 p.m. Good Luck.