My 2 year old son is smart and playful and a joy....except at 5:30/6am. He wakes up too early, and when I say too early I'm not talking about too early for me (but yes, that too), but too early for him. He is a nightmare for the first several hours he's up unless we turn on cartoons which I hate to do especially when all his brain is capable of at that time is to veg out. He rubs his eyes, yawns, and is completely uncooperative and cranky. it seems clear that he is not ready to be up but what do you know, there he is. If we ignore him he just cries and fusses and isn't any better off when we do go in there - he NEVER goes back to sleep. Yes we do have blackout shades, we do put a cup of water in his bed and books and stuff. He's still in his crib and I'm afraid that switching to a big boy bed now would make it worse. He's always been great at fighting his way to being awake and if he knew he could just get out of bed and play I'm afraid we'd be looking at 4:30am! We are going to try one of those training clocks so he learns that when its turns whatever color its ok to be up, but that still won't address the actual waking up too early and not being rested enough. He goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8pm usually. If he wakes up after 6:45/7 he's good - wakes up in a good mood - but any earlier and its ugly. Any advice???? He takes one nap usually around 1pm usually for around 60-90 min but like today he woke up at 5:20 and didn't make it past 10:45am, then only slept for 45 min so now I don't know what the rest of the day will bring. He usually won't nap a second time so we'll try early bedtime and see what happens. I've read the Healthy Sleep Habits book and am familiar with the whole idea of putting him down earlier to get a later wake-up time but it doesn't seem to work. He doesn't seem to go to sleep before his regular time. If we put him down early he just rolls around and sings and looks at his books until about the same time he usually goes down, then next morning same deal. Its so frustrating when we're all miserable for the first few hours, he's clearly not rested enough, and nothing seems to work. Sigh. Anyone?
i am looking forward to responses, b/c I am going through the same thing right now
my son is in a bed and will just come out of his room whenever
he is so cranky!
cant wait to see all the advice!
My son (who just turned 3) has always been an early riser. 6-6:30 was his normal wake up time (I lay him down at 8pm at night, falls asleep about 8:30, takes one 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap everyday). I do give him a light snack right before we lay him in bed for the night to help with any hunger issues (usually a pack of fruit snacks, crackers, etc). After snack is shen we do our teeth brushing & potty before bed. 2 months before his 3rd birthday we transitioned to a toddler bed & ever since he's been sleeping till 7:00. Maybe he needed the extra room, I don't know but he loves it & we've had no problems with him getting out of it (knock on wood it's been 3 1/2 months) plus we get an extra 30 mins to an hour of sleep. Like us adults, some are early risers & some like to sleep in. We have friends whose kids go to bed at 8:00 & sleep till 9:00 the next morning & still take a nap. All kids are different so I'm sure your's like mine are early risers but it does sound like he needs a little more sleep because of the crankiness.
When my son wakes up in the morning he's always in a good mood (even the days he'd wake up at 6:00 - so that's not an issue for us). Now naps are a different story - about 1/2 the time he wakes up in a mood but I find just cuddling with him on the couch with it quiet (or if he wants I'll read a book) but normally it's just cuddling for about 5-10 mins then when he's ready to get off the couch he's in a great mood. Sometimes I guess he just needs time to get the cob webs out.
Every fall when we have the "fall back" time change it ALWAYS messes him up so we have to do the whole put him to bed early thing & it re-sets his body clock & puts him in line with the time change. It takes 2-3 days of him waking up an hour early but it always works for us.
Good Luck!
I work outside the home and M-F we are waking our 19 month old son at 6:15 to get him to daycare. On the weekends it is only natural for him to wak up at the same time. He still naps (almost everyday) two times and is in bed by 8 pm. Any later and he gets cranky. He goes down very quickly for his naps without any fuse. We put him in after his breakfast and lunch so he has a full tummy. When he wakes up we give him a sippy of milk and graham crackers and watch a bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Handy Mandy. Then breakfast around 8 or 9 then he naps an hour or two. Going between 5:20 and 10:45 might be too long to go before he naps...maybe try getting him to nap earlier and stick with the regular bedtime. Maybe see if he will go down for 'quiet time' rather than a nap and maybe he'll sleep. Good luck!!!
Ah, waking-up crankiness ... I've had a bit of experience with that and my first son (now 3). It does seem like he's probably overtired. Some kids are much more sleep resistant than others. For how long have you tried putting him to bed earlier? I would try it for at least a week before giving up on it, because his body will need time to adjust. I would try putting him to bed at 7:30 one day, 7:15 for the next two, and then 7:00 for the rest of the week. Its ok if he spends a lot of time talking/singing in his crib ... kids who are overtired actually need to do that to fall asleep. Now if he starts waking up even earlier (for at least two days in a row) I might give up on this approach, but otherwise, I'd probably continue to put him to bed early even if you don't see a huge improvement in his wake-up mood.
Another thing I'd suggest is to make sure you have a low-pressure 'wake-up routine'. My son has a really hard time waking up from his nap. What has helped a lot for us is to have a low-key transition time after waking up. When he wakes up after nap, I go to him, talk very little (just 'hi honey, would you like to go downstairs?) and carry him down the stairs, even though his a big boy of 3. I set him down on the couch, hand him a snack (its the only time he can eat on the couch), and let him watch 20-30 min of TV. When that's over, he's usually in a more civil mood (not yet perfect usually, but much better), and we can start our afternoon. I started letting him watch TV after nap after I had a second child who was also waking up at about that time, but you could do something similar where you read books to him or something, if you don't want him to watch daily TV. My son doesn't have too hard of a time in the morning, but I still don't make him do things he doesn't like to do (that is, change out of his pajamas) until after breakfast when he's more awake.
One other thing you may or may not want to try: I don't let my son spend long periods of time crying / yelling / whining in my presence. If he is carrying on too much, I tell him gently "I'm sorry you are having such a bad day honey, but we can't cry (or whatever) downstairs. I think you need some time in your room to calm down." and I take him upstairs and leave. Yes, he'll still cry (in his room). But, after the crying goes down or after 5 minutes, I'll go back up and ask if he's ready to join me yet. Sometimes he'll say no, and I'll go back downstairs without him. If he says yes, and is making a good effort not to cry/whine so much, then I carry him downstairs and we do something fun and calm while he continues to try to calm down. This hasn't solved the crying spells ... he still has them sometimes ... but it has made them less frequent and of shorter duration.
Good luck!!
My son went through this phase too. And it has NEVER mattered what time he goes to bed, he is always up early. His bedtime is 7:30, but if we have a late night or get off schedule, he is still up early at the crack of dawn. He has always been an early riser, but he started waking up at 5 when he was about 2 1/2 and everyone was miserable. We put an alarm clock in his room and set it for 6:30, 7 in the weekends. We told him it was a new rule that he had to stay in bed until it beeps. It took a few days for him to "get it", but it did help. I don't think he ever fell back into a deep sleep, but he did cat nap and rest and it made the mornings more bearable. My son is 4 1/2 and still takes 2 hour naps and goes to bed by 7:30, I would really make sure he is outgrowing his naps and not testing his independence before I gave up naps. (I know I am lucky and we are in the process of weaning naps, but I am in no hurry to get rid of them completely.)
Sounds to me like he is in the process of dropping his nap. When he does, he will sleep longer at night and wake in a good mood.
I would put him to bed at 7:30 the LATEST.
My 20 month old son does this every morning. He usually gets up around 6:00 am (bedtime is at 8:00). We give him breakfast and milk. He watches Handy Manny or some other show that is on while I make his breakfast and while he eats his breakfast. When he is finished (usually around 6:45), I ask him if he is ready to go "night night" and he goes back to bed until about 9:00 am. He is so use to this that now he tells me he wants to go "night night." He instantly falls right back to sleep. I think he is just like me, starving the moment he wakes up so he wants to eat. It was kind of hard in the beginning for me because I wanted to sleep just a little bit longer. But now, I love it because it gives me a few hours each morning to get done what I need to do. I lay him down for his nap around 12:30 and he will sleep for about 2 hours. This may not work for you if you work but you could get your son dressed when he wakes up, feed him, and then lay him back down until you are ready to walk out the door. Who knows....just an idea. (maybe you could put a toy in his crib with him in the beginning that way if he doesnt like the idea of going back to bed, he has the option to play until he falls back asleep.)
