Sleep Issues - Idaho Falls,ID

Hi A. - it's pretty hard to adjust their wakeup times unless it's daylight savings or something. My little guy has been waking up between 5 and 6 for as long as I can remember. I would love it if he woke up at 7am too but it just ain't gonna happen. Some people have been successful at using 15 minutes increments every day to wake their kids up earlier but it's hard to get them to sleep later, especially with longer days ahead.

Here is a link to a webmd article on how much sleep kids need at different ages. Hope this helps you!

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children?ecd=w...

try to make sure they get enough tiring activity and then a soothing bath right before bed. Also try adjusting their nap time to an hour earlier.

Have you considered things like black out curtains for their bedroom? A lot of people respond to increased light and wake up early naturally because of it. It might mean you get that extra hour of sleep.

One thing we do with my spouse's son is to make sure he has something to do quietly in the morning so that he is less likely to get us up immediately when he wakes up, and we can at least get a half hour closer to being on the same page in terms of sleep time. He naturally wakes up around the time that he has to get up at home which is another time zone, and thus VERY early here. But he loves the video game treat, so he's pretty likely never be up to anything else and he's a little older.

At the end of the day, you should probably feel lucky that you have two pretty easy kids, even if it would be nice to get a little more sleep. Maybe you need to go to bed a little earlier to make it less hard on you that she's a morning person.

You should try again with trying to get them to bed a little earlier. It sounds counterintuitive, but a lot of children will sleep longer if you put them to bed earlier. Maybe you tried to move the bedtime up too much earlier when you tried it the first time? You should try putting them both to bed about a half hour earlier for 4-5 days and then maybe even another half hour earlier after that if they adjust well to the first change with a goal of 7pm. That is not too early of a bedtime for either age. I am not experienced with the older ages, but I know for sure it should work with your baby and I also consulted my sleep reference book, Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child (By M. Weissbluth), for the older child. It says 6-8pm is a normal bedtime for up to 3 years of age. You should also try to be very consistent with the bedtime routine every night. Whether you nurse your baby to sleep, rock him to sleep or whatever, pick a routine and stick with it. Since you have two and they are in the same room it is definitely more challenging. It is a little weird that your baby does not take a morning nap. Most babies of that age should still nap in the morning around 9-10am according to the book. He might just be one of the rare ones that doesn't nap, but I think more likely he is not getting enough sleep in general, so he's napping less. Sleep begets sleep. I'd recommend you get the book above as a sleep reference. Good luck!

My kids are all early risers too even if I put them to bed later. I dread daylight savings time! Needless to say, I would go ahead and push the bedtime to 8:30 and wait a week or two and see if it makes a difference. If you look at it, your kids are sleeping 10 or more hours per night, seems pretty solid to me. As far as the naps, how lucky are you that you get them both down at the same time. Your baby taking only one nap per day sounds right to me too. All three of my kids stopped their second nap around 7 or 8 months.

Good luck!

It sounds like you actually have it pretty good. Your daughter is sleeping 10 hours at night with 1 & 1/2 hour nap, and your 8 month baby is sleeping 8-10 hours at night. This is sleeping through the night. I think you are doing great! My 23 month old still wakes up a couple times through the night (she is in her own room). My 4.5 year old does sleep through the night, with an occasional bad dream. I do not really have any advise for you, but I wanted to tell you that you are doing a fantastic job! Good luck!

According to WebMD, children have the following sleep needs:
* 1-3 years old: 12 - 14 hours
* 3-6 years old: 10 ¾ - 12 hours
* 7-12 years old: 10 - 11 hours
* 12-18 years old: 8 ¼ - 9 ½ hours

http://www.devdelay.org/newsletter/articles/pdf/395-zzzzz...

I just read something about this in a magazine that you could tell your husband. It said that the reason the later bedtimes don't work to help a child sleep more is that the longer a child is awake the more their body produces the chemical needed to stay awaky (cortisol maybe?). So it really is counter-productive to keep your child awake later because they'll have more trouble sleeeping once they finally get to bed.

I also have my boys sharing a room. They're six and almost a year. We put the baby to bed about 7 and then get our older son ready for bed (bath, book, bedtime snack, etc.). That way he gets some one-on-one time with us and the baby gets a chance to fall asleep by himself. We also get our older son ready to bed in our bedroom, including reading a book in our bed, so when he goes into his room for bed he can just get in bed to sleep and it doesn't (usually) wake up the baby. Of course, there are nights when the baby is still awake and then it does take awhile for the two of them to calm down and go to sleep. But, I figure that's life with them sharing a room :)

You have a tough age combo for sharing a room. We did that too, but ended up having to get a kid asleep in our bedroom and then moving him/her to the kids bedroom, later on. Our son slept through our daughter's crying just fine, but he would wake her too early when she would have slept longer. And they loved to play together at bedtime instead of winding down...The other thing you could try is to put your son to bed at 7pm, and your daughter at 8.

Some kids are early risers. At 2.5, I think you should give up the idea of ever sleeping in...sorry. I only say that after trying for over 3 years to get my son to sleep past 6am. Your daughter should be sleeping 12-14 hours per day, and your son should be sleeping 14-16 hours per day. Some kids need more, some less. My son is nearly 3.5 now - he still takes a 1.5 hour nap at 1pm, and goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps straight through until 6am. My 2 year old takes a longer nap (2-3 hours) but also goes to bed at 7 - though she usually is not asleep before 8, and is up for the day around 6:30am. She does not need as much or as consistent sleep as my son (she functions better than he does, on a bad night's sleep). Good luck!

A., It sounds like you are doing a great job! I would stick with what you have and just work with your daughter to stay quiet in bed and teach her to fall back asleep. It is a great skill to know. I am the sleep Nazi mom. I have never allowed my children to get up before it has been 11-12 hrs after their bed time. But this does take some conditioning, that is well worth the results.

First is to keep the room dark, try the darkening shades or curtains they work really well!
Also consider putting them to bed just 15 min earlier and see if she sleeps longer. you could gradually keep moving it up till she wakes up when you want her to.
The main thing that I do when my kids wake up to early is go in and comfort them. It might sound funny, but I make sure that I look tired, whisper and not open my eyes all the way. Saying something like,
"it is not time to get up yet, it's still sleeping time. Mommy, and Daddy and baby are still sleeping".
Depending on the persistence of the child, you might get them to lay back down and go to sleep. Or you might have to say,
"we are still sleeping so you can sleep or you can look at some books in your bed quietly and then sleep".
Make sure they are not your favorite books, because some destruction might occur.
It also helps to have a visual like a clock, I put tape on the time that they can get up at. If they wake up and the hands don't match the clock, they get to go back to sleep.

You could also do a reward system, that if she does lay quietly until it is time to get up, or look at books, or go back to sleep, she can earn something fun in the morning. A small treat or a fun activity, or points for a bigger reward.

Good Luck
E.

I haven't read all the responses, but have you tried to move the bedtime EARLIER by 30 minutes or so? The days we have something going on and my son (2 yo), doesn't get down at his usual time (6:30), then he wakes up even earlier the next morning. He has had the 6:30-6/6:30 schedule since he was about 6 months. He was at two naps until 15.5 months, and then went down to one nap 1.5-3 hours. Maybe they just aren't getting enough sleep?

sounds normal and healthy to me. with the birds singing in the mornings, you're lucky they sleep until 6am! i am often woken by my 4 yr old or 6 yr old even earlier than that and i send them back to bed. my kids go to bed at 7:45. i've done the later bedtime before. but i feel like i get more time for myself and my husband with the earlier bedtime. i may fall asleep before my husband because i'm up with the kids earlier than he wakes, but at least we feel like we get a decent amount of adult time before i fall asleep.

I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but I can't think of a better sleep situation with two kids of different ages in one room than you've got. Honestly, I wouldn't mess with anything that's working so well if the only objection is a 6am wake up. Now, if it was a 5am wake up or a 10pm bedtime, I could see it being a real issue, but I would just roll with this for a while.

My guess is that your daughter will start sleeping later once she drops her nap, but I wouldn't force her to drop her nap in the hope that she sleeps later, because that likely wouldn't work, and you'd have a very cranky 2 year old on your hands. But she'll probably give up the nap in the not too distant future, and then the morning wake up will shift. Good luck til then!

I think the children should be in bed around the 7:00pm area. It is said that children and adults get their best sleep before midnight. (This has been proven) It doesn't matter if you keep your children up later, their wake time will not change and then they will be miserable. If both are having a nap in the afternoon that is good. Some babies just don't require 2 naps. I would however put the baby to bed about 15-20min. prior to your daughter, that just gives her enough time that if she cries the crying will lesson by the time your daughter goes to bed. I disagree with your husband as to leaving them up later, only because that up in the morning hrs. doesn't change. I had 3 children of my own and every one of them were in bed at about 7 as well and each one of them woke around 6-7 each morn, which suited me well.
I did read a bedtime story to all of them every night prior to bed. Even the smallest loved looking at the pictures'. It seems to soothe them. I wish you well with both, perhaps a nice warm bath prior to bed will also help. Feed them dinner, bath around 6pm and into bed no later than 7:30pm. Like I said even my own, if they happened to stay up later because of company or whatever, it never failed they always woke at the same time. I wish you lots of luck and again I wouldn't worry about only one nap per day, if they were tired you yourself would know that it was time for a lay down. Your husband has to realize that as an older person yes he can stay up later, but again like I said regardless of age, your best sleep is before 12midnight.