Waking up TOO Early

My daughter was doing this at about that age as well. If we went into her room, she'd go back to sleep as long as we stayed there. We finally decided that wasn't a good method, because we didn't want her waking up at midnight and thus having to sleep the entire night in her room, so we let her cry for a few minutes. The first night, she woke at about 5 and cried for 10 minutes. The next night, she cried for about 5 minutes. The next night was about 3 minutes, and then she started sleeping until 7 again.

I hate hearing her cry, but she really needed to settle herself back down to go to sleep. And once she understood that, she slept much better.

Until she started climbing out of her crib and we had to put her in a toddler bed, but that's a whole different post... ;-)

My son was and still is a morning person. He turned 3 in January and I still have a little trouble with him. One thing I did when my husband and I were still together was to put a child lock on the door nob. I made sure he had plenty to play with but nothing that would hurt him. In the mornings, while I was getting ready for work I could listen to him over the monitor and only worry about getting myself ready. If he woke up before my alarm went off then I was able to keep sleeping unless he yelled over the baby monitor. To me that is what kept my sanity. Other mothers might think it's cruel for the child to be locked in their room, but it got hard on me when I went back to work and he was crawling out of his crib. I really hope this helps you.

My kids get into this phase a lot and it lasts much longer than I would like. Oddly enough, the solution might be to put him to bed earlier. Try backing bedtime up a half hour to 7:30. Also, make sure his nap isn't more than 2 hours. My daughter would take 3 or 4-hour naps and be up at 5am constantly when she was this age.

I have started just putting them back in their beds or leaving them in their rooms until the time I say they're ready to come out. Usually 6:30 or 7 is a good time.

My son went through that around that age. I would give him a little milk in a sippy cup and he would go back to sleep within 5 minutes. He has always had a very high metabolism and I believe he just couldn't go 10-12 hours without a little something on his stomach. I found that I needed to have NO interaction with him until the time I wanted him to get up, so no snuggles, kisses, or even speaking...... I would slip him his milk and return to my bed.

The time change issue is a little hairy... I'll be watching your responses for good ideas.

J.,
Hi there. All the books I have read and what I tried myself is put your baby to bed EARLIER and they will sleep later. They say start with 30 minutes and then possibly an hour earlier and you will be amazed that he will sleep in later. We have done it and it totally works. I have a 20 month old little girl. We were putting her down around 7:30-7:45. She has always been a great sleeper. Well this was a new later bedtime and we noticed her waking around 6:00am or earlier. We recently - a week ago are putting her down right at 7:00pm. She sleeps until 7:00am or later. It totally works. Try it.
M.

I'll also say put him to bed earlier. From everything I've read, toddlers need roughly 12 hrs of night-time sleep. My source would say not to do it abruptly, but rather to put him down 20 min earlier than normal for at least 4 nights nights and then do another 20 min adjustment, and so forth until you get to the desired wake time. (I follow a lot of what is written about in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weisbluth.) Like anything else, you have to commit to it for it to work. I really do not think babies/toddlers can get too much sleep. Their bodies know when they've had enough sleep and they "wake". When they are over-tired their little bodies almost don't know how to settle; therefore, making long, solid periods of sleep more restless, even difficult.

My daughter was the same way at that age, very eager to get going in the 5 o'clock hour. We put a digital clock in her room and put masking tape over the minutes and taught her to stay in her bed until the number 6. In the beginning, we'd hear her in there waiting and when it turned, she'd shout, "I see the nubmer 6!" It was kind of cute.

Recently, there was a child sleep segment on the Today show. The doctor on that segment had an idea that I think is neater than the digital clock. It was a "good morning light." She suggested putting a light on a timer and when the good morning light turned on, you could get up. That would allow you to set it for 5:45 (or whatever time) to start, then gradually move it back past 6:00.

As for the time change, it's never been easy for us. We've always just kept our routines by the new time. It's bumpy for a few days. I have nothing creative there. :)

Good luck!

Teach him the numbers 5, 6 & 7 if he doesn't already know them. Put a cute digital clock in his room & really make a big deal about it. Then, tell him the night before to look at the clock when he wakes up. If the first number is 6, he can get up. If it's 5, then it's too early for wake-up time. If he's not able to go back to sleep, he can stay in his room and look at picture books, etc. quietly until "6" Use "7" for weekends--you have to reinforce it every night. You may have to obstruct his "escape route" at first so he doesn't decide to wander the house. Be very positive & upbeat about him being a big boy. If he's potty trained, he may be waking because he needs to use the restroom. If not, he may still be waking because his bladder is full (which begins to happen around this age instead of steadily urinating in a diaper through out the night) Is his diaper/pull up dry or only slightly wet when he wakes?
Finally--and it may be a little late to start, but I would start changing my daughter's bed time by 15 minutes each night for the week prior to the change, later or earlier depending on the time change til she was somewhat adjusted. But, it's still a little crazy for a week or so. Good luck! And, it won't last forever. Next thing you know he'll be a teenager and you won't be able to dynamite him out of bed!

Hi J.,

I remember those days. As I was thinking about it, I had already forgotten why my daughter was getting up like that. It turned out that it was at about that time when she was consciously knowing she needed to potty. She was waking up because she knew she needed to go but still didn't have the "gotta get to the bathroom" movement yet. We went through a couple of weeks of getting up and staying up together but eventually time took its toll and she got tired and would go back to sleep for a little longer. Sometimes she would go potty first and sometimes we didn't make it.
Hope that helps- they're all so different :)

Have a great one!
A.

My son does this when he's teething... do you think that could be the problem?

I have a 14 month old and she sometimes does the same thing. When she wakes up before I think she is ready (I know she needs her sleep too!), I just leave her in there, especially if she isn't crying, until the time I want her to get up. If she is fussy, I will go in and lay her back down and tell her it isn't time to get up yet. This doesn't always work, but it's nice when it does and it seems to have worked for me so far in resetting her clock because I only have to do this once or twice and she starts sleeping in again. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to do.

As for daylight savings...I had forgotten about that issue. I am interested to see some of the other responses about that. Good luck!

V.

I think you're putting your son to bed waaaay to late. My son goes to be at 7:00 p.m. and sleeps until 7:30 a.m. We used to put him to bed much later and found that he didn't sleep as well or as long, so we adjusted his bedtime. P.S. My son is 23 months old. You may want to read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It gives you great information about how much sleep children need and the body's natural sleep cycle for each age. Good luck!

If he is waking up when your husbands alarm goes off, or about that time, ask your husband to take him back to bed and to tell your son that mommy is still sleeping and that it is not time to get up yet. We have found that our daughters would often go back to sleep.

Even if he doesn't want/need to sleep some more he can play quietly in his room until you get up.

Hope that helps.

J.,

This may sound weird, but try putting him to sleep a little earlier. This helped us. You may also try cutting back his nap during the day so he is really tired at night. Perhaps he is getting too much total sleep. Otherwise, leave some safe toys in his room so he can play quietly before you wake. A safety gate on his door may help as well. Good luck!