Daughter Wakes up Too Early in the Morning

My question for you is does she start crying when she wakes up? My daughter was an early riser as well. When she was younger, I started giving her a 'heavier' dinner and an extra bottle of water before bed. That usually helped keep her resting longer. When that stopped, it was a matter of having something 'entertaining' for her in the crib for when she woke before me.

my daughter used to wake up really early too- every summer since birth. I found it was just her biological rhythms. Nothing I tried worked, but here is what I tried, maybe it will work for you!

I blackened her windows thinking the early morning sun was waking her.

I put her to bed an hour later
I put her to bed an hour earlier
I cut down on her naps

finally I gave up and since my husband and I are both teachers and off in the summer (the one time we had to sleep in LOL)
we swapped days of waking up early and would take her to a local bakery for breakfast to keep the house quiet for the other one. They got to know us very well!!!

Now that she is a bit older (4 years) we bought her a special princess clock that puts stars on the ceiling and plays music from cinderella. It has big digital numbers. WE told her that she could not get out of bed until the first number says 6.

last summer we put a timer on her bedside light so that it would turn on at 6am. It was cheap-under 5$ and that worked, except that sometimes I think the light turning on woke her up. Anyways, we told her that she couldn't get out of bed until the light turned on. She was 2-3 then.

i have a son that does this. lately what i have been doing is cutting his afternoon nap short. the past couple of days, my kids have been getting up about 6:30, much more reasonable than 5am! try that and see if it helps. it may take a couple of days and sometimes when i wake him up early from his afternoon nap he is a bit grumpy, but worth it to sleep until 6!

If my daughter takes a good afternoon nap, then we're usually looking at a morning wake-up call around 6:45 am. BLECH. Unless she's screaming, I usually leave her in there until 7. She's used to it now. There are toys in the crib, and she likes to sing and talk to herself. That way, we both get to wake up slowly!

P., take it from me, DON'T GO IN AND KEEP HER COMPANY!!!
My son still wakes up and 5:30 a lot, and rarely sleeps past 6:15 and I think it's because his dad didn't get to spend time with him at nite, so he would get up at 5, 5:15 or whatever ung-dly hour to play with him. So now he doesn't know how to entertain himself at all and wants someone to play with 1st thing in the morning. BTW, as he got older his dad introduced him to computer games and let him play at 6 AM, so he's also a Nintendo/computer game addict.
I never would have believed that my child would have such awful habits. My suggestion is make sure she has "morning toys" to play with in her crib, and remind her before going to sleep at nite that she should play with them by herself until you come in.
Good luck
BTW, don't bother fussing with nap times, bed times, etc. It wont do any good and just make her cranky. If the room is really dark it might help a bit, but again no guarentee. Trust me. Just get her used to playing alone for a bit--you'll be glad you did.

Hi,

My husband and I went thru the same thing. Our daughter is 8 now and she still wakes up early. We tried everything. Keep the shade and use it. It will help for nap time and for night time. You may also try soothing baths, keeping bedtime the same each night and reading. This helps a little but what we found out is that there are some children who do not need as much sleep and their bodies internal alarm clock is set. Your daughter will change over time as she gets older and more active.

Just note that during daylight savings time when we set the clocks back she may wake up earlier because of the time change. Yet, as she settles in with the change of time she will get back to at least her routine. Have patience.

L.

I'm going through the same thing. My son is 14 mos and used to let me sleep until atleast 7:30 but he's been waking up around 5ish these days! Luckily I'm able to give him a bottle and he'll lay back down with me for an hour or two. I feel for you! Nothing is worse than hearing them wake up before the birds are even chirping!!!
Lynsey

Hi P.,
Sorry about your early mornings! I think the culprit is more in the naps, and you didn't mention what her nap schedule is, but I think you'll have better success in getting her to sleep longer by analyzing and altering her nap schedule. You may want to try to have her nap earlier in the day so that she is up from the nap no later than 3pm and then is good and tired at bedtime, likely to sleep longer
Good luck!

Hi P.,
Do you have any crib toys that will keep her occupied for awhile so you can get up slowly? I don't really have any suggestions for sleeping later (other than keeping the sun out - but you've got that covered), but we put things in my son's crib after he's asleep so that when he wakes up he has toys and I can hear him playing instead of yelling and I can wake up more slowly. As long as he's happy I don't have to jump up right away.
Good Luck

At around 18 months, my son started waking up earlier as well -- at 6:30 when I generally get up and get ready for work. However his dad is the one who gets him up and ready for daycare in the mornings and he works later so he generally tries to sleep in a bit. What I started doing is going in to see my son for a few minutes, either just talking to him while he stays in the crib or sitting in our rocking chair for a bit. I tell him that Daddy is still sleeping and that he doesn't have to sleep anymore but he has to stay in bed until Daddy gets up. I open the curtain so he had light in the room and I give him a couple of board books to read (sometimes I also put on music if he wants it). It took a few days, but he's done very well with this routine and it's good for him to have some quite time and learn how to entertain himself. He'll ususally play on his own for about 30 minutes or more and if he's tired, he sometimes falls back asleep. When he's had enough and wants breakfast, he calls for us. It also works on the weekends when I don't have to get up for work.

Good luck.

Try to make sure her room is very dark. This happened with my daughter and we purchased black-out shades and it worked like a charm. GL!

how about room darkening blinds or shades. I think the old roller style shades are room darkening. I bought curtain liners at an allergy website. They also sell redi-shades at bed, bath & beyond that are temporary.
good luck. My boys have been doing better.

I had that problem. My daughter slept all night from 4 months to about 10 months. Now she gets up way to early. She is up at 5am. I also went and got a couple cheep but very safe toys and put them into her crib when i check on her at night before i go to bed and instead of the loud cries at 5am i hear giggles and laughs to the toys she is playing with. I also found that if i switch them up after a couple of days she doesnt get bored with finding the same toys.

Does she take 2 naps a day? If so this might be your cue to cut down to one. If not, then teach her how to play on her own until mommy comes to get her. I taught all my kids this and it's wonderful, now on weekends I can sleep late!