Co-sleeping early waker HELP!!

[gopalakrishna]

Any suggestions for an almost two year old who is waking a 5am? I sleep in a queen bed with him in his room, and he has been waking at 5am, which is really too early for him. He needs at least an hour more. He wakes grumpy and crying and demanding to go "out". I have tried ignoring him, just lying there and telling him that it is dark out and not time to get up, time to go to sleep. I have tried pretending to sleep myself, but it is constant and will go on for at least an hour of in-your-face crying and whining to go out. I tried to set the rule that we would not get up until 6am no matter what and maybe he would eventually get it, but he stays awake, miserable the whole time. And of course, I am pretty miserable too lying there

It really does affect the rest of his morning, he is tired and can barely handle anything, melts down easily, etc. He needs to sleep a little more! I can't think of anything else to do though, without crying it out and I honestly don't even think that would work with him. He is one of those who will cry for an hour straight. So...should I just say its a phase and get up with him? He is getting his two year molars, could that be it? This really isn't motivated by me wanting more sleep, if he woke up happy and ready to face the day I would just adjust my sleep schedule to accommodate him. (Although, I am preggo with #2 and already going to sleep around 9:30pm). Any suggestions or experience?????????????

[VaDoula]

This sounds to me like you are just going to have to go with it. It will pass as he gets older but for now I would just get up. It sounds like trying to stay in bed is just a struggle for both of you. I would still tell him it's too early to get up and he should wait for the sunshine to come up but if it doesn't work don't push it and cause frustration for both of you. This is not going to be a welcome suggestion but you could also shorten naptime or put him to bed later to get the extra time to shift to morning. Either way you are going to be a tired mama for a while.

[Blueone]

Molars can send any kid to a different cazy phase. That would explain why he's waking early, that could also be why he's fussy when he wakes early. Is he fussy at that time without the molars coming in? Could he be changing his sleep schedule?

If he's up and refusing to go to sleep, maybe try just getting up with him, feeding him, and letting him play in the house. That might temporarily fix his mood. Otherwise, it's probably a phase that will pass. I remember my friend talking about her 1 year old doing that and being a grump and waking up really early for a few weeks before it passed.

It's a pain though, I've always hated getting up before 6 and my son goes through spurts of waking up at 5:30, but I can't ignore it because he's 3 months and needs to eat at that point.