Getting past 5:00Am?

Hi Nicole;

My son also used to be a chronic early riser; any time between 5 and 5:30am. What worked was shortening his day time naps. He was a great napper. At least 2 hrs morning and afternoon,often 3. Once he was taking shorter naps in the day, he slept till 6:30/7, which was much more bearable for me.

Hope you work something out.
L.

My son is 10 months old and occasionally decides that he wants to be up at 5 AM too. He also goes to bed around 7-7:30. What I've found is that if he gets up at 5, he's not actually really ready to be up - is cranky after the first 30-40 minutes up. If I can get him to go back to sleep at 5 (usually after breastfeeding) then he usually sleeps until 6:30 or even as late as 7:15 before waking up "for real". ...which all tells me he's not really ready to be up.

How early are your kids' first nap? Is it earlier than about 9:00 AM? If it is (and I suspect it is), I would try pushing their first nap LATER (maybe by 15 minutes per day) and letting them fuss for a little longer around 5 AM each day. I think what is happening is that their last sleep cycle has become detached from their main nighttime sleep. If you do this then within about a week or so you should be able to get them to "stick" their early morning nap onto their nighttime sleep, thus they will wake up a little later. Then they can go down for a morning nap a little later too. And everything will be great. The Ferber book describes this in better detail than I have here. I did this with my son and it worked like a charm.

I don't want to sound like a bad mom, but what about just letting someone cry? Basically your baby has a habit of waking up; break the habit. I think 3 - 4 days of just letting the baby(ies) cry until the time you want them to get up (not more than 12 hours please!!!) is ok and not a bad thing and may provide the result you are looking for.

Try to put them down later and maybe they will sleep longer in the morning.Good luck

My son just turned two and also began to rise around 5 (he also goes to be between 7 and 7:30). At first, we would try to give him toys/books to keep him in there longer, but now he can get out of his crib. We have tried all kinds of things - big dinners, early bedtimes, later bedtimes, it doesn't matter! The Sleep Nazi (Dr. Weissbluth) says that some kids just wake up that early and if they are well-rested, then there isn't much you can do. I have realized that I have to adjust my schedule by going to bed earlier and also my mindset - that I will be getting up around 5 and anything later is a bonus. I will be thinking of you tomorrow morning!!!!

I have two early risers too. The great news is that as they get older they can somewhat entertain themselves when they first wake up. Since keeping them up at night will only make it miserable for everyone, just start quiet routines in the am so they do get into good habits.

I am totally going through this. My son is 12 months and wakes up at 5AM a lot. On a good day it is 6AM. He goes to bed at 6:30PM. I have always heard that sleep begets sleep when it comes to babies so I can't imagine keeping them up longer. I just think at some point they sleep 11 hours at night instead of 12 and that is what we are going through. Do you have twins? Maybe one is waking up the other? I have heard to keep the room dark, at a good temp, and use noise. I do all of this and use a white sound machine but it doesn't always cut it. My theory is that my son is just hungry. When he wakes we feed him and he seems starving. I would like to see what others say as well. But I am not sure if I agree with putting them to bed later, at least at this age. My thing is if they are tired at night then it is time to go to bed and not to force them to stay awake. Good luck and I feel your pain! Ooh also have your hubby switch with you. My husband and I alternate who wakes up with my son. So today I woke up with him and then tomorrow my husband will. We also don't compare who got to sleep until 6. Your day is your day :) It works well for us!!

Ok I would be interested to see what others say... all 3 of mine go to bed at 7 pm and are up between 5-6am. My first question how old are the kids? Putting them to bed later does NOT make a difference, I tried!! The only thing I found is that you can leave them some books and toys and tell them they have to stay in their room. I have also given them a digital clock and said ok when the clock says 6 0 0 you can get up. now that the boys are a little older (4 and 5) I tell them they can watch TV only PBS Ch. 11 though. They know how to turn it on and stick to it. They watch way too much TV til I get up but hey I now can sleep til 7!! WOO HOO... good luck it never ends!!

Why put them to bed so early? Seems to me if you want them to sleep later, keep them up a bit later. Worked for all 4 of mine.

I have 15 month old twins. They too have gone to bed each night at 7pm and sleep very well. We can't keep them up any later either. During the week we get up at about 5:30. On the weekends however, we like to sleep in so we let them be our alarm clocks. I find if their room is very dark (even when the sun starts to come up) that they will sleep past their normal 5:30. I've even gotten a 7am riser a couple of times. Our problem is that one will get up before the other so we go and get her (since the other is still sleeping) and bring her back to our bed and everyone will get at least another hour of sleep. I have also found that if you let them play, talk etc. that sometime they fall back to sleep on their own. Another thing is too look at how much sleep they are getting thru the day. If they are taking two shorter naps you might want to get them to take 1 nap that maybe doesn't last quite as long as the two combined. It does get better. Good luck!