Early riser

My 23 month old girl is going to bed around 6:30ish, it’ll take her at least 30minutes to settle and fall asleep. So really it’s 7pm bed time. But she’s up every morning around 5 for the last month. She usually sleeps through, sometimes wakes for her dummy but that’s it. As soon, as she’s up she wants breakfast, she’s not in the best of moods as she clearly would need more sleep. I thought she might be hungry, but doesnt seem to make a difference how much and when she eats before bedtime either. I’ve put her down 15 minutes earlier last night, thinking she won’t be up any earlier than usually, but how wrong I was, she was up 4:50 this morning 😞 I’m pregnant and super tired anyway and really struggle with the early mornings. In the day she has a 60-90 minute nap between 12 and 1:30 usually. She gets super tired after nursery (3 days a week) and it seems impossible to keep her up any longer than 7pm. Now we struggle to follow our activities ( like swimming at 11, etc as she gets so tired then, she’s having meltdowns) .. Any tips? Would be so much appreciated, I’m at end of my wits..

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My boy used to be like that. I’d take him to bed around the same and he’d wake around 5 too. I slowly pushed timings back so dinner is now 20/30 minutes later and I’m taking him to bed at 7:20. He can fall asleep in 15-20 minutes and sleep through til around 6:30. Have you tried later instead? I did this very slowly so about 5 minutes per day to see how he would react.

We find a 7pm bed is the best time for us and how he sleeps but hard if she won't stay awake.

@Rebecca thank you, will try this! X

@Jo as she doesn’t settle for at least 30 minutes, sometimes it takes her longer, she’s never asleep before 7 pm, but will try and put her down a bit later x

@Birgit no my boy doesn't either. We put him in bed between 7 and quarter past usually and he slowly falls asleep. He was waking at 5am but its slowly got later and now its usually 7am-7:30am. It's always worth a try.

Can I ask please, what time are you having dinner with your LOs? x

Mine sleeps around 10-11 hrs a night, so with a 7pm bedtime I would expect her to wake up around 5:30-6. She goes to sleep around 8-9pm and wakes up between 7 and 8. Maybe push bedtime a little to see if it makes a difference?

@Birgit around half 5 for dinner. Maybe she needs less sleep?

Dinner was 5 but now it’s 5:20/5:30.

Thank you everyone. I’ll try push dinner and bedtime back slowly and hope it’ll help her wake up later x

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