For the past couple of months my 18 month old has been getting up for the day between 5-5:30am EVERY morning. About six months ago she was getting up between 6:30-7am. I have no idea what has change but it is getting really hard on me. She has ALWAYS been a horrible sleeper waking up multiple times throughout the night but this new wake up call is rough. She has dropped her morning nap awhile ago and I have tried pushing her bedtime back 30 min but nothing has worked. She goes to bed at 7pm. I would LOVE to hear some suggestions How can I get my early riser to sleep in a little longer?
I put her to bed at 7:30pm last night and she slept until 6:20am waking up once at 3am and going back to sleep. My three year olds bedtime is 8pm and if my 18 month old isn't asleep before she goes to bed they are both up all night. But 7:30 worked last night so I might try that for awhile and maybe when she is about two we can try 8pm. I think this is about the same time I pushed back my older daughters bedtime but she has always benn a great sleeper. When my youngest wakes up at 5am she always is ready for a nap by 9am so I don't think she gets enough sleep at night. I have tried bring her to bed with me but she never falls back asleep and she ends up trying to get off the bad and it turns into a battle. So now I bring her downstairs and I get a little more sleep on the couch while she plays and watches some cartoons.
I never put my daughter to bed before 8:30 or 9:00, at any age. Then she would sleep until 7:00 or 7:30.
But, maybe you just have an early riser.
I truthfully think you are putting this child to bed at night so early that she's wide awake and ready to face the day when her needed hours of sleep are over.
Here are some professional's that share how many hours of sleep a child this age need. They are the professionals, certainly not me.
If a child needs 12 hours of sleep per 24 hours and they take a 2 hour nap then they only "need" to sleep about 10 hours at night. SO if a child goes to bed at 7 they are going to be up and ready for their day by 5am...that's not a choice "I" would make.
We preferred to put the kids to bed later so they'd sleep in a bit in the morning. Almost every one of my grand kids took a nap during the afternoon, right after lunch until about the time school got up with that time gradually shortening to about 2pm instead. They they'd take a short power nap around 5:30 or 6pm. They'd play and be so happy until about 9pm when they'd show they were ready for bed. They went down with little problems and some of them actually slept through the night until about 7 or 8am each morning. Our grandson still to this day goes down, on a normal day, about 9pm and whether it's summer or a school day he's up and bounding with energy around 7am.
Here's some sites that answer the question of how many hours a child might need for sleep. They do mention in almost every one that some kids need less and some need more. This is just a guideline for parents to see if they are close.
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"While toddlers need up to 14 hours a day of sleep, they typically get only about 10."
So this says that if your child is going to bed at 7 AND taking a 2 hour nap that they may only be sleeping until around 3am....that's something to think about. 10 hours - 2 hours of nap = 8 hours left of needed sleep time...
"They typically go to bed between 7 and 9 p.m. and wake up between 6 and 8 a.m." So it sounds like this is what your little one is doing, bed by 7pm and up by 6am.
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children
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This article says 11 1/4 hours is the average for a toddler. That would be from 7pm until 6:15am. So your little one is right about here too.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil...
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http://www.babycenter.com/0_establishing-healthy-sleep-ha...
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"18 month olds to 3 years: 10-12 hours at night, 1 nap (1 to 3 hours long)"
Again, this states the same thing you do, that your baby is waking up right on the schedule for when their bedtime is.
http://www.babysleepsite.com/tag/how-much-sleep-does-a-ba...
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One of the mom's who answered said her kids didn't sleep more than 10 hours in a 24 hour period, ever. So that would again put your child up around 3am.
http://pregnant.thebump.com/toddler/toddler-basics-13-to-...
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7pm-5am is a normal amount of hours of sleep for an 18 month old child. You are going to have to decide what's more important. Spending time with your child in the evening or getting up at 5am and spending time with them then. There's not much more to it, they sleep about 10-11 hours at night at this age and if they go to bed so early they are going to get up ever so early.
Your choice at this point what changes you chose to make.
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ETA
I still think that the bedtimes are pretty early. If I put the kids to bed that early we'd never get to spend time together as a family during the week. Your older one will be old enough to do T-Ball this coming spring in a lot of areas, they have games at 5:30 and 7pm during the weekdays. Most kids don't have a problem with this because they don't go to bed as early as your kids do.
As she starts school they'll have activities that may not even start until 6pm or 7pm and go until 8pm or 9pm. We find it works better for the kids to stay up later and then sleep a little later in the morning because we liked doing stuff with the kids in the evening.
It doesn't matter what time they go to bed or get up, what does matter is when you want to get up.
If you put the kids to bed early they will get up early. They only need so many hours of rest. By 12 months all children in child care are down to one nap per day, usually right after lunch for a couple of hours or more. Then they get up and stay up the rest of the day. They go home, eat dinner, spend some time with the family and go to bed between 8:30 and 9pm. Then the parents can have some adult time or what ever.
I enjoy those few minutes in the morning to get a shower or to start a load of laundry. I enjoy that quiet time to start my day.
I just encourage you to adjust your family schedule back at least half an hour to one hour so that your kids will let you get enough rest. You don't go to bed at 8pm I imagine so you lose time resting in the morning by putting them down so early.
This is the exact reason why my 2 year old's bed time is 9pm. He wakes up around 8:30 which is still kinda early (When you don't have to get up to do anything) but is much better than 5:30!!!
I would suggest pushing her bed time as far back as possible and maybe even letting her come to bed with you in the morning for an extra hour or so of sleep.
I think 7:00pm is too early for bedtime. She probably only needs 10 hours a night and a nap during the day at this age. Put her to bed 10 hours before you would like her to get up.
Well, no matter what time my kids go to bed at night or whether or not they have napped... they will ALWAYS wake up the next morning, at the same time. Which is about 6:00-6:30am. But usually 6:00am. 7 days a week.
They have been this way, since they were babies.
It is just how they are.
My friend's kids are the same way.
I would push bedtime back more. My daughters go to bed at 7:30. But they often aren't asleep until 8 or later. They wake up around 7.
If you let her come lay down with you will she go back to sleep? I would try that. Around that age my dd was still nursing, she would get up in the early morning and I would take her to my bed and nurse her, she would fall back asleep for a few more hours. You could try letting her have a bottle, if she still takes one and laying down with her. Or lay in bed and let her watch some cartoons with the volume on low, that way you can doze a little while longer.
I had two early risers by 5:30 am. There was not going back to sleep so I adjusted my schedule. After lunch everyone took a nap about 2 horus or so. We each had our bed and we slept. Bed time was 8:00 to 8:30 at night.
I made a daily routine schedule and worked it. The house was clean and the kids were happy and the meal was home cooked. We went to the park after the nap for a good hour and dad picked us up on the way home.
No one said parenting was easy and we have to find the flexibility in it to get everything done. When the kids are older you can sleep in if you are not going to weekend soccer games that start at 7 in the morning like a lot of football games do.
The other S.
My son went to bed around 8:30 at that age. Assuming your child has time to nap I would try a substantially later bedtime. I would also tell my son it was still night if he woke while it was dark out. He almost always just went back to sleep.
My youngest has always gotten up between 4-5 am since the day she was born. She doesn't even nap anymore, it also doesn't matter what time she goes to bed.
She is just an early riser. This morning it was 4, she watched cartoons, went to the bathroom (she just turned 3) and then when dad get's home around 6 she spends time with him. Today she did fall back asleep at 7, but it did me no good I was awake and once I am awake there is no sleeping for me.
My son has an awful time with DST. It takes him a month or two to adjust to the change. He is also an early riser, so...yeah. He is always up between four and five, unless he is sick, then he wakes up, tells me he's tired, then goes back to sleep.
Going to bed early doesn't always mean they will rise up early. It's that pesky internal clock that generally does it. Make sure her days are super active, so she's good and tired for bed, then put her to bed when you decide. Her internal clock is going to wake her when it says to, and there is little to do to change it.
What you can do is change what she is allowed to do in the morning when she rises.You can train her to play quietly in her bed until it is time for the grownups to play with her. I keep music in my sons room always. I also have blackout curtains and blinds to keep the room nighttime dark(except for the nightlight). That only changes when he needs to get up, then I open them. I also have them in other rooms, so wandering around the house is not a fun experience when it is not time to get up.
Hope this helps.
Do you feel like she's overtired?
How long are her afternoon naps?
Kid's sleep cycles change, with growth spurts, teething, learning a new skill... lots of reasons. The best advice that i can give is to establish a consistent routine and stick to it. Here's the schedule I always had for my kids. Wake up between 6-7am/ Nap 12:30 or 1pm-3 or 3:30. Home dinner, dinner, bath, story bed by 8pm. Sometimes 7:30. My kids never had trouble going to bed and sleeping consistently; no matter if we travelled, time change, whatever.
Like S.H. my kids alway got up at the same time no matter what time they went to bed. Some kids are just wired that way...
While that's way earlier than I would be okay with, some kids are early risers and some are night owls. Generally, all of my kids go to bed beween 7:30 - 8:00. Number two is always awake by 6:30 at the latest. (We actually had to get him an OK to wake clock because he was starting to get up for the dat at 4 - 5 am). My odd numbered children (first and third) are night owls and if allowed could stay up well past midnight, happy as could be.
Both my boys are early risers. They have to get up by 6-6:30 during the week, so I guess it is just their internal clock. So not much sleeping in for mom on the weekends. :(
