Cloth Nappy Tree Forum

in need of some advice and ideas please!

Lucas has been waking at around 5am every morning for ages now! we have tried a lot of things to stop this but it still happens and he shouts for meuntil i go to him, and quite frankly I am knackered as a result and can't carry on with these stupidly early mornings for much longer

I have tried:

not letting him have an afternoon nap (this means he is awful from around 3pm until bedtime as he is exhausted)

keeping him up later at night (he still gets up at 5 but is cranky as still tired)

him napping in the morning instead of afternoon

given him weetabix for supper just before bed in the hope it would help him sleep longer

leaving a drink of water and a box of raisins next to his bedfor when he wakes up so that even if he is awake he doesn't shout me

taking him for n hour to the park after his tea and before bedtime

lavender baths

and varius mixtures of the things above

NONE of it works,he gets up at around 5am no matter what! and shouts until I get him up and take him downstairs for breakfast.

Even if he would just play in his room for an hour or so and just not shout me up would be great.

Any ideas etc would be greatly recieved, please help me to regain my sanity

jan x

Hi Jan - is it light in his bedroom? I have blackout linings on the childrens curtains and that helps keep them sleeping for longer, esp since it is getting light just after 5am now.

The only thing I can think of.

Sadie xx

I was going to say the same thing, perhaps the light is telling him that it is morning and time to wake up? Only thing I can think of. Charlotte wakes anywhere between 5am and 8am these days and I think it is often because of the lighter mornings and unfortunately haven't found any alternative solutions - considering getting a blind.

he did it all through the winter too, when it was still pitch black at that time...

I am really at the end of my ideas now!

jan x

Oh then I don't know. Can you try bribery or reward charts, if he stays in bed until you get him he gets a treat? Charlotte isn't old enough to get this, do you think Lucas is?

we have a star chart and he likes to get star stickers and is seeming to understand that he gets them when he is good etc.

I have tried telling him in a morning that if he stays in bed quietly until mummys alarm goes off he can have a star but makes no difference (He would rather get up and have breakfast than get another star )

I am thinking now of getting an alarm clock and teraching him not to shout etc until it goes off! or a friend of a friend had the same problem with her boy and she has a telly in his room so he can watch cartoons in the morning now I don't really like that idea but am getting desperate now!

I feel like I'm not functioning properly! I forget things (can never find my bag/car key/purse etc), forget to phone people when I say I will, forget when people are coming round etc, I have been having dizzy spells through tiredness, and headaches, yet i can't manage to sleep if I try to go to bed early as my head just swims with the amount of chores etc I haven't done

(sorry this has turned into a whine)

jan x

Oh big to you Jan

Sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture there is - especially when you have to look after all 3 during the day too!

How long do you leave him to scream for you? Or do you go to him reasonably quick in order not to wake the entire house? I've sometimes thought of getting one of those bunny alarm clocks for Joshua where the bunny appears asleep until a certain time when the eyes open and ears prick up (time decided by mum and dad of course).
Would something like that work?

Or is it a case of just trying to be a bit more forceful? Making him see that he is not going to get attention until you decide its time to get up? I know that doesnt solve the problem of him waking this early though and has the potential of waking up the twins too...

Sorry I cant really help

Lily is a really early morning waker and has always been so. Usually it's somewhere between 5am-6am and she just runs into our room and hops in our bed for awhile. Sometimes though she goes through times when she is awake between 4am-4.30am and just won't go back off to sleep when we put her back to bed. Even though it makes me super tired by the end of the day I know I just have to ride it out with her (usually only lasts about a week) and then she is back to waking up after 5am. So sorry no help here but maybe it will eventually sort itself out. Toddlers can be very fickle Hopefully in the meantime you can have some nice early nights snuggled up in bed!

Sam xx