Up at 5.30 or earlier!! Please help!!

[mrsflux]

Help! I don't think I can cope with waking up at 5.30 or earlier every day!!
I think I'm slowly going mad so appologise now for mad ranty message!
I think ds naps need tweaking but I'm not sure how. And yes - we've got blackout blinds and his room is as dark as possible and the birds aren't the problem as they're pretty quiet at the mo.

Ds is almost 15mo. He goes to bed half awake at 7.30. Usually pretty quiet at night unless he loses monkey- in which case is very easily sorted, or if teething- not so easy.
He is wide awake at 5.30 or earlier and has been for at least 2 weeks now.
He has a nap at 9 till he wakes or I get him up after 1h15. Then again at 2- same length as before.
I almost always have to wake him up from naps.

Is he having too much daytime sleep?
Is he ready for one nap?
When should that nap be?

So sleepy and confused

Feel so tired of being up at stupid o clock chasing him around!

someone else in the same boat

also, look in the Sleep archive - loads of threads on this early waking thing recently

ds2 still gets up 5.30 every morning, and he's 4! Sorry! Later bedtime makes no diff, and he's obv dropped daytime naps. More exercise doesnt help either. I just make him porridge/put tv on, till its really time to get dressed at 7

I'd say definitely ready for 1 nap. I'm sure mine dropped their morning nap before 18 months. I'd just give him the lunch time nap. If he has trouble staying awake until then, try moving the nap to before lunch - 11-ish maybe. HTH

We've had a similar thing. One thing that does seem to help (a bit) is porridge before bedtime. My DD is 2.5 though so a bit older (and able to get out of bed and come and find us). Eugh. It's horrible isn't it?

Here's a web site that may be useful.

sleep site

Not sure if this is relevant, but I read somewhere that it may help to move the morning nap a bit later, say 10 or later if you can. DS might be using 9am nap to extend his nighttime sleep, and so waking earlier as he can make up for it a bit later on?

WE find ds wakes later (6.30am this morning - when did 6.30 become luxury lie-in??) if we put him to bed before 7am (was 6.45 last night). Makes no sense but hey (think it's to do with sleep cycles).

Hi there - We've had the same with our 13mth old DD for several months and I've come to the conclusion that you just have to just accept it and realise that it will end. I've driven myself crazy doing earlier/later bedtimes, shorter/longer naps, blackout blinds etc etc....!

Its crap but if its any consolation she now seems to be back to waking at 6.30.

I feel your pain!

We've tried earlier bedtime but he's just not that tired earlier.
Geting him to stay awake till 9 is a struggle. We can only manage 10 on a sat as he is swimming at 9! Althouh he does manage it at nursery si maybe we need to take him somewhere loud and busy then?

I'm trying to limit naps to one hour today and will see if that attects tmrw at all.

Is so hard knowing when they'll drop a nap- had to retrain ds to go from 3 naps to 2 so didn't think he'd do it on his own this time either

Try cutting back the early morning nap - so give ds 45 mins, then 30, then 20 and then try and drop it altogether and as Goldberry says bring lunchtime one earlier and then give him a full 2 hours then. This might just change his body clock which is what you want.

I hate to say it though I had 4.30am to 5.30am for 2 years with my ds and it did my head in - have been on a month now of after 6am and ds and I are different people now! Good luck - some little ones just like 5am whatever you do but its early days for you so I would definitely try cutting his daytime sleep to start with.

well i cut his naps to 1h yesterday - he actually woke himself up from 2nd one just before an hour which he hasnt done for ages!
he started stirring at about 5.20 BUT wasn't actually awake awake till 5.50.

i on the other hand have been conditioned to wake at 5 now so was up and wide awake then

he's having an extra day at nursery so will prob only have one long nap. or not. or have 2. it's anyone's guess!

Useful article here on baby sleep routines. THis suggests a nap at 10am for a 15 month old so maybe keep going with that and see if it works after a week or so?

bippyhippy - hmm interesting.
today at nursery he didn't nap till 10.45 but then slept for 2h 5mins! think he prob only woke up because he was hungry!

Hello - bit late to the party but thought I'd share...

DD was waking up 5.30ish after learning how to climb out of her cot and having to move into a bed. We also stupidly started potty training around the same time (she's 2.4)

Nightimes were a battle as she kept getting out of bed, and then getting up early in the morning. Oh and she dropped day time naps too. So basically everything happened at once.

We tried lots of things and am not entirely sure what worked but here they are -

Tea at 5, porridge at 6 then bath etc and one potty stop and bed for 7.

Stairgate on bedroom door.

Blackout blinds that have been stuffed with sheets and towels around the edges to make sure it is COMPLETELY dark with absolutely no chink of light.

Sippy cup of water to take to bed.

No windows open.

CAn't be sure what has made the difference but she is now waking at a more civilised time (yesterday we had to wake her at 7.10am to get to nursery )

HTH I feel your pain.