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Other early risers? Solutions?
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Anonymous
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My 20 month old is an early riser - usually is up about 5:30 AM. His bed time is 8 PM and he goes down easily these days after a normal bedtime ritual of bath/book/drink etc. We have tried putting him to be earlier and later (following contradictory advise in books) but the wake up time remains pretty consistent, 5:30 AM. This really bothers my husband who wakes up angry every morning. It used to be okay b/c I could often cuddle him back to sleep but we just had a second child and competing obligations with a new schedule are making that difficult. We can't just let him stay in his room/toddler bed until we're ready to get up b/c he cries and screams bloody murder - and husband can't sleep anyway with that going on. Any ideas about how we might get him to sleep 30 minutes to an hour longer? Also, any other earlier risers out there to commiserate? Dear husband is convinced that our child is the only one that does this b/c his friends don't have this issue.
Thanks. |
Anonymous
| No suggestions though I am with you. My 22 month old does the same thing and I feel that we have tried everything as well including letting him scream for that additional time. It too feels that we are the only people with this problem. To add to it he still wakes up once or twice a night and cries out for us. Ugh. Let's hope someone has a suggestion. |
Anonymous
| i've had periods when my son would do this...and then suddenly he would start sleeping later. not sure i have advice (other than bed earlier which seems to work for me sometimes)...other than letting you know it might just change at some point for no particular reason. day light saving might help...if you can keep him on the same wake-up schedule. |
Anonymous
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You are not alone. But, i don't have any proven suggestions. our son turns 3 next week and wakes between 5 and 5:30 every morning - no exceptions. We've moved bedtime up/back but regardless, he is WIDE awake when he internal alarm goes off. It is so consistent that we haven't used an alarm clock in over a year. He isn't interested in cuddling or going back to sleep. He wants to immediately go dowstairs and start his day.
Next time your husband is frustrated - remind him.... The majority of U.S. Presidents were early risers. A tremendous amount of energy allowed them little sleep. Jimmy Carter once said, "I can get up at nine and be rested or I can get up at 6 and be president." Seems like Top CEOs have the same characteristic...so, i like to think his early rising is a precursor for success. http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/leadership/23188 Good luck, and know our lights are on at 5:30am! |
Anonymous
| Hmm, is there natural light in the room? Maybe having shades that COMPLETELY block out the light would make a difference till you let in the light when you're up.... |
Anonymous
| Oh and have you traveled with him to a different time zone and has that changed his routine? I know a friend whose baby was on a completely different schedule after traveling to Europe. |
Anonymous
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Can you hang tight until daylight savings time?
Is there a growth spurt coming up that might make him sleep a bit more? Sorry, not much help... |
Anonymous
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You are not alone. Our early riser can get up as early as 4:30am. We've tried blackout shades, later/earlier bedtimes, soothing such as rocking when he wakes up, etc, but none of that has worked for us. We've been coping by bringing DS into bed with up when he wakes and he will sleep off and on (more off) until around 6am. I think in part it's because he's naturally an early riser. Both my husband and I are pretty early risers outselves and I agree with a PP that this can be a good thing. But, before 6am is tough - not only on us but on him too (he's clearly still tired)! I also think he's hungry when he wakes up - is that an issue with your DC? For us, trying to feed him more before bed never works (he just refuses the food), but maybe you can try?
I'm expecting #2 and #3 (twins) and so I really feel like I need to do something about this soon! So, I've been reading a lot. The one possible solution I came across is called "wake to sleep" from the Baby Whisper. Basically you half-wake the child an hour before they usually wake. Then they apparently settle back into a deeper sleep and may sleep longer. You are suppose to do the half waking for 3 days and then see what happens on the 4th day. If still no results, try again for another 6 days and see what happens on the 7th. If still no results, then this won't work for you. I was all set to try this last week (I posted about it to see if anyone else had tried) but then my son got sick. So, waiting until he's better to try it out... If that doesn't work, we are just going to leave him in his crib until 6am daily (he's 16 months and has yet to learn how to get out) and see how that goes. I did do this a few months ago and it did seem to work to some extent after 2-3 days. But then we were travelling, he was sick, etc and it threw everything off. I hate to have to resort to this but since he's in daycare, he doesn't get to nap until noon which is a long time to go if you wake before 5am!! Good luck! |
Anonymous
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Mine used to be early risers. My DD grew out of it around age 4. DS3 is still kind of an early riser, but it varies.
A few things I found that helped: block out shades - while they didn't make DD sleep later, they did keep her room darker. If your DS tends to sleep later on rainy days, this might work for you. It can't hurt to buy the $10 roller shade and try it. Plus it cuts the light at nap time. Also, try limiting the nap to 1 hour or less. No napping after 3 pm. We tried putting to bed later at night but that never changed anything relative to waking time for my kids. Lastly, you might try putting out a special (new, rotating stock) toy on the foot of his bed after he's asleep each night. He might wake up and learn to play quietly with the 'new' toy for 15-20 minutes. At some point around age 5 or 6, they can wake up and watch TV by themselves for a half hour and think they're hot stuff for the independence. That was WONDERFUL when my two older kids hit that stage. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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I'm curious on the black out shades. We tried with our early riser, to no avail. But, with/without them it is pretty darn dark in there at 5:00am. I can appreciate the black out shades help at the 6ish hour (of course this will change next weekend), when the sun starts to break...but at 5:00am?
I posted earlier about the presidents - tounge and cheek. OP - if your child is anything like mine...he is WIDE awake at this time. There is no convincing him to go back to bed or cuddle. Coming into our bed just means all three of us are up. If we leave him in his room (even with new toys or 'independent' activities) he screams bloody murder (Moooommmy, cooooome get meeeee). For us it isn't crying, its pleading - he wants to start his day. Anyway - i still don't have any proven advice, although I will check back her in case there is something new for me to try. I just thought i would reassure you that you aren't alone. On a side note, I have used the opportunity to get myself downstairs to work out in the morning. My son (almost 3) will jump around with a Taebo tape (which is why i know he isn't groggy). I know he needs more sleep - but we havent' been able to figure it out. If you can win...join. |
Anonymous
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My son does this as well and we have tried everything.
There is no point in your husband being angry. That only exacerbates the situation; there are limits to how much we can orchestrate our children or make them bend to our will. Maybe your husband could go to bed earlier? |
Anonymous
| If it makes you feel any better, my almost 4 year-old wakes up at +- 15 minutes around 6am. That means that some mornings she wakes up at 5:45! The only good thing is that now she knows how to tell time and is not allowed to get out of bed until 6:45 but she often makes a lot of noise while still in bed and that wakes us up anyway. DH and I are plotting to wake her up at 5:45 when she's a teenager! |
Anonymous
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My DC never sleeps past 7 and is more like a 6:15 kind of guy. I think the posters are right that a less than 2 hour nap is essential. Also, strangely, sometimes putting my son to bed earlier (7:30 instead of 8 or8:30) makes him sleep later.
Some say they wake up that way just because they are hungry. Who knows. Your husband just has to deal and go to bed earlier if he needs more sleep. It's not something to get mad at, the kid can't help when he wakes up! |
Anonymous
| OP here - thanks to everyone for their thoughts. A couple of responses on shades and naps - we have good shades in his room (and the poster above is correct, at 5 AM there isn't any light coming in the windows anyway) -- also we do make sure that naps are reasonable and that they end no later than 3 PM. Unfortnately, going to bed earlier is not an option for the husband, we have a one month old and we go to bed as early as we possibly can already, 9:30 usually, and then do our best to get a little sleep between night time feedings. That's why this has really become an important issue recently, there was more flexibility and overall sleep previously, now it is pretty painful when the newborn[s last feeding may have been at 4 AM and our toddler is up screaming to start his day at 5:10 AM. To the poster with the presidential-info, ours does the same kind of hollering but since he's younger its less verbal, just shrieking and "mommy" and "daddy," there is no way to sleep through it and he doesn't want to play in his room, he wants us. All of your thoughts and input are really appreciated, thanks. |
Meconbear
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| What about hauling him into your room and having him play with toys there? When my son is up early and we're too tired to be up with him, we let him climb down from the bed (we co-sleep part of the night), close the bedroom door so he can't run amuck, and let him play with his toys and books at the foot of the bed. It's not ideal b/c he makes a lot of noise, but we can usually snatch another 20 minutes that way. FWIW, he used to wake up b/t 5:30 and 6:30 and now at almost 18 months has suddenly started sleeping until 7 most days. We didn't change a thing in his routine. |