2yr old waking early

Diceicle

Hello All,

I would appreciate your input into the following:-

Our 2 year old sleep patterns are pretty bad. She fortunately goes to bed fine (around 19:30) but has a tendency to wake at any time between 4:30 and 5:30 looking for a bottle.
Not necessarily sure she's actually hungry more that this is the pattern she's gotten used to.
Has anyone been able to solve this issue and have them sleep to 6:00/6:30 on the regular?

shesty

I have made that mistake, yes.
At 20 months with our eldest I couldn't take it anymore.We had created the same pattern really.We stopped giving the bottle for starters, and basically I used to stay in bed, and go in to her every 15 mins or so, telling her to be quiet.
We also got a groclock and used it.Not really in the way they recommended, more in a way that I would point to it and tell her shh, the sunshine is still asleep.It was a good visual aid!I just decided we were not getting up before 6am!!!!End of!!
Look, it took a long time.And with varying success levels.Ours wasn't a crier, she would be awake chatting but the chatting would eventually turn into shouting.Some mornings we would give her a book and some teddies in to play with.And it's rubbish for you because it's not like you exactly get to be asleep.But it did eventually start to stretch out by 10/15 mins at a time.I just could not handle seeing 05:XX on the clock, I was not getting up at that time.As she headed for 2.5 I started to move make sure naps didn't go past 2:30/3pm in the afternoon, so there was a good run in to bedtime, which helped.
She's 3.5 now and I honestly can count on one hand the number of times she sleeps til 7.I think she tends to wake round 6:15, even when she is totally exhausted.Later bedtime doesn't work, it's just how she is.But she stays in her bed now fairly quietly til her clock changes at 7, and since she's older she understands better.Winter is easier because it's dark in the mornings, but summer is tough,so I am glad she has the clock so she knows.There is no magic wand though unfortunately, from what I read (and I read a lot!) It was perseverance and basically you treating any time before 6am as still nightime seems to be the only way.

drunkmonkey

No easy way around this...will she get into bed with you so you can snooze for another hour?
Have you blackout lined curtains so she's not walking with the light.
Stop the bottle until wake up time, get her to understand it's not wake up time for everybody so she has to go back asleep on or stay in her room.

Probably get in crap for this but put a stairgate on her door, once she knows she can't get out and you don't respond to her she might just jump back into bed after 5 minutes when she figures out nobody is getting up to her. It does work.

Reati

My LO does the same some times. I got around it by going to bed a bit earlier and getting up and enjoying my mornings with her. She spends all day in creche and me in work so it's nice to have a few hours to play in the morning.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Diceicle

Thanks all.
Yes, the GroClock has been on the list - though we've been thinking she's too young to grasp the concept but may give it a try anyhow.

When she wakes she doesn't exactly cry - but makes a gutteral throaty noise to wake us and is stubborn with it.
Once we're up one of us will take her into the bed - the other to the spare room - depending on the parent and the time, she'll go back to sleep. Tends to sleep better on my shift than my wifes.

If she could get to 6:00 or 6:30 i'd be delighted - as I say, it can really be anywhere between 4:30 and on she wakes. I got a 2:30 wake-up a couple of nights back.
Having said that, she sleeps until almost 7 in either grandparents house any time she's there.
Maybe toys and persistence is the way to go.

Anne_cordelia

Get rid of bottles day and night. Offer sippy cup of water in case she’s thirsty. Then just sssh her and tell her it’s night time. We started a night routine at bedtime of saying goodnight to all the things that were asleep and mentioning her little friends who were asleep and then when she woke before 6 we would do the same routine again.

shesty

Yes, I thought 20 months was young too for our one, so I didn't bother too much with the exact meaning behind it, just simplified it to stars=nightime for sleep and sunshine, you can get up.

Perseverance on your part is the key, unfortunately .

ted1

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Anne_cordelia

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Said no parent ever.

I put my kids to bed earlier to get them to sleep later.

shesty

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Haha!!!!!If only it was actually that simple!!!
Put mine to bed later and she wakes earlier. Can set my clock by it.

Reati

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Exactly the opposite advice to what every sleep expert says for toddlers

Diceicle

Thanks for all the replies.

Think we'll be trying the sippy cup and laying her back down - then ignoring the crying. Starting this weekend. Should be fun.

Had us up at 4 this morning so we have to do something.

drunkmonkey

That fails stairgate, don't give any drink before bed that applies to kids and adults if you want to sleep straight through..

shesty

It doesn"t really matter about drinks before bed, it's like they get programmed to wake at 4am.I've seen it with my older one-we tried everything, eventually just ended up with going im and out from 4am on, treating it as a night time waking.until 6am.Like I said, the gro clock was a good visual aid, but it's still a special kind of hell for the parents.....at least til they eventually stretch.Oh OP, is she on one or two naps?If she's on two, maybe consider consolidating down to 1, could help.

ted1

shesty wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Haha!!!!!If only it was actually that simple!!!
Put mine to bed later and she wakes earlier. Can set my clock by it.

Anne_cordelia wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Said no parent ever.

I put my kids to bed earlier to get them to sleep later.

Worked for all three of mine they needed x amount of sleep. So whatever time we put them down at they’d wake x hours later

ted1

Reati wrote: »

ted1 wrote: »

Put her to bed later and she’ll wake later.

Exactly the opposite advice to what every sleep expert says for toddlers

I cringe when I hear the with ‘expert’ with regards kids.

What makes these people an expert ?