22 month old waking at 5am!

[Jefferson]

DS has always been an early riser, usually between 5 and 6. We've had blackout curtains but they've not made much difference.

In the last 2 weeks however he has decided that wasn't early enough and is now waking between 5 and 5.45 every day! I just cannot function at that time of the morning. He's not grumpy just awake but clearly tired as he rubs eyes and yawns. Tried keeping him in bed to snooze with us but no he wants to get out and play despite being tired.

I don't know what to do. Just run with it obviously but it's driving me mad and making me very grumpy in the morning. I'm trying to snooze on the sofa while he plays but it's not really working.

Please help! Why is he doing this? It's not even been that hot these last few days. Other parents tell me of their toddlers sleeping till 7.30 and I want to cry!

[sarahloula]

My dd is 28 months and throughout the summer has been getting up earlier, between 5.30 and 6 which is hard as in the winter she quite often slept until 7, sometimes even 8 o'clock. Some things to think about:
-is he getting too much sleep in the day? My dd stopped napping at 16 months and has consistently slept for 12 hours at night?
-is he going to bed too early?
-is he waking up early because he's hungry?
I have found sometimes if I leave dd she will eventually nod off again for another half an hour.

[Jefferson]

It is harder knowing he slept for longer (not much) in the winter.

Possibly naps are too long so will try cutting

[Sunshine200]

My dd has been exactly the same the last few weeks - I was thinking it was a summer thing as a couple of friends have mentioned the sane (although she also has a black out blind).

Why oh why do they not go back to sleep when they are so obviously still tired - grr!

[Misty9]

I was one of those parents of a late sleeping toddler...until we took the side off his cot yesterday! He was in our room at 5am this morning, but there was no way either of us were getting up and he eventually fell back to sleep on the carpet until nearly 8! We invited him into bed but he declined each time. I did make sure to Hoover the carpet today though...

[ricecakesrule]

We had this with my ds (27 months now) on the approach to 2, so for his 2nd birthday we got him a groclock. It's a sleep trainer clock thing that you preset with what you consider to be an acceptable time to get up. We have this as 6.25am. At this time the clock changes from a star to a sun. The idea is that you explain to your toddler that they have to stay in bed until the sun comes up. It hasn't been 100% but has definitely improved things. I felt like it was a bit confusing for my ds that sometimes when he woke up and got out of bed (e.g. 6am, when it is light outside) I would take him back to bed, but at 7 I would let him get up. With the light mornings I felt there was no way he would know the difference so at least the groclock gives him the opportunity to stay in bed until a reasonable time. May be worth trying?

[rowtunda]

I feel your pain my son has always been an early riser. He is 22 months and wakes between 5-5.30 since Xmas (with a brief respite when the clocks changed). We have sort of got used to it now and in the last couple of weeks he has been more agreeable to having a nap in bed with us. Even when he is wide awake we try not to get out of bed until 6am and just ignore him & pretend to sleep!

I have just resigned to early starts now - 7am is a massive lie in. It's much more bearable in the summer than in deepest darkest winter - 5am feels incredibly early then x

Considering buying a gro clock though

[PeteHornberger]

Another early riser here...DD is 22 months and we've had some success with the Gro-Clock. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep (we have to be in the room with her but at least we're all sleeping!) and sometimes she won't, but it's def helped. Like other posters, we felt that it was confusing to get her up at 6am but tell her to go back to sleep at 5am, as it's all morning to her, especially when it's light.

She's looking like she might be on her way to dropping her nap at the mo (sob) so will be interesting to see what this does to nighttime sleep. My inner optimist tells me that she should sleep later but my inner realist is warning me that she'll prob wake at 4am because she's overtired or some other ridiculously frustrating explanation!

[mumschat]

woah my daughter gets up around 8 and I think that when she sometimes wakes at half 7 thats way too early !! She dous wake sometimes between 6 or 7 and I just put her back in to bed and she falls back to sleep and if she starts to cry or follow me I usually let her in to bed wit me and we fall back to sleep together :-)

[mumschat]

Btw she is 21 months

[BungleGeorgeAndZippy]

This is dactyl what 20.5 month old is doing...today she woke for the day at 4.45am!!

[rowtunda]

Mumschat that was just flagrant boasting on a thread of very tired parents!!

[BungleGeorgeAndZippy]

rowtunda agreed!

Dd woke at 5am again as usual, but this time instead of bringing her into our bed, dh went in and just laid her back down in her cot. She slept til almost 6 which I'm more than happy with, anything post 6am if fine with me.

Going to try this again tomorrow, hopefully she'll get the message soon and stop waking at 4/5am!

[rowtunda]

5.40am for me this morning - quite a late start for us really!

[Misty9]

mumschat - careful, ds was like that until 2wks ago! He's nearly 23mo... :)

Might try gro clock as his waking is getting earlier... mind you, wouldn't mind so much if he was sleeping in his own bed!

[marissab]

We are a bit naughty she toddles in to us about 6ish and we scoop her up into
The middle of us. If she really wont go back to sleep, we stick pink panther on on my iphone till 7!!!!