3yr old very early riser!

[Redmummy]

At times my dd can easily wake up at 5am and be wide awake.  In my world there is only one 5o'clock in the day and thats teatime!!! Most times though its roughly about 6-6:30. She doesnt go to bed till 7:30pm. It gets to the afternoon and she is exhausted for nursery.
I have tried ignoring her, explaing that its still nightime and she needs to go back to sleep. I despair!! Its not due to light in her bedroom as its nearly winter now so its still dark until nearly 7am.
I heard once about something called a bunny clock. Has anyone heard of them and had success with them?
Or is it something I'm going to have to put up with?

[~BeckyD~]

Hiya,
We are trying the bunny clock with Ellie-May.
We have had problems recently, mostly due to the room sharing, so when Jack wakes so does she and she just will not listen when we say its too early to get up yet! Once she has had a bulk of, say 10 hours, she just wants to get up! But then by the time she gets back from Pre-School she is shattered, she needs at least 11-11.5 hours of sleep at night, she doesn't nap during the day.

The problem we are finding with the clock is that if she still wakes early, she will sit in her bed with her clock on her lap waiting for the bunny to wake up! She doesn't always go back to sleep, but she thinks its ok to sit there awake, as when we got her the clock we told her to stay in bed til the bunny wakes up...and thats what she is doing...but it doesn't help her tiredness later in the day if she doesn't go back to sleep til the bunny wakes!!!!! So we are still working on that one!

TBH we are still getting over some illnesses here so I am waiting for them to both be cold and earache free to tackle the problem again.

Becky
x

[Florencia]

Hi girls!

Sometimes early mornings are linked to overtiredness so as strange as it sounds, an early bedtime might help your dd's sleep longer in the AM. On days they seem extra tired in the evening, aim for a 630 pm bedtime to compensate lost sleep. You might be surprised at the results. If they don't wake later, at least they'll be more rested and easier to deal with during the day.

ANothet suggestion that might work wonders given their age is a reward system. You need to build a chart (they can help you out) or just buy acrystal pot to place marbels on it. Each day they manage to stay in bed they get a sticker for their chart or a marbel for they can. When they reach certain amount of marbles/stickers, they can get something special like a small toy, a special outing to the park, a tea party with their friends... whatever they choose. Some experts advice to take out a marbel/sticker for bad behaviour but personally, i wouldn't recommend to focus on the negative cause some spirited lo's react badly to that. Only praise the good behaviour and you're likely to see results faster. It has worked for many moms aroudn here, besides is a fun activity with the lo's to draw the chart, get the marbles/stickers, etc.

HTH and good luck!