2 1/2 yr old waking at 5 am for almost a year - help!

[helenhn]

DD has been waking at about 5-5.30 am for almost a year now and I don't know how to break the cycle. I've tried disturbing her at 4.30 am to try and break the pattern and also given her water and not milk when she wakes up in case she is just waking up for milk. We've got blackout curtains and I am now exhausted and don't know what I can try next. She sits up shouting until I get up and bring her into bed with me. I've also left her shouting in her room for 30 mins hoping she'd just get bored and settle back to sleep as suggested by the HV but that hasn't worked either! Please help - I'll try anything!

cbeebies starts at 5am .
but does she sleep/settle with you at 5? maybe you could try to teach her to come and get into bed quietly so you don't have to get up and get her...

As soon as DD is in bed with me and has had some milk she is wide awake and climbing all over me and plonking toys on my head for me to play with. As DH works away most of the time coping with these early mornings on my own is hard. By 6 am DD is running around the bed!

DS was like this and after about a year I gave in. He's nearly 10 and still wakes with the lark. I'm afraid you may have to accept that you have an early riser. I used to go down with him and sleep on the sofa whilst he watched TV, once I gave in and stopped fighting it I felt much better somehow, almost as though the "fight" itself had been exhausting me.

Just tell yourself that very soon she'll be old enough to go safely downstairs alone in the morning. In the meantime, try to prepare for an early morning rather than planning to try and re-settle her. Have snacks ready, books, tv, whatever. Anything that will allow you to snooze until an acceptable hour.

Ah, I used to have a telly in the bedroom - dd watched cbeebies while I dozed... (now got 8mth old so no chance- we are up and wide awake at 5.15 usually )

You have my sympathies... no solutions unfortunately (she has had phases of sleeping later, is up around 6ish usually at the mo - but getting into summer mornings...)

Agree, is much better to go with it rather than fight it (less swearing and kicking things in my house). And early mornings are, honestly, what DVDs and the telly was invented for.

Hello helen? You're not weeping in a corner are you?

I was always an early-ish riser before DD but that was 7.30 am which now seems like a dream! HV said it was a phase DD would grow out of but after almost a year its the longest phase I've known of! Thought taking DD out of a cotbed into a proper bed would help. Not helped by fact that friends DDs have to be woken at 8 am !

Ah, but you'll be the one laughing when they're rushing late to school with half-dressed sleepy children and your DD has been up and ready for over 2 hours.

DS uses his early mornings to do his homework, then he feels he's not missing out on play time with his mates in the evenings.

Honestly, it's taken me a few years but I do now see his early-rising as a good thing.

How was this morning, btw?

I had the usual "Mummy Get Up!" at 5.15 am. I try to ignore it for as long as possible but even hiding under the pillows doesn't block out DD. When I eventually gave in and brought her into bed, and after a few minutes of her shouting "Milk" and me going downstairs in trance mode to get her some milk, she was wide awake and pulling at my hair by 5.55 am ! I've heard about those night / day clocks which some people use to keep them in bed longer but I'm not sure if that would work with DD.