Early Morning Wakings - almost 2 year old

[Anonymous]

My DS is 22 months and for the past few weeks he's been waking up at the godawful hour of like 4:45-5:30AM every morning. He usually starts whining pretty loudly when he wakes up and his older sister's room is next to his so we can't just let him sit in his crib until a more acceptable time. Sometimes (rarely) I can go in, pick him up and rock him back to sleep for another 30 mins max in his nursery chair (not even sure if he's asleep but he's quiet and still), but at that point I'm wide awake anyways. It's really throwing off my whole day waking up that early!

He goes to daycare and takes a solid 1.5-2 hr nap between 1-3 PM. His room at home has complete blackout shades and he sleeps with white noise. Nothing has changed in his routine that I can think of that would be causing these early morning wakeups. He's usually very ready to go to bed by 7-7:30 PM every night and falls asleep and stays asleep easily.

When he's been waking up super early, he immediately tells me he's hungry. He also just eats a lot in general, so I don't know if hunger is causing the wakings? Or could it be developmental? He's not teething or sick. He's not waking up with a poopy diaper. I'm at a loss on what to do/adjust and so desperate to sleep in until at least 6 AM! Any advice or experience with something similar is welcomed

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's before the sun is up!

7pm is a bit early. I would make sure he's awake until 7:30 at least.

I would honestly let him cry for a while. Does your daughter have white noise too? I would guess he won't even wake her (kids that are asleep are ASLEEP, in my experience). And even if he does - at this point, better for your family for her to be woken at that time for two or three days as he learns to resettle himself and go back to sleep, and then you'll all go back to regular human wakeup times. Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet in the short term.

Also - what time is dinner? Can you make it later? He'll be even hungrier, and eat more, and be able to make it to morning that way. Two of my three kids are BIG eaters (the older was eating more than me at age two and the younger is only one and ALREADY eats more than me at dinner and I have a good appetite, too). We always have a big snack (meal sized!) at around 4pm and then a big dinner at 6:45 or 7 and right to bed. That's worked for my giant, growing boys. And make sure you're giving him as much food as he'll eat for all meals - aim for four big meals and one snack a day. If he's at daycare - maybe a snack in the car on the way home and then a later dinner?

My guess is it's a growth spurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is 22 months and for the past few weeks he's been waking up at the godawful hour of like 4:45-5:30AM every morning. He usually starts whining pretty loudly when he wakes up and his older sister's room is next to his so we can't just let him sit in his crib until a more acceptable time. Sometimes (rarely) I can go in, pick him up and rock him back to sleep for another 30 mins max in his nursery chair (not even sure if he's asleep but he's quiet and still), but at that point I'm wide awake anyways. It's really throwing off my whole day waking up that early!

He goes to daycare and takes a solid 1.5-2 hr nap between 1-3 PM. His room at home has complete blackout shades and he sleeps with white noise. Nothing has changed in his routine that I can think of that would be causing these early morning wakeups. He's usually very ready to go to bed by 7-7:30 PM every night and falls asleep and stays asleep easily.

When he's been waking up super early, he immediately tells me he's hungry. He also just eats a lot in general, so I don't know if hunger is causing the wakings? Or could it be developmental? He's not teething or sick. He's not waking up with a poopy diaper. I'm at a loss on what to do/adjust and so desperate to sleep in until at least 6 AM! Any advice or experience with something similar is welcomed

I really honestly cant comprehend why you wouldnt just listen to the baby that is communicating their needs to you.

Also you're complaining about an almost 2-year-old who sleeps 1.5 hr minimum nap plus 730-430 minimum which is 11.5 hours total, likely up to an additional 1.5hr to 2 more hours based on your range. C'mon lady know when you have been blessed.

Are you providing an appropriate bedtime snack that can help keep him full? If not, or there's no time because somehow, he falls asleep after only 4 hours after waking from his daycare nap (WTF? My kid needs almost 6 hours to fall asleep- both for nap and bedtime- and shes 19mos). Its either bedtime snack or early wakeup due to hunger.

Hes a growing kid who cannot get his own food without you unlike a growing teenager or pre-pubescent kid. My 8 year old, during growth spurts, will wake up way earlier than normal and get food out of the fridge because a) weve told him to listen to his body and if he is so hungry that he is woken up due to hunger he should eat and b) hes 8 and can manage doing that solo using the air fryer or eating overnight oats that we prep if I notice he has a trend of waking earlier and eating.

[Anonymous]

When was he waking up before this? My son has always been an early riser and still is at 7. He starting responding to a ok-to-wake clock at about 3 but we could never really get him to go past 6:30 when he still needed one of us up with him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When was he waking up before this? My son has always been an early riser and still is at 7. He starting responding to a ok-to-wake clock at about 3 but we could never really get him to go past 6:30 when he still needed one of us up with him.

OP here. He used to sleep in until around 6:30-7 AM, so this shift has been pretty drastic

[Anonymous]

This is pretty normal. You could try shifting things later - dinner and bedtime. When my son was that age, he’d wake up early and that’s when I discovered that WETA Kids ran Sesame Street at 5 am. I would let him sit on the bed with me, turn on Sesame Street in my room quietly and then just pull the covers over my head for another hour. He was too little to let sit alone somewhere else in the house and I needed sleep.

[Anonymous]

I would do 2 things:

Have a protein snack at bedtime before tooth brushing. maybe a yogurt?

Put him to bed 15 minutes later, so 7:45pm for a week or so, then add 15 more minutes so he's going to bed at 8pm and see if that gets you one more hour in the morning.

MOST kids wake at the same time even when they go to bed late, and are TIRED all day and CRANKY. By pushing it just 15 minutes you should avoid this mess. And then another 15 minutes when he's acclimated to that first push.

[Anonymous]

I agree with protein before bed. And making sure his nutrition is good—plenty of nutrients and healthy fats and fewer starchy carbs.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps he needs to have his afternoon nap shortened…..

Would his daycare be willing to do this for you??

[Anonymous]

Try later bedtime. Our two year old eats oatmeal before bed between 8 and 8:30. Otherwise he will be up at 4am hungry for oats.

[Anonymous]

If he’s going to keep napping at daycare, he needs later bedtime probably. I SAH and my kids did 12-13 hours at night at that age but they also started skipping naps after their 2nd birthdays. To preserve the naps I had to give them later bedtimes. Then once naps were truly done, we moved bedtime earlier again.