It’s killing us. He’s up every day at that time, screams when we try to put him back to bed and wakes the baby.

We’ve tried gro-clocks, later to bed, earlier to bed, being in there, ignoring him (he just screams).

Anyone got any other suggestions other than eBay?

How old is he?

2¾

I put a gate on his door this week. He saw me fitting it so knows how to open it.

He’ll turn the gro clock so Mr Sun comes up when he wants, if he can’t reach the clock he pulls it down by the plug then does it. He turns his own light on and screams now I’ve gaffer taped it off.

I’m assuming he doesn’t have a nap during the day?

No daytime nap – though with these early starts he’s almost impossible to keep awake if we go anywhere in the car

Toddler taming is ace, but unfortunately you have to persevere, it took us a good 8 mths to year to get our smallest to stay in bed – every night he was put back to bed, it nearly killed us
Stair gate on the room helped, maybe a bunge over the handle to allow him to open it a bit but not enough to get out ?
try and keep your cool, I know how difficult that is though and we didnt always manage to.
Dont give him any story, long cuddle, etc when you put him back to bed

He will grow out of it

Our youngest is nearly 3 and we’ve had nearly 3 years of broken sleep. His older brothers weren’t much better to be fair.

I’m not going to be much help, because like you we have tried many things. Really just hoping that as he gets older that he will improve. Quite often when he wakes up, he wants a drink, but instead of reaching out and getting it from the shelf at his bed, he wants one of us to hand it to him. Similarly, he wants one of us to pull his covers back up. I imagine that it is all about reassurance, but it is a killer for sleep.

At the weekend, we take it in turns to let one or other of us sleep in, which does help. To lighten the mood of this post though, he is healthy and happy so if broken sleep is the only thing we need to worry about, then I’ll take that.

Nothing to offer but sympathy I’m afraid. Our 3.5 yr old likes to sleep with the covers over her head, get far too hot and periodically wake up crying but she goes straight back to sleep when comforted.

5am often finds her trying to climb into out bed but similarly she goes straight back to sleep when deposited back.

6am to 7am generally finds her in our bed again but this time she is properly awake and thats that.

Even with this minimal sleep disruption I feel like poop warmed up so I feel bad for you dealing with screaming and a waking baby.

Another chunk of sympathy here, having had one that did not sleep for more than 30mins from baby to nearly 4. It is crap.

As well as just ‘pushing through’ the screaming to go to sleep, we did the moving time trick with two of ours – the clock was set to say 7am at 4:45am when they woke up. We taught (and rewarded with a marble, its amazing how many marbles you can re-cycle with a toddler) them to stay in bed until the clock said 7am.
After a week, the clock was moved forward each day by 10mins. After a fortnight/three weeks the clock was ‘on time’ at 7am – and since then we have not had early wakers.
This was proper alarm clock that he could not work out how to re-set as it was too complex.

Gro clock was going to be my suggestion but even when properly observed it has its limits. Ours is up before 6 most days but it was much worse before the gro clock. We eventually took the view that it was better to leave a stash of toys to occupy him in his room until the sun comes up on the clock – then he can come and get us. It works a bit but could be better.

I did wonder if he was getting hungry in the mornings or something I.e. later mealtimes or different food could help maybe.

I think they probably all just enjoy being difficult!

The old wife’s tale is that “sleep breeds sleep” and we do find if mini mucker (3 1/2) is allowed to nap in the afternoon he has a better sleep that night. Though no matter what we do we never get beyond 6.30am.

Gro clock did work for ours. We initially set it to a few mins before he use to get up then gradually moved it on to the time we wanted him to get up. Though the worst with our boy was night time waking (wanted tucking in, water bottle handing to him etc.) and realise now with no 2 how much we pandered to no 1’s night time shenanigans when he was a toddler. Was much tougher with no 2 and she sleeps brilliantly. For no 1 taking away his night time comforter (which he’d always wake us up to find in the night) and putting a gate across his door seemed to solve most of it. Though it did take time and consistency.

Much sympathy for the OP though. Months of bad sleep does feel like a slow death 🙁 If it’s any consolation after about 3 years of awful sleep our (almost) 4 year old now sleeps till 7 pretty much every day and will often have a little lie in (half seven today!)

We had a similar problem with our 2¾ yo. Not long over it. For us it was bladder/potty related, she’s pretty much fully potty trained and I think it was her bladder waking her up so that meant either a change of nappy or a trip to the potty.

Just one of those things really and seemed to be body clock related. Not giving any excessive amount of fluids close to bed time seems to have helped.

As mentioned above, I’m a firm believe in sleep breeds sleep and both our monsters take a 2-3hr mid day nap.

The other one we had was wearing them out – despite masses of energy, ALWAYS heading outside for a walk and play and park helped our eldest with sleep…
(boys are like dogs – walk em twice a day IMO)

Our little dude is an early riser and always has been.

He’s pretty much up at 5 everyday although will sometimes go back to sleep. If we’re lucky he’ll sleep in until 6/6:30. he was up really early on Sunday and I was pooped so went and snoozed with him on the sofa until half eight!

We’ve given up fighting it and just go to bed early.

Ah yes between 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. crying everyday. Joy. We have got to 5 years old now, and managing 6:45 to 7:30 ish. No crying, just sneaks into our room and puts his finger in my ear or slaps me round the head.
If I could not coax him back to sleep. We just got up and made a bed on the sofa and watched surfing, mountain biking films(Le Tour would usually have him snoozing for an hour or so), all the stuff I had recorded his mum did not want to watch. No baby TV, only Dad’s lifestyle brainwashing stuff!
Though I admit I was in bed nearly every night around 8:30.
And now I almost miss our 4:00 a.m films.

We used a stair gate in our last house as their bedroom opened on to the top of very steep stairs , I think we had a baby Dan gate that was too tough for him to open and just left him too it, (ours figured out how to switch the gro clock too)
Their sleep patterns change over time so the pain wing last forever !?
Does he do nursery, I think running around with other kids all day helps to tire them out

Youngest was waking 2-4 times a night recently, we were coddling him so as not to wake the eldest, this made things worse. Twas basically a case of going through the pain barrier and letting him cry it out, putting a back to bed routine in and sticking to it. It’s not easy when you’re already shagged but we’re coming out of it now and he’s got the message. Might be more difficult with yours being a little older but get a plan and stick with it, they need/want routine. Put him back to bed, no fuss and back away but wait on the landing, repeat x1000000000000000 for what’ll seem like eternity and you might just get there

repeat x1000000000000000 for what’ll seem like eternity and you might just get there

🙂

If it’s any reassurance there might not be anything you can do. Our oldest slept through OK generally (when not ill/teething), our youngest is about a year younger than yours and is up several times a night in general.

Have you tried embracing it? let him put lights on, play with toys in his room while you lay undisturbed? Or get an early morning ride with a trailer on? Learn some constellations if it’s a clear night?

It won’t last forever.

We had a new baby and moved house within 2 weeks. Our (then) 2 year old went from sleeping through the night, to up when ever she wanted and making plenty of noise. The Gro clock didn’t help us either*. After months, she told us the bed was in the wrong place and she wanted to see out of the door from bed. We moved the bed and now she sleeps through the night again.

Friends of ours had a similar issue. They also put a baby gate on the door, but that made things worse as their child thought she was being locked in. It caused massive tantrums (and throwing things bigger than you think a toddler should be able to) until they moved the gate off again.

* Although now it is good, she will stay in bed quietly until the sun comes up, including the extra 30mins at the weekend :). Also, I’ve heard you can lock them so it’s harder for the little ones to turn them to sun. I think you hold the button in for 4 seconds or something.

^reading some of the ‘we get up and cuddle on the sofa watching filums or cartoons’ – is this not rewarding the behaviour of getting up early?

Hi, our 3 year old went through a period of waking up at 5am. It passed. He wakes up around 7:30 now. he also takes a one and a half hour nap during the day. Good luck!

get a plan and stick with it, they need/want routine. Put him back to bed, no fuss and back away but wait on the landing, repeat x1000000000000000 for what’ll seem like eternity and you might just get there

this

Move to Longtitude 36 degrees East.
Not helpfull I know but its that or adapt for a while.

It’s killing us. He’s up every day at that time, screams when we try to put him back to bed and wakes the baby.

I feel your pain. Our eldest went through the same just after she turned 2. We tried all the different advice in the various books, Gro clock, etc. She learnt how to climb out of her cot, over the stair gate and would stand over me, scaring the bejeesus out of me when I woke up. You’d think it was separation anxiety but sleeping in with her, or trying to get her to sleep in our bed didn’t work, either. The trick of sticking to a strategy was a total failure.

In the end, just before we were ready to send her to the orphanage, she snapped out of it and has been a brilliant sleeper ever since (she’s 4 1/2 now).

Babybgoode is 3 1/2 now. Usually joins us in our bed at some point between 11pm and 2am then decides around 530 is a socially acceptable time to wake us up.

We just go with it. Not in to all the books and toddler training I’m afraid. When he’s 12 or 13 we won’t be able to get him out of bed so we’re just riding it out.

4-430 though would be a bit more of a killer – he’s up occasionally that early but not often but again we just ride it out.

Interestingly though, generally the later he goes to bed the earlier he gets up and if he hasn’t eaten enough before bed that can disturb him too. He doesn’t like his baby gate being closed and is more unsettled than if we leave it open (moot point now as he can open it but still if he wakes and we’ve shut it out of habit he gets really upset).

Don’t forget the world is a scary place at that age – imagination is starting to really kick in, they’re having dreams they can remember etc so when they wake early and come and get you it could well be that they’re frightened of something.

All we’re doing is sticking to the actual going to bed routine and playing making the rest of the night up as we go along…

We tried all the above with ours, she would get up at all hours, sometimes 3 or 4 times a night, properly started losing the plot. “Why are you up?” “I dunno daddy”… Good! Then we finally cracked it. We don’t do rewards but buckled for sleep. We made a sticker chart with her and told her she’d get a sticker every time she stayed in bed all night and once she’d got 5 stars, we’d go swimming. After a few false starts and a few reminders she suddenly got it and would explain to people she met “I stayed in bed aaaaaalllllll night!”. We then quietly forgot about the chart as she’d got into the habit. Every so often she slips back and we’ll do a new chart for a week or two.