Toddler waking at 5am!

P

plumtree

Registered User
Hi

Hoping for a few lifesaving tips from experienced mummies and daddies out there. My toddler is 2 years 4 months and a week ago we transitioned him into a toddler bed so his brother (6 months) could use the cot. A bit of protesting initially, but now said toddler has discovered that the benefits of a bed are that he can COME OUT OF HIS ROOM AND RUN AROUND AT 5am! (Aargh!). We've tried putting him back into his bed and telling him it's too early to wake up, but he soon pops out again. The way the room door is structured, we can't put a baby gate up though that would be the best solution.

He goes to morning pre-nursery and is just so tired during the class because he's been getting up early.

In a cot, he used to get up and we'd hear him in his room playing, but then he'd fall back to sleep until about 6:30 or 7am. He's so excited about his new found freedom that he won't go back to sleep and it's not really safe to have him wandering the house alone, so we all have to get up.

We've had a clock in his room but he complained about the ticking and he can't yet read numbers. I thought of going to get him an LCD clock and telling him he can only get up when the hands reach 6.

Does anyone out there have any other good solutions besides buying a second hand cot and fencing him again (which he might not like)?

THANKS!
 
Forgot to say that I can't have him screaming and protesting too much at 5am because he wakes the baby (not to mention all my poor neighbours!).
 
My friend has told her son that there are monsters in the living room if mummy isnt there.................. not nice but he stays in bed.
 
My son is 28 months old and had a similar situation - waking up at 5am and then getting up at night from his bed.

Honestly, the best and safest way is to gate his room. We gate his room and leave his door open though so he still feels connected to us.

What time do you put him down for bed? At child that age only needs 9.5/10 hours of sleep at night and a 2 hr nap during the day. We shifted our son's sleeping habits which took around 4 days and he now sleeps from 8:30pm - 6:30am straight with no wake-ups or getting out of bed.
 
Hi Thanks for the ideas! Hmmm, if I tell him there are monsters, he might come into our bedroom, which is worse because the baby sleeps in there at the moment and I've just managed to get baby to sleep through till 630am. Can't quite gate his room because of the way the door is but I'll look into 'free standing' gates (or chain link fences LOL) if there are such things.

We put him to bed at about 8-8:15pm so I guess 5:30am means he's already getting 9-9.5 hours of sleep. I am reluctant to put him to bed any later not least because the adults want some adult time too! I guess I'm bothered by the 5am wake up call because when he gets up at 6:30 he's well rested and happy, whereas with the 5am wake up, he's grisly and grouchy by late morning. And his parents end up absolutely knackered...
 
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How about shortening the lunch time nap ?? Try 90 minutes instead?? or a hour and see how he is ??
 
We can't make it too short or he gets as grumpy as a grizzly bear in the afternoon, and a grumpy toddler is not a nice thing. We woke him up today after 1hr 45 mins: he was grumpy but it passed. Fingers crossed for tonight!
 
Waking up too early too

Hi Plumtree,

Any method you tried which worked? I am trying to get my boy to sleep until 8am but no luck to so far

My 28mths is having the same problem - he wakes up too early at 5am and by the time he has to go to afternoon nursery class -he is so sleepy.
We tried to get him to nap for 1 hour before class sometimes he does sometimes he doesnt. His teacher says he has fallen asleep in class on a few occasions.

He goes to bed bte 930 to10pm which is quite late but he still wakes up early. BTW if we feed him some milk - he goes back and sleep for another hour but I want to stop encouraging him to wake up for milk!

My nanny gets him to sleep for 1-2hours after the class as well.

Any ideas most welcome...

Thanks
 
If later bedtime means happier child in the morning, then it's worth it. Our son's sleep habits have changed dramatically. 5am wake-ups were completely draining me and not fun for anyone as he was then tired by 10am and wanting a nap which we would not give in to until around 11:30am since it would throw off the rest of his day.

As mentioned above by me, the gate is the best solution and just keep the door open. This way you know your son is safe and it's honestly not a big deal since he was just in a cot before. It's the same thing! Just think of his room as gigantic cot. same thing.
 
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