Hi Fellow Moms,
My son just turned 2 this May. I was nursing him and weaned him when he turned two. He has always been an early riser, around 5:45/6 am. I would nurse him in the morning and he would get another 30 minutes or so or rest. We went to Florida in April and it has thrown him off. Now he is getting up at 5:10/5:25. I have tried to not go into him bedroom until 5:45. He would stand up and scream for 30 minutes. Mjy husband and I tried this for 5 days and he still would not go back to sleep. I thought that once I weaned him, he would sleep later, but that has not been the case. Therefore, I went back to nursing him when he wakes up in the morning out of desperation so he would get more rest. I usually but him to bed by 7 pm the latest.
Also, he takes short naps and is still sooo tired. Today he was up after 1 hour 10 minutes. i went back to nursing him after his afternoon nap so he could get more sleep. I tried not to nurse him for one wekk, but he still did not sleep longer. Prior to Florida, he was napping for 1 hr 45 minutes. Can I sleep train hinm and WHAT SHOULD I DO??? He is not getting enough sleep. Thanks!!
My one suggestion would be to try and keep him up a little later at night - 7pm is an early bedtime. My kids were in bed by 8 and getting up at 7 the next day - how much total sleep per night does the pediatrician recommend?
M.
I am reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and he spends lots of time discussing how to address early waking and naps that are too short. I'm not sure I can describe it properly here, but you might try reading his book, I am finding it very useful with my new baby's sleep schedule.
It is hard in the summer when the sun is up so early. We just go black out curtains for my 5 year old early bird. It has been less than a week but it seems to be helping some. My 2 year old is a night owl so we have different problems with her. If she gets any nap she is up way late.
Read through Elizabeth Pantley's "No-Cry Sleep Solution" books. The most valuable thing for me was the descriptions of what is and is not within the range of normal. My son's issues were not....turns out he has undiagnosed asthma being triggered by black mold in the house.
My daughter was the same way... Even now at 12yo she doesn't need a lot of sleep. She's usually asleep about 9pm and up sometime before 6am all on her own. 8-9 hours is fine for her, always has been.
Sleep isn't one of those things you can force though. But like you I would nap with my daughter to get her to sleep longer for that - otherwise she was up after 45 minutes or less! If i sat or laid with her she would sleep closer to an hour, sometimes if i was lucky she might stay longer. But my daughter was done with napping at 2.5yo. Only if she's extremely exhausted would she nap, and usually only in the car!
My other thought is that he might be hitting a growth spurt too and that might be contributing to some of his being awake. Try to get him to nap/relax when he's feeling tired, he might sleep longer. And if he isn't down for just one single nap a day already, make that move.
To get him to sleep in longer you might try pushing his bedtime a hour later in hopes that he sleeps that much longer in the morning. And I ditto the blackout curtains so he doesn't "sense" the sunlight - although it was a waste of money for us, but its worth a try.
can't say i have an answer, but my 1.5 yr old did something similar for about 4 months. then, one day, she started sleeping in til 6-6:30. she used to sleep til 7, but it's still much better than 5, so i'll take it. i didn't do anything different, and if anything, the sun rises even sooner now. i also tried letting her cry, and i was hoping daylight saving time would make a difference, and nothing did. maybe it's just a phase.
Black out curtain liners (easily found at Walmart) and a small fan for white noise were the most helpful in ensuring good naps and night sleep with our daughter. We also read Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and The Sleepeasy Solution by Jennifer Waldburger. I personally found the latter more helpful but I know many people love Weissbluth's book as well. The best advice I can give is *whatever you choose to do, be consistent*. Consistency goes a long way to helping enforce new habits....but it takes a lot of work and patience to change a habit. Good Luck!!
We have the tinted film on our sons windows--an option to the balck-out curtains. We have very large 7' tall windows and have covered the top 2/3s. That helped our son a lot--now he sleeps a solid 2hrs.+
10 hrs a night is rather normal, 7pm-5am. Can you maybe try putting him down at 8pm instead of 7? Just a thought.
