Help! I Need My 2 Year Old to Sleep past 6Am!

Hi H. - I, too have early risers that get up well before I have to leave for work. Consistantly what works for us though is not later to bed, it's earlier to bed! I find the earlier they go to bed, the longer, later & better they sleep. It's worth a try - good luck!

Don't give up the nap, you will need it when baby #2 comes. Trust me.

Room darkening shades. I got mine from lowe's and they were pretty cheap. It works wonders for my son. He was getting up early, now he sleeps in until 7:30 or 8.

Can you darken his room more? Can you bring him into your bed and get him back to sleep? Can you give him some milk and then tell him it's too early and get him to return to sleep? Can you put him to bed at 9 or shorten his nap? Some kids like to rise early but I'd try to discourage it. I sure get where you're coming from. I never put my little ones down that early unless I was prepared for an early rising.

Try this... We have had great success with this for our 2 year old. http://www.goodnitelite.com/

My son did the same thing at age two. He is now almost seven and still rarely sleeps past 7am. I'm sorry. Is he in a crib? Maybe you can just give him some special toys to play with while in there? You could sneak them in his crib after he is asleep, like before you go to bed, and then when he wakes up in the early morning they will occupy him. It's a long shot, but it might buy you alittle more time. I used to get up with my son, go in the living room, turn on cartoons for him and fall back asleep on the couch for 30min.

Try cutting the nap in half, or no nap. Put him to bed at 830 instead of 8. See if that works. He may be a little too much energy type though. If hes an early riser you may never break it. My daughter is a early riser all the time even know shes 8 she still gets up at 630 no matter what time she goes to bed. So good luck!!

Give him something to do while he is on his room. If he wakes up early, be can play, read a book, or watch a tv episode. My two year old wakes up a little earlier than I would like. So, she has a tv in her room that are set for only Disney, Nickolodean And PBS. I turn on Mickey Mouse and give give her a part or all of her breakfast. after she eats, she plays. Buys me about thirty minutes. And she's gotten to burn off some of that early morning energy making it easier for mevyo get get dressed and comb her hair. We do not leave her tv plugged in so she's not watching it all the time. But she does have various things she can do to occupy her for a short period of time.

If your 2 year old is still taking 2 hour naps, he still NEEDS the afternoon nap (and if baby #2 is on the way, YOU might need that down time, too)-- please consider NOT cutting it out. You might find that without a nap it's harder to put him to bed or that he goes to bed early and then just gets up at the same time. My daughter always seems to get up earlier in the summer because it's so light early in the morning (she's 4 now). We haven't tried room-darkening shades because I am an early bird myself and my 14 month old is an early riser, too, and our house is too small to sneak around without waking someone else up.
It seemed to me that my little ones always sleep in later when they go to bed EARLIER, rather than later.
Also, in terms of sleep issues, I have always found Dr. Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" to be a great resource book.

Gradually make bedtime later than 8:00 pm and if possible to reduce nap time. At 2 years old he may not need that much sleep.

Sounds like he is getting 10 hours at night plus 2 hours during the day. Total of 12 hours.

Summer time is probably a good time to start this as it sounds like he is in daycare.

H.,
Try to put a darkening shade on his window. He maybe waking up to the light coming into his room. I have a 3-year-old who is a good sleeper, but only sleeps till 7:30. I also have a 10-month-old who is my early riser....6:30 in the morning. It does not matter what I do...his bedtime is between 7 and 8 at night. I could keep him up later, but he still wakes at 6:30 a.m. I have come to the conclusion that he is a morning person and that I need to be OK with that and get up earlier myself.

I'm having the same problem with my 15 month old daughter, I think it is the age:) One thing that has helped me a little is putting up room darkening shades in her room. That usually gets us until at least 6:20, lol!

H. -

You could try cutting his nap to only an hour. At this age, they need twelve hours of sleep in a twenty-four hour period. In theory, if you take away one at naptime, he may make it up at bedtime. He may be ready to go to sleep sooner, though, and still wake up at 6am, You may need to gradually transition him back into an 8pm bedtime, and hopefully that will do the trick!

Good Luck
Dana

Just an idea......If it is a current thing (like last couple weeks consistently)...it MAY just be temporary. My 18 month old wakes up earlier than normal whenever she is cutting a painful tooth (molar, eye tooth, etc.). Maybe his two-year-old molars are starting to come in? Once my daughter's tooth cuts through, she is back to a later rise. Maybe try (just one night to see if this may be the reason) giving him some infant motrin when you go down late one night (midnight). If he sleeps past 6 am, the motrin may be giving him comfort and you may have an answer to the mystery. Try not to give it to him every night duting this time, however, since all that stuff is tough on their little livers.

If that is not the case (teeth/molars), I know the room darkening combined with the light-on-timer method work for my brother/SIL. They told their daughter she could not come out of her room until the light went on. Once she was in her toddler bed, she still would rise early but stay in her room to play a bit until the light went on.

Good luck!

I have the same issues with my children! The only thing that worked for us was having a light on a timer. If the light was on, he was not allowed to get up, it was still night time. When the light went off, that was the cue that it was morning and he was allowed to get up. This worked until very recently (my son is now almost 3 1/2) when he decided to go to the window, pull the blinds aside and tell us "the sun is up, it's morning!" So, we are now back to 6:00 a.m. wake times! Good luck and God Bless!

H.,

A lot of great suggestions have been posted to your question. Here's my two cents, you can take it or leave it:

Instead of room darkening shades, which can be expensive, we used navy blue felt and cut it a bit bigger than the window. I have put a metal clip-on curtain-hanger on each of the two upper corners and hang these on nails just above the window. When we put our son down at night the sun is still up and the combination of his shades and the felt helps to darken the room enough for him to sleep.

Our son's room faces west, so the setting sun pours into his window every evening and the felt still works great.
In the morning the rising sunlight is diffuse enough that it does not wake him up until his body is ready, which is around 7:30 a.m.

Good luck!

-C..

Well, I know from experience that the only thing that worked for me was to stop giving them naps. At 20 months my daughter stopped napping because she was getting up early and not really wanting to go down at 1 pm for her nap. It took a couple of days for her to get adjusted, but she was sleeping from 8 until 8 after that. My son was around 2 1/2 when he stopped napping. Now I have a 2 yr. old that will be 3 in October. Same thing is happening. She is getting up at 6-6:30 every day. I don't get my other 2 up until 7:15 for school. So this is really becoming bothersome. I am going to stop her naps this week. That way she will sleep in all summer and I won't have to worry about getting her down during all the summer boating, carnivals, parties, etc. Oh, one more thing, I see you work full time. Are you sure the babysitter isn't letting him sleep alot during the day. My cousin was just having this same issue, come to find out her mom (who babysat) was letting her little 2 yr old sleep everyday from like 1 until 5. And I know of a friend who had her little boy with a sitter who would put him back to bed at 7 am. until 9 am. and then put him down for a nap from 2 until 5. Mom picked him up at 6 pm. She ended up finding a new sitter when she realized her son was being made to stay in a pack and play most of the day so she didn't have to watch him. Horrible, I know. Just try to pinpoint how much he is sleeping during the days your at work. Good luck!

Before the time my kids were 2 - I had to cut out the afternoon naps. Maybe you can try cutting back, or making it earlier in the day?
Good Luck!!

Ah yes. I remember those days well. But this too shall pass. I promise, when they're 13 and older--they'll definitely start sleeping past 6:00 a.m. ;) Good luck!

H.; wow tough one, ahahah its great he has an internal clock that works, its funny you wll try to get him to sleep in in the morning now, then when school fights we try hard to wake them up, we always undo what needs to be done inthe future, you can simply set down rules of what he can do while up so early , turn on tv and be quiet, or whatever you need, you too can go to bed earlier and be up with him ? its a tough one getting that routine down, and coordinating times of wake up times, things you can do is put them down later in day , not just 15 minutes, but maybe an hour early if not i dont think i would worry about it, just baby proof your home and make sure they can stay in their room or do some silent thing , when my kids were up early i got up and turned tv on and they sat there a bit so i could go back to sleep, either way not sure how you can do that, except to bed later, or to assign them something to do in morning, they could be a morning person, and they will be able to play or do something, have a good day D. s