Toddler waking early in the morning

Comic Book Guy

Hi all, just posting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience to us with our toddler.
J is our third born and is 14 months old. For the past 5 months he was without fail woken up between 4.30 am and 5 am. He have tried different things with him but to no avail.
He is sleeping in a cot in his own room. He goes to bed between 7 and 7.30 pm and goes to sleep no bother. However come the witching hour that's him awake and no settling him back down again.
The different things we have tried with him are keeping him up a bit later in the evenings, giving him Weetabix or something to eat not long before bed, blackout blinds, night lights, lying him in the bed that's in his room with one of us (we take turns getting up with him!), giving him his bottle in the cot etc.

Just by way of example he has woken at 4.30, 5, 4.45 and 4.30 so far this week!

Anyone have a similar experience and how did you overcome it or is it just a lengthy phase that will eventually pass?

randomname2005

Comic Book Guy wrote: »

Hi all, just posting to see if anyone else has had a similar experience to us with our toddler.
J is our third born and is 14 months old. For the past 5 months he was without fail woken up between 4.30 am and 5 am. He have tried different things with him but to no avail.
He is sleeping in a cot in his own room. He goes to bed between 7 and 7.30 pm and goes to sleep no bother. However come the witching hour that's him awake and no settling him back down again.
The different things we have tried with him are keeping him up a bit later in the evenings, giving him Weetabix or something to eat not long before bed, blackout blinds, night lights, lying him in the bed that's in his room with one of us (we take turns getting up with him!), giving him his bottle in the cot etc.

Just by way of example he has woken at 4.30, 5, 4.45 and 4.30 so far this week!

Anyone have a similar experience and how did you overcome it or is it just a lengthy phase that will eventually pass?

Sounds similar to our first and currently only one. We got a sleep clock, can't recall the exact name, but stars come up at night and at wake up time the sun comes up. It was a battle at first going in and asking is the sun up? No, then go back to sleep. We got ours about the two year mark.
I do miss all the fun we had in the morning before I left for work... But appreciate the sleep too!

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

Comic Book Guy

Baby4 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

He goes down between 7 and 7.30 pm, he is usually wrecked at that stage and does be pointing up at the press where he knows his soother is!
He would usually have a light tea between half 5 and 6 and his milk. Gets a yoghurt or mashed up banana around half 6 or bit later then gets his pjs on and brushes his teeth.
We have tried switching it up a bit to different degrees but no change to his wake up time!

macnug

How long are his naps?

Comic Book Guy

macnug wrote: »

How long are his naps?

That's the thing too!

In the childminders (1-3 days a week) he sleeps great- 4 hours between his morning nap and afternoon nap.
In our house though he usually only sleeps for half that and its 50:50 on whether he will actually have an afternoon nap.

It still doesn't matter where he was that day ya can set your clock to him being awake by 5am at the latest!

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

missvicky

This sounds exactly the same as what we are going through with our now 4 year old. Naps were a no go from about 13 months and if he did get even 5 minutes sleep he would be up until 11 or 12 at night. We have tried the clock, the rewards for staying in bed in the morning, the pushing out of bed time but like your little lad he's wrecked come 7 in the evening. He has a good bedtime routine and is even looking to go to bed now which he never did but no matter what time he goes to bed at he still wakes between 4.30 and 5. Sorry Op but I have no real advice for you, we are just riding it out and hoping he'll grow out of it sooner rather than later

Comic Book Guy

Baby4 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

We take turns bringing him up. He goes to sleep no bother when ya put him down, the odd bit of a struggle where he will keep standing up but eventually he just dozes off.

macnug

Comic Book Guy wrote:

In the childminders (1-3 days a week) he sleeps great- 4 hours between his morning nap and afternoon nap. In our house though he usually only sleeps for half that and its 50:50 on whether he will actually have an afternoon nap.

My youngest daughter is 14 months too, and like your son is a light sleeper. She has 2 hours nap during the day. Well she's is put to bed for 2 hours but probably sleeps for 1.5 of it. Put to bed at 7.30pm wakes up 7.30am. If we give her two naps or longer than 2 hours then she's up at 5. So maybe less naps with the childminder and try to be consistent with the nap time/length when at home. I know this might be hard or even impossible but I really feel this might be the issue here.

Aveen

Hey, when mine guy wakes too early and fights going back to sleep, he has lights on the monitor and we put them back on so let him know that's it's not up time. Training our 5month the same now, they share a room He does tend to fall back to sleep. I've been very strict with no out of cot before 7am. He turning two next month so fingers cross the cots here for another while

Merkin

If the little chap is waking up that early I'd think it maybe time to drop one of the naps and let him have one longer nap during the day. You can drop that nap anywhere from 12-18 months really and if he's not getting a long enough sleep at night then I'd think that's a sign perhaps.

Is he also getting fresh air? I find it wears them out!

mirrorwall14

Just to flag that in our case the opposite was true. His early morning wakes we're way worse when he hasn't had enough naps. He only dropped the second nap after 19 months. Anytime he missed it up to then his nights sleep was brutal

Dirty Frank

It was mentioned earlier but sleep clock worked for us. Still use it now and he's three. Ours is from the gro company, they make the eggs that tell the temperature too. Basically you program it to switch to night time for what time you want. At the time it switches from a yellow sun to a blue moon and changes back at a programmed time. It comes with a story about a farm and works the clock into the story.

judeboy101

Dirty Frank wrote: »

It was mentioned earlier but sleep clock worked for us. Still use it now and he's three. Ours is from the gro company, they make the eggs that tell the temperature too. Basically you program it to switch to night time for what time you want. At the time it switches from a yellow sun to a blue moon and changes back at a programmed time. It comes with a story about a farm and works the clock into the story.

"so if you want a day of fun, stay in bed until the sun" I know that feckin poem of by heart lol

beardo81

Perhaps change their light tea? Yogurt and mashed banana are both full of sugar. The child may not be getting as restful a sleep as you think and wake up full beans due to the sugar.

Perhaps change up to a few crackers or a little wholegrain toast.

Comic Book Guy wrote: »

He goes down between 7 and 7.30 pm, he is usually wrecked at that stage and does be pointing up at the press where he knows his soother is!
He would usually have a light tea between half 5 and 6 and his milk. Gets a yoghurt or mashed up banana around half 6 or bit later then gets his pjs on and brushes his teeth.
We have tried switching it up a bit to different degrees but no change to his wake up time!

Anne_cordelia

Merkin wrote: »

If the little chap is waking up that early I'd think it maybe time to drop one of the naps and let him have one longer nap during the day. You can drop that nap anywhere from 12-18 months really and if he's not getting a long enough sleep at night then I'd think that's a sign perhaps.

Is he also getting fresh air? I find it wears them out!

I second this! I'd try dropping 1 nap, no sleep after 4pm and lots of fresh air.

No way will the clock work for a 14 month. He's too young.

Comic Book Guy

beardo81 wrote: »

Perhaps change their light tea? Yogurt and mashed banana are both full of sugar. The child may not be getting as restful a sleep as you think and wake up full beans due to the sugar.

Perhaps change up to a few crackers or a little wholegrain toast.

Have tried it, no effect!

Anne_cordelia wrote: »

I second this! I'd try dropping 1 nap, no sleep after 4pm and lots of fresh air.

No way will the clock work for a 14 month. He's too young.

When he is at home its 50:50 on whether he will have an afternoon nap and either way he is still up the same time the following morning. Gets lots of fresh air and even in the house he is on the go the whole time, climbing into presses, doing laps of the kitchen etc.

4.25 am start this morning!!

The oldest 2 were great at that age so he is probably averaging it out for us ha!

Anne_cordelia

What do you do with him at 4/5am?

galah

I hear ya. Our almost three year old is the same, wakes up around five every morning. Goes to sleep no bother around 7.30, has one 1.5 hour nap at lunchtime, but no matter what we do he's up that early. Telling him not to leave his room etc is pointless as he can reach the door.

We did exactly the same stuff with him as with our first born, who is a great sleeper. Talk about shock to the system.

I have zero advice for you as i am desperate for advice myself, just wanted to let you know you're not alone, from one zombie to the next, so to speak:pac:

macnug

galah wrote:

I hear ya. Our almost three year old is the same, wakes up around five every morning. Goes to sleep no bother around 7.30, has one 1.5 hour nap at lunchtime, but no matter what we do he's up that early. Telling him not to leave his room etc is pointless as he can reach the door.

Again I'd say cut down the naps, I know it go against all the books/advice but everybody is different (including kids). For example I can get by on 6/7 hours per 24 hours were as my partner could easily do 12 if let. It all comes down to the quality of the sleep not the duration.

Marz66

If you are just doing one nap, it should be in the middle of the day, not the morning. Try gradually keeping him up later in the morning so as to have the nap around 11.30/12.

My 2 year old has gone through phases of 5/5.30 waking but has gradually eased back into 6/6.30 waking each time. I can't get him to sleep until 7. We try to make sure he goes to bed early enough at night. Could you try bringing your fellow to bed a little earlier? Say 6.45/7?

For those who have tried the clock, does it work if they wake at 5.30 and aren't sleepy? I can see how it would work if they're waking at 6.30 and you want them to stay in cot til 7 but 2 hours seems v long especially if they're not sleepy?

I agree 14 months is too young for the clock.