20 Month Old Son up at 5:05 Am Every Morning.. What Can I Do?

My son was a horrible sleeper until just a few weeks ago-was an early riser no matter what time you put him to bed. Now, at 3.5 years-he ahs decided that when he is tired he will tell me he is tired and lay down for a nap-I was shocked :0) Now he goes to sleep without a fuss, and we have a hard time getting him up in the morning!!! Like everyone else says, its a phase, and it sucks but it will get better!

I only have one that was a good sleeper around this age. I don't have any advice, other than "do your best." I have found that mine wake up at the same time regardless of bedtime as well. If it's any consolation, my oldest, now 6, sleeps quite well most nights...and he'll even sleep in at time - so it's not FOREVER.

Unfortunately, some kids are just morning kids. Our youngest will get up around 5:45 am, no matter what the bedtime (and this is an improvement over where it was when she was younger). At four, we still start her bedtime routine at 6:30 pm so she can get enough sleep. Otherwise, if she stays up late, she's still up at the crack of dawn and then is extra crabby.

Hopefully the sleep specialist will have ideas for you. For us, we've just had to accept the reality that our daughter is a morning person.

I am sorry, but that may just be morning for him. You could try putting him down a little later each night and see if that helps. If he is a little more tired for a day or two that may help him readjust to a slightly later time. Does he hear the road traffic from his room. It's not light out at 5:00 yet, but we start hearing cars and trucks going up our road at the hour. Maybe he does and that's daytime for him.

6:45 is pretty early. Can you do 7:30 instead. Increase his go to sleep time by 15 minutes every 3 nights and hopefully that will help a bit. Also, you might want to make his nap 1.5 hours rather than 2.

Both my kids are just early risers no matter what time they go to bed. Sometimes I would just leave my son - and eventually (maybe 5 min , maybe 30 ) he learned to put himself back to bed. He woke once at 4:00 at 2 years old, I had the flu, and simply couldn't get up so I knew he was safe in his crib and I put on some white noise in my room and he went back to bed - got up at 7:30! I'd hoped it was a change in pattern, but it wasn't permanent. He just wakes up every day at 5:30 - 6:30 - usually before 6 no matter what the night before was like... I've adjusted my bed time to 9!

My son is 30 months and he is the same way. For a while, he was getting up at 4:30 and AWAKE. He is ready to start the day. He now gets up between 5 and 5:30. The only thing that helped at all was making sure his room was super dark and shutting his door. Every once and a while he sleeps in, but that is rare.
I tell myself, 13 years from now I wont be able to get him up in the morning!
If you hear anything good at Children's, let me know.
Also - I love that Healthy sleep habits book, too!

im not sure if this helps but i had a similar problem with my daughter, she is almost 21 months now. i used to put her to bed around 8, and she would sleep in till 8. but then she started waking up around 6- 630. so i did some reading online and tried TONS of different stuff to get her to sleep better. the things that worked for me was:
i started putting her to bed at 7 30. the first night i did this, she slept in till 8!
i make sure her room is as dark as i can get it at night. put blankets over the black out curtains covering the window (hehe)
and another thing that realllly helped, i make-shifted a canopy over her crib. when she was itty bitty she slept so good when i had her in the bassinet and a blanket over it. i think she likes that security.
i also darken the lights in the house about 1 hour to 30 minutes before bed time and had a bedtime routine....bath and then read a story or snuggle. start talking about "night night". Now she will give daddy and the kitties a "ni-ni" kiss and hug before i put her to bed, i too am still nursing and i nurse her in her room in the dark before i lay her down in her crib.

hope this helps!

edit: oh oh and another thing. dont get up and get him as soon as he wakes up and starts making noise...just kinda lay there and see if he will just whine a little bit and maybe fall back asleep. that early i wouldnt think it so bad. but when my daughter starts waking up early again from time to time, i just let her whine for a while so she gets the idea, "if i wake up and its still pretty dark, its not quite time to get up" sorta thing. now when she wakes up she usally whines a little bit, or talks to herself and plays with the stuffed animals in her crib.
ooh thats another thing. we got her this hippo. SHE LOVES. she literally, cannot sleep without it. its wonderful. maybe try and find a little sleep buddy for your son.

edit again: sorry i have to so much info for you!
we also put a fan in her room, i think the noise helps block out any other sounds. not very loud, just on the first or second setting

My son was also an early-riser at that age. It wasn't until he was weaned from that last feeding in the morning (around 23 months) that he started sleeping in later. He now wakes up between 6:30-7:00 am which is a huge improvement from before! I agree with you that your son enjoys that special time with you and wakes up early because he's used to it. Don't know if you're ready to wean him completely yet but that might help him to sleep later. Otherwise, I'd just try to go to bed extra early if you can! Hang in there, it will get better!

Don't "play" in his room for 1 hour, when he gets up. Just KEEP everything dark and quiet... TRY not to even interact with him, say "shhhhh.....", close your eyes, don't make eye contact.... and LAY down instead, in there, on the floor or on his bed.

You are 'playing' with him when he wakes, so of course he thinks it is the 'routine.'

OR, when he wakes early, then give him a sippy or bottle of milk? But, my kids as well, would wake like that, and be HUNGRY, by then. So I would nurse them.

Kids, wake at certain times... no matter what time they went to bed and regardless if they took a nap or not.
It just is.
My friends kids and my kids are like that too.

Main thing is that they are getting enough sleep and naps.... a child like that needs I think 13 hours of sleep, including naps, per day.

Here is the link on how much sleep a child needs, per day:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil...

He seems like a fine sleeper to me.

A child, will naturally sleep for longer stretches... from about 2-2.5 years old.

all the best,
Susan

Trying moving bedtime to 6:30 to see if that helps. And don't go get him until 6am. He might fuss and cry, but if you stick to it he should get used to the new schedule within three or four days. You could also give him some books and quiet toys in his crib or bed for him to play on his own when he wakes up and waits for you until 6.

From your description it sounds like he traded in one hour of night sleep for the extra hour of nap? Did the 5 am wake up occur when you weaned him and his naps got longer? If you think the longer nap caused the earlier wake up then maybe try to slowly move his bedtime later by 15 min. intervals to see if he'll sleep in till 6 like before? Then consistently tell him at the early wake up time that it is not "wakey" time. Or cut his nap time back--trust me I love my 2 hour nap break so I know that would be hard! Or try making the nap later in the day so he can stay up to a later bedtime and thus sleep in more?

Unfortunately, I think this is a stage and you can't do much about it. Both my daughters were great sleepers. But when my younger one was about 19 months she started the early waking thing. It lasted about 4 months, and then she grew out of it and was back to normal sleeping. Wish there was a simple answer, I know what you are going through! Good Luck :)