early waker

My 3 1/2 yr old has always been an early waker. We used to get up between 4.30am and 5.30am every morning. This was exhausting especially when number 2 came along. I've tried many many different ways to get him to stay in bed and asleep longer and they seem to work for a short while but he always reverts back. Up until a couple of weeks ago he'd been sleeping till 6 - 6.30am for a few months but since the arrival of baby number 3 we're back to 5am ish which is causing me no end of grief. He wakes up and starts yelling that he's awake which wakes, me, his dad and his younger brother then we all are grumpy for the rest of the day. He's not allowed out of bed till 6am as I refuse to give in and let this become habbit but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm too tired to think straight to come up with new and innovative ideas to help my situation and was hoping someone here might be able to help??

I'm a slack mummy, if Maya wakes up early she is allowed to watch TV. She learnt to operate the DVD player when I was preg with the gremlins so if there's nothing on TV she puts a DVD on.

We have a night light on all night for our daughter and she will usually wake between 6.30and 7am which is the time we all get up anyway. Occassionally she will wake earlier but to go to the toilet in which she calls out as our house is in the country and it's pitch black going to the toilet - haven't found a solution to this yet as there are now powerpoints for night lights near the toilet.

A friend of ours explained what she does for her 3 year old who was waking at 5am ....

She explains there is a night fairy that visits and checks on children sleeping. If her son stays in bed quietly each morning the night fairy visits and leaves 'something' behind outside the bedroom door. When the mother goes in each morning she leaves the 'fairy surprise' outside the door and closes the door behind her. Says good morning to her son and then says "lets see if the fairy left anything last night" .. opens the door and there it is. She does not leave the surprise out the night before because then the child might get up early and check. The surprise is only there if the child has stayed in bed queitly until mum comes in.

This "something" could be a treat but is not always. Initially it was small treats to make it exciting to the child. But she makes it fun and sometimes its a smelly sneaker or a bowl of ricies (breakfast) as well as the occassional treat. She also uses this in combination with a star chart and after a certain number of stars the child does get a treat or special outing.

Now further down the track the child is staying in bed but the fairy does not always visit.

hope this helps for you.

So a week later an I've already decided to take the easy way out. Corban now doesn't have to ask to get out of bed as it was waking Connor. He comes to see me and cuddles then goes and turns tv on, gets his milk out of the fridge and that gives me a bit of grace to wake up properly before leaping out of bed. Give it another 10 odd years and I'll be complaining that I can't get him to wake in the morning,

Glad you found something that works 2bmumof3. I like MrsMojo idea too ... hehehe