Toddler Became Early Bird, over Night

What you've got is a 2 year old who has just gotten a new found freedom. He's still pretty young so he's curious. And now he has access to go do what he wants when it wasn't there before. He's got a mommy who is about to have another baby. He can see the changes being made already. That's a lot for a very young boy to take in. What he's doing is totally normal. He may or may not go back to sleeping longer on his own.
If you don't already do this, get a sound machine. There are many available with many different white noises in the background. A consistant sound really helps to soothe and drown out background noise. *like the garbage truck that comes super early many days* Get room darkening curtains. Keep the temp cool. Decide if he likes a nightlight or not. Some kids need it and others just see it as a destraction and it casts weird shadows. Depending on his capabilities, you could get a simple clock and make a sign next to the clock with the time that he's allowed to come out of his room and when the numbers on the sign and the clock look the same, then he can come out. He may be too young for that yet.
Hang in there mom. I know how much you need your sleep right now. It will get better with time.

Hi H.,
The only quick and easy solution is to put him back in the crib. I know that is easier said than done (planning to use the crib for baby number 2?) but that really is the simplest solution to the problem. I will share with you my experience with two kids, as well as something I’ve learned recently on this subject, and hopefully it will help.

When my older son was 18 months, we tried to transition him to a “big boy” bed. Up until then he had been a great sleeper. We had a heck of a time getting him to stay in bed, and now to this day at 3yo, he still has certain sleep issues. Looking back, I believe the bed transition was the beginning of his sleep problems and wish we had kept him in the crib longer. With baby number two, we tried a toddler bed about a month ago (at 20 months), and he slept great during the night (also a great sleeper after being sleep trained as an infant) but got up at 5:30 every morning! No matter how many times I would put him back in bed, he would pop right back up again and would not go back to sleep. After some research on this, I found out that until they are closer to age three, toddlers really do not understand the concept of staying bed, as they lack the impulse control at that age. Likely what happens is, in the crib, they have a brief period of wakefulness in the early a.m., but knowing they are confined, roll over and go back to sleep until their normal sleep cycle is complete (7:30 for my son). However, in the bed during that brief period of wakefulness, they get up because they know they can, and they lack the impulse control that tells them to stay put and go back to sleep. They know they can get up, so they do. Once they are about age three, there are a lot of techniques that can help, (like a clock with the minute hand removed, letting them know that can't get up until the hour hand points to the seven). Seems like 2yo is just a little to young for that.

After one week of my son waking at 5:30 every morning (and after finding the above information), I put him right back in the crib, and we have not had a problem since. And yes, the time change did cause a little blip for him, but I would go in and let him know it was too early to get up and he needed to go back to sleep, and eventually he would. After about four days of that, he was back on track. That never would have happened without the crib because he would have gotten up on his own, rather than remaining confined. I plan to keep him in the crib until as close to age three as possible. So far, I am fortunate that he has not climbed out yet, but I do know other babies who have been in the crib until age three and not climbed out, so I am hopeful.

Yes, you can teach him to stay in bed eventually, through various toddler sleep training techniques, but it is a LOT of work, and with my older one proved unsuccessful anyway. I say, especially with baby number two on the way, save yourself the headache and go back to the crib for as long as you can. You really do not need a crib for the new baby for a while anyway if you have a Pack N play. Seriously, she can sleep in there as a newborn with the mattress suspended, and when she is too big for that, you can lower the mattress to the bottom and let her sleep in there for quite some time. I have a friend that actually had her 2yo sleeping in the Pak N Play at night.

try moving bedtime back an hour? forward an hour?
unfortunately it seems that once you get used to one thing, they go and change on you ;-)
it's completely normal!
you just now have to 'tweak' his schedule...

We bought an alarm clock for my daughter that changes color when it's "ok" to get up. We set hers for 6 a.m. (she's always been an early bird but we've found that we are all cranky if we get up before then).

After a few days, she has learned that Mommy and Daddy will NOT take the baby gate down in front of her door until 6. She is staying in bed, watching and waiting, sometimes playing, and sometimes she falls back to sleep, then is super-excited when the clock changes from yellow to green.

We got our clock online from Innovative Products but I have since learned that other companies make them and they cost less than the one we got...

Hey H.,

We have had a similar problem with our 18-month-old boy. We switched him to a toddler bed not long before the time changed because he was climbing out of his crib, so we didn't have much of an option. The solution that has worked for me is to keep putting him back in his bed. I tell him go night, night, or it's not time to get up yet, or no getting up or something along those lines everytime I put him back. We didn't have this problem without 3-year-old girl, but boys are different. It has worked and he has started getting used to the new time. He goes to bed at 8:00 and sleeps to about 7:00. If he stays in bed at least he is resting and when he first started getting used to the new time he would wake up early and then go back to sleep because he knew he wasn't supposed to get up. I hope this helps...good luck with him and the new little one!

Yep, I have to get up at 5:30 every morning so that I can get the household ready before the kids wake up and we all go to work and daycare. I teach high school and have to be at work by 7:15 am.
On weekends when I get to "sleep in", my son (almost 1) or daughter (3 yrs) sometimes decide to get up anywhere from 5:00 to 7:00am.
I guess some people are morning people and some aren't. Perhaps your son is and that's what he's starting to show now that he's in a big boy bed and able to control getting out of bed?