Seeking Advise for Early Risers

HI, mine are older now, but for one of mine, I put a clock in his room next to his bed and told him he could not get out of bed until 7. I think he was about 3, I showed him what 7 looked like on the clock. He would stay in bed until then, so I didnt have to get up to give him anything to do. Eventually, he actually fell back asleep. sounds like they are getting plenty of sleep. the bedtime does sound a bit early. Good luck, it is so nice when they sleep in!

Hi K.. My daughter is 18 months. I have always had a problem getting her to go to bed early. So as long as she is behaving well I will allow her to stay up and watch tv with me. If she goes to bed at 10 she'll wake up at 10. Kids their age usually sleep 10-12 hours. So if I put her down to sleep at 8 pm she'll be up at 6am or 8am.

Hope I could help.

J.

Hi K., I think you might put them to bed too early, and sometime kids do get up so early for whatever reason so maybe you should give them one nap a day and do as much you can to give them a great activties you can give them to play or let them go to the park and stuff like that. i think the good bed time should be around maybe like 7:30 or 8am sharp if you want and see how long they sleep in the morning. I put my boys to bed early like 8am sharp and they stay sleep til i wake them up for school. i put my one yrs old daughter to bed at 8 am too and she only get one nap a day cuz she is very active til she get very tired in the night time she is knock out sleep til 7 or 8am.

i hope it work and good luck.

Do you have curtains in their room? Maybe the issue is the amount of light coming in.

I you stay at home, take a nap during the day with them if you are tired. that's what I would do!

K.,
Put them to bed later. My 4 1/2 year old goes to bed anytime between 8 and 9 depending on whether or not she gets a nap. She falls asleep quickly and gets up around 7. She's been doing that for a couple of years now. Also, make sure they are very active and don't drink/eat a lot of sugar or caffine. Good luck.

I went through the same thing when my kids were little, I had a 1 and 1/2 year old and a new baby, the baby went to bed at 7:00 and woke up at 7:30, the other baby went to bed around 1-2 in the morning and got up around 8:00, I just had to get use to it, I would get up at 7:00 feed my baby girl and then she went back to bed at 11:00 and slept until 2:00, this went on until she was 4 years old, I would make the other child lay down when the baby went down for her nap, it was rough on me, but that was 16 years ago and I made it through, you have to learn to rest when they are, and go to bed earlier than you usually do, I have a granddaughter now that is almost two and she goes to bed every night at 8:00 and is up early, we have tried to put her to bed later, but she still gets up early.I wish there was something I could say to help you, but you just have to work your rest period and sleep around their schedule, good luck.

Yeah, that sounds really early for a three year old. For the one year old 6:30-7:30 should be good. My son is two and there is no way he could go to sleep before 8:30-9 anymore. However, I don't really think there is much you can do about it. One thing that did help for us is putting up drapes on his window that competely block out light. I got them at Target, they are a brand called "eclipse". Not many color choices though. My son use to get up at 6, but now he sleeps until 7:30 with these drapes up. It sounds like you have done what you can do using toys and water. Sometimes my son would wake up, play with his toys, fuss a little and then fall back asleep. You might just be stuck with this early wake up time! The 6pm nap sounds like a bad idea to me, but it obviously works for some. With my son, it would just be an awful tease to have him get into a deep sleep and wake him after 30 minutes. Let us know if something works!

Both of my daughters are the same way (27mth old and 8mth old). Even when my eldest daughter goes to bed at 11pm she still wakes up at 6 or 6:30,she is just so miserable the next day. Some kids like to sleep in others are early risers, it is just their personality. I have always been more of a morning person then late night person. I also got up early as a child and I think they inherited that. I have tried everything from moving bed time early to later and nothing matters. Currently we try to get both of them into bed at 7:30. At least you get an extra 30minutes with milk I don't even get that. I also tried putting up a sheet to cover the window so the room is darker but that didn't work for my kids. You might want to try it I know it helped a friend of mine's daughter sleep longer. I even made sure their was no noise in the morning that could be waking them up but nothing, they just have a set time they get up no matter what. Sometimes you have to embrace your child's personality. I would try covering the window to make sure the room is dark in the morning. One of my co-workers has worked out a plan with her husband so they get a little bit more sleep. One sleeps in on Saturday and the other sleeps in on Sunday. The children know not to go into their bedroom on those days and the other spouse makes a nice breakfast. One day is better then none. Good luck!!

I have the same problem. I have tried keeping my two year old awake until 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, and it doesn't make a lick of difference - she's still up at 6am!!! And a nighttime "nap" won't work, she wouldn't wake up! I think we're just stuck getting up early. :(

I can say for me that is too earily of a bedtime for my who are now 4-1/2yo boy & 2-1/2yo girl.I would suggest. using the 6 & 7pm time as another nap. if mine take a quick 30 min nap. Yes they will want to up for awhile to get restly, but I have found popcorn as a light snack & then Lavander & Chamile body soap in their bath works great for making them tired. Mine will sleep at least until 8-9 depending on tireness, but for a few mornings I would get them up at their time to help ease them into the change. Mine where different, I had to fight to keep them from that time of napping naturally then wanting to stay up all night & then get up early. But now they fall on their own around 9-10 one is school so I have to be up anyways.
Good luck..

I have a 3 1/2 year old (Zach) and a 13 month old (Nick). For the love of all things good, I cannot figure out why Zach is an early riser! He gets up at the crack of dawn - between 5:30 and 6, takes on nap for about an hour to an hour and a half then doesn't go to bed until 8:00. Even though we put him in bed at 8, he doesn't fall asleep until between 8:30-9:30. We've been working on trying to get him out of a nap but every time we try it is TERRIBLE! When he was still in a crib and woke up early he would play for a while then go back to sleep. Now he comes and wakes us up so we have started putting a baby gate up so that he could still get to the bathroom but not into the rest of the house. It has helped a little bit. Now he hasn't been waking us up until about 6:45. My youngest, Nick is a screamer. He is not happy sitting in bed playing but if Zach is quiet enough Nick will sleep until 7:30 or later. He is a very light sleeper though so the tiniest noise wakes him. I'm sorry I don't have any clear cut quick fix answer for you! If you ever find one, LET ME KNOW!! Otherwise, just know that you aren't the only one :)
Jen

I know this might be hard on you but try ton letting the 3 year old take a nap! And only let the baby take one a day! That should help. My son just turned 4 and he quit taking naps after 2 and my 10 month old only takes one nap a day goes to bed at 830 or 9 and sleeps till 11 or less in the morning. Try that and see how that helps. Sorry I couldnt be more help. And sometimes I hate giving advise because I feel like people think im telling them how to raise their kids! Please dont feel like that! And good luck K. W

i would love to know that answer myself. i have 3 girls 9, 5, and 3 and the only one who will sleep in is the 9 yr old. the other two get up between 5:30 and 6. bed time is 8 pm. its easy during school for them but rough on me during the summers.

good morning K. S:
I have three teens(18,16,15) and I recall back in the day when my kiddos were early risers too. I finally gave up trying to change their early rising and I'm glad i did not mess with it due to now they are not so bad as teens to get ready for school and work. At least you are able to have them stay quiet and I would count that as a blessing. It sounds like you have done all that you can do , but again i would count my blessings that they are early risers and pleasant in the morning. I know that probably was not what you wanted to hear and I hope you are able to get suggestions from other mothers out there. Good luck and may God bless and keep you and yours.
C. G.