Help, my wonderful 2 year old (and 2 months)daughter just transitioned to her big girl bed 2 weeks ago. She has been doing great and sleeps through the night. BUT for the last week, she has been waking up one hour earlier every morning, 5:30am. She used to average 11-12 hours of sleep at night with a 2 hour nap during the day. Now she is sleeping 9-10 hours at night. She still takes her 2 hour nap during the day.
I keep a gate in her doorway so that she doesn't wander around the house when she wakes, but I can hear that she is up and awake so I am now up and awake.
She has a great bedtime routine and I tried keeping her up 15 extra minutes each night over the last few nights and she seems to now be waking up even earlier.
Any thoughts?
Maybe she is not getting enough sleep. Try putting her to bed earlier at night...that's what I do with my daughter and she seems to be doing better.
Hi M.,
Sleep begets sleep so don't keep her up 15 minutes later. Put her to bed at the same time as you used to or even earlier. Also, when she wakes up is she allowed to get out of bed? If not you should put her back in there and tell her to go back to sleep. Sometimes kids wake up during the light stage of sleep and think it's time to get up. If she is allowed to get out of bed when she wakes up, versus when you get her up, then 5:30 will be her (and your) new wake up time. If she has to stay in bed until you get her up then she will probably go back to sleep or just lay there jabbering. Either way, at least you can go back to sleep knowing she is in her bed. You can train her to stay in bed until you say it's time to get up during her daily nap time, too. That way it will be a consistent rule. If she gets up before you tell her, plop her back in bed. She may resist at first but she'll get the point as long as you do it every time.
Hope this helps! I work with toddlers and they all nap at the same time each day. I put them down and I get them up. That way I never have to worry about one of them wandering over to the toys and waking everyone up in the middle of nap time.
E.
My two children have always cycled with their sleeping patterns. Now that they are 9 and 5 it is much better but still happens. It is normal for them to do this, for us it has always seemed since they were little we would have three great weeks of sleep and one crazy week. Keep the routine the same and they will once again sleep normal.
I watched a 2 1/2 year old last night and her parents put her to bed at 8 and she doesn't get out of bed until 7. They also have a baby at home. If she wakes up earlier then she reads in her bed quietly until 7. She is not allowed to roam the house. I think they have had to discipline her a couple of times, but she listens now. I know they have trained her to do this, and I hope my daughter (16 months) will do the same.
My three boys wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning and have done so forever it seems. We get up and watch the sunrise every morning and have our quiet time listening to the birds. I know you want that extra morning time, but maybe you can switch it for extra time at night. You could try to put her to bed a little earlier (no matter what time my boys go to bed they wake up the same time every morning) and even if she does get up early, it will give you some extra time at night and make her a bit more rested. Also, another suggestion is to try blocking out her windows with some black-out shades or blankets...maybe she's responding to the sun coming up earlier.
Hi M.,
I HIGHLY recommend "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth to understand biological sleep rhythms and how to correct sleep problems. I would try putting her to bed EARLIER not later. Dr. Weissbluth is very adamant on an early bedtime and states that most night wakings and early wake ups are caused by too late a bedtime. When my daughter was that age her bedtime was 6:30pm and she slept until 6:30-7am. Sometimes she woke earlier but played in her crib until I came to get her at 6:45-7am. She is almost 3 and still sleeps in her crib as Dr. Weissbluth feels that children under 3 (or so) don't usually understand the imaginary boundaries of a regular bed. Try putting her to bed 15-30 mins earlier than her regular bedtime and don't respond to her until a pre-set time. I would tell her that you won't be getting her up until whatever time you decide and that if she wakes up earlier she needs to be quiet so everyone else can sleep. You may want to move her back into her crib if she persists.
Sincerely,
L.
We've noticed the same thing with our 28 month old. However, my husband and I believe it has something to do with having light more hours of the day. Unless the room is pitch black, the sunlight will lighten up the room and possibly attribute to your daughter waking up earlier than normal. With day light hours longer, our son wants to stay up later at night, too.
Good luck.
