Help! My 3 year old is waking at 5am. How can I get him to sleep longer?

[Deleted User]

I wonder if its this time of year again, i seems to have periods of this intermittently (Currently going through another one). Without having a calendar handy to check I'm pretty certain I went through this last spring too. I wonder if their body clocks are in sync with earlier mornings.

At the moment my daughter wakes 6-6.30am, although have had a few 5-5.30 starts too. She'll use her potty, then I put her back to bed, until 6.30-7am if I can.

Her brother would sleep past 7am, used to be 7.30-8am, but after a months or so of her disturbing him early, he's starting to re-adjust.

It seems ages since we all slept past 7am and i know it used to happen regularly for months on end.

I'm hoping the clocks changing will help a bit but then my friend said it might only be for a few days before they readjust themselves again.

Joy.....

Thank goodness for peppa pig dvd's, DD will watch it every morning without fail and I can lie there and do nothing but listen.

esmf73

NO solutions - except if you find one, LET ME KNOW!!! DS1 came into our room at 1.30 last night - and again at 5.30 (zzzzz) DS2 came in at 3am. I am a zombie. Have tried everything (he is well fed, exercised (sounds like a dog here!) can undo babygates on his door unfortunately) but nothing works.

lwcus78

Sympathies,
My little one is up before 5am most mornings and up anything between 5-8 times in the night too. He's 18 months and I'm tired. x

rozeepozee

I'm glad it's not just us...

We tackle it by being in bed for 9pm.

Night night

[Deleted User]

I keep coming back and refreshing this thread, hoping someone has a magic solution! Bah.........Sounds like we are all sleep deprived!

bellrooster

Another sleep deprived mummy here!

My daughter wakes at 6am ish most mornings, no child gate, no telly, just a thundering of feet across the landing and 'MOM MOM, lets go downstairs! I'm 'unnnngry!'

pukkamum

All i can suggest is doing as you would if it were night time take them straight back to the bedroom put them in bed and say it isn't time to get up yet, i will get you when it's time, repeat until they get it, it may take a few days and many trips back to their room but it will work!!!!

xxvickixx

Ohhhh, I was hoping for a magic answer. My DS was 2 in December and he has slept through only a handful of times. He usually wakes at least once in the night and then comes in with us at about 4-5 then he's awake.
We just think that's the way he is and are waiting for him to grow out of it.

Sharra

We had a baby gate on my son's bedroom door so he couldn't escape, and we used to leave a drink inside for him. We also got him one of these.. http://www.sendaclock.co.uk/allclocks/children~s-bedside-clocks-1/bunny-alarm-clock-blue/1018*2a*-blue.html where the bunny ears pop up at the time you set. We told him that when bunny was awake then he could call for us. I think we compromised between the time he was waking up and the time we wanted to get up though.

MrsBartolozzi

You're lucky it's the right time of year to address this!
On Sunday the clocks change and your little one will be getting up at 6am after!:D

I know it sounds a bit simplistic, and even a bit blase but my DS2 was an early riser until he went to school. We longed for the clock change so we'd be getting up at a sensible time for a couple of months. He was so bad at sleeping that when he was potty trained he became dry at night too, and from about 2yr and 4 months he would wake at about 3am ish to pee then wouldn't go back to sleep, he was up for the day!! I remember getting a row form the HV for putting him back in nappies, as if I was starting the day at that time pff!

He always rose early, I tried putting him to bed early but he still woke early, so I just brought his bedtime forward - he would go about 6.30pm so we had the evening with his older brother. I'm sorry I have no real advice, just be assured they do grow out of it . I'm sure you've done the usual - keep the bedroom dark and sound proof - could the birds be waking him?
We got one of those clocks too, but just be careful if you are getting one that the "alarm" for waking time doesn't make a noise and wake them up - ours made a whirring sound as the sign went from stop to go which would wake him on the odd days he slept later.