5 year old waking early

sooz

Rather than the bunny alarm, I bought a cheap digital clock with alarm. It's set to at 7.30 on schooldays (& later at weekends!). If they wake earlier, they know they can play quietly in their room or read in bed, until the alarm goes off. Waking mummy up, or raiding the fridge, or turning the tv on will all result in :eek:

tiamai_d

I'm so glad I'm not alone!

My 5-in-April year old has decided 4am is a good time to get up. But he wanders downstairs and starts playing the wii. Or the other morning he managed to find babestation on his big brothers freeview TV! Guess who has no ariel now?

As far as I can tell, he is just waking up and deciding it's morning time. He will go back to sleep though. I just tell him it's still night time, and show him the clock. No idea if he knows his numbers (he has cerebal palsy so speech problems and finger counting only goes up to 5 because he has one good hand) but I did the same with his big brother. 7 am is the earliest they can get up.

Hopefully it is just a phase.

Lauren, I'm also in the child abuse camp with you, we should totally have :coffee: and cakes eh? *awaits random strangers telling us off* (yeah, weirdy-beardy types eh?)

CRANKY40

Thanks for all your suggestions, and it's good to know I'm not alone. He is a very sound sleeper, but once he is awake in the morning, he is very wide awake.

I have a few ideas to try now......I was waiting for his father to come home last October (waking started in the summer) as generally, when he told the little pest to go back to sleep, he would, but sadly my husband died on board his ship the day he was due to leave. That's why I haven't really been up to dealing with this beforehand, and also getting up around 5:30-6am doesn't bother me as I'm a bit of an early bird too.

4:30am however, is a wind up job, especially when he's not ill. It did happen last year, and I used a reward chart to bribe him with, but once he'd had his first reward he lost interest, and just tells me he can't stay in bed.

floss2

Cranky, have you tried adjusting bedtime by about 15-30 minutes? Maybe have "quiet time" before hand, but into bed, lights out at about 8.15-8.30pm? You may get an extra half hour or so in the mornings

delmar39

I'd go with the adjusting bedtime suggestion for now. I know it means less evening time, but that's the compromise. Our daughter comes through to us sometime after 6am and has an hour with us. Any earlier and we send her back to her room, which seems to work. Not easy. We're struggling to get ours to bed at the moment, so the opposite problem to you...!

mumsy22boys

Hiya,

I could written this about my son. He is 4, nearly 5. He has always been a bad sleeper as such. Would prefer to go to bed early, but that means him waking early too. We have a 2 bedroom house and we wanted to put my younger son in with him, but we were scared he would wake my youngest in the morning. They are total opposits and on different time clocks! so we out a large clock near to his bed and told him not to shout out or call or get out of bed till 6 am. we were quite strict with this and no a few months later it seems to have worked. he always stays in bed till 6 and sometimes sleep till after 6.

I know how you feel so just keep calm and perservere with him.

xxx

HariboJunkie

Has he always been like this Cranky or is it a recent thing? Is it a consequence of anything else?
I'd go for a pretty serious talk with him about it. He has to understand that you're on your own and you can't function on so little sleep.
Can you ask him not to get up before a certain time and set his alarm for then? He will be safe if he isn't allowed to go downstairs alone and there should be plenty to occupy him in his room. I'd also recommend a few early nights for you until this passes.

Take care. xxx

CRANKY40

I've tried sending him to bed later. When he was going to bed at 7:30 he was mostly getting up at 5-5:30. I have tried putting him to bed at 8pm, but he seems to get up earlier on everage than when I put him to bed at 7:30. I think it's something I will have to keep up though, and hope his body clock adjusts eventually.

It started in the summer Haribo, about the middle of July. There's nothing I can think of that would have been the cause of it.....

tandraig

Cranky - I think you did tell us the cause of the sleeplessnes, but as it started before your husband died you havent connected it. My condolences, things must be hard for you and you do need your sleep. perhaps your little boy is waking early hoping to hear his daddy tell him to go back to sleep, then he cant because he misses him? at his age he may not even realise this is what he is doing. or i could be totally wrong, and overanalysing things.
many good suggestions on here, black-out curtains toys snacks etc and the clock idea is good too.
Can i ask - does he have a picture of daddy by his bed he can see when he wakes up? might be comforting for him and you can tell him that his daddy would be so proud of him if he stayed in his room and was quiet for mummy to sleep - or do you feel that would upset him?
I too am a fairly early riser but 4.30 is way too early even for me - perhaps he is practising for a career on breakfast tv!

HariboJunkie

Tandraig, as Cranky says, the early waking started before the death of her husband. As her husband worked away for months at a time, her son was used to him not being there at night for long periods of time and Cranky being the great Mum that she is, is dealing with her son's grief and him missing his Dad, fantastically well.
I do think this is just a phase and/or a child who is naturally an early bird. If a talking to won't inprove things then I really think that he needs to be allowed to rise in the morning without waking his Mum until a reasonable hour.