DS 22 Months waking earlier than a monk on the early shift - advise please if you've been there bought the T-shirt!

[Sycamoretreeisvile]

Morning all (feels like afternoon already for me)

DS is 22 months and is in a phase of waking at 4.30am-5.30am

He is, to date, non-returnable to sleepable after this point.

He is in a big boys bed which he likes very much.

He especially likes getting out of it in the morning and coming in to slap me in the face with ridiculous enthusiasm saying "mama, downstairs, downstairs, dog dog and juice"

This morning he was up at 4.30 ish. I rapid returned him for an hour.

There was shushing.

There was stroking.

There was minimal chat and I tried not to look him too hard in the eye as I reeled between comic hysteria and .

There was eventually a sippy cup of milk in case he was hungry.

He has a lovely snuggly duvet that he knows how to keep over him.

He has blackout blind and blackout curtains.

He was having non of it and so eventually I caved and brought him downtairs.

I'm out of ideas as DD was a perfect saint and at almost 4 has only just started to get out of bed in the mornings rather than call out sweetly! And she would sleep until 9am if we let her...

Please, if you've been there and have any sage words of advice because these bags under my eyes and this irritable disposition is so not a good look for the summer

How early is he going to bed, Syc? Or is he napping in the day? Maybe he's just getting as much sleep as he needs.

I've found children really slow down their growing fairly dramatically at this age and suddenly need a lot less sleep.

Think about dropping any naps he's having and/or making his bedtime later?

Oh, and remember it won't be getting light so early from the weekend onwards, so if that's the problem it'll ease soon - even blackout blinds don't stop it looking a bit like morning when the sun is shining!

Bless you ladies - sorry, just nipped back to bed for a wee nap myself.

Yes, had been wondering about the bunny clock - I think it will need to be employed.

Flamingo - he is napping still across lunch time for a couple of hours...seems to need it? But maybe we are in bit of a bad cycle of him waking early then needing the lunchtime nap even more etc etc.

We got him back to bed this morning around 8.30am and he's just woken this minute and slid downstairs bless him.

Yes, I had worried the ears up would act like an alarm in itself.

Have I missed your link or is it the one above?

Ooh, if he had a nap this morning, take advantage of it being early and don't let him nap the rest of the day today. See if he'll manage until bedtime.

None of my DDs have napped beyond about 20m. Obviously all children are different and need different amounts of sleep, though.

Otherwise, do try a later bedtime - it makes all the difference to ours!

I agree on cutting down the napping in the day.

Cut that down as much as you can. He is obviously tired at lunch-time after waking so early. Try to wake him after 20min-40min of napping. Also don't let him sleep too long in the morning if he does go back to sleep.

I think basically, you need to claw back one-two hours of daytime sleep and turn it back into night-time sleep.

How about a stair gate across his bedroom door? At least then you won't have the slap in the face greeting, lol.

Thanks my lovelies!

Am going to invest in the bunny clock and start reducing the daytime nap.

DH is going to love me for that!

(he's a SAHP for those of you who don't know!)

Back from the fete for momentary respite before returning for bouncy