Help, my 18 mth old son has been sleeping all night since he was 6 mths old with some occasional moments of getting up early normally due to a reason. However, for the last 1-2 mths he now gets up at 5 am, and it use to be 7 and he goes down at 8pm. We have tried putting him to bed later but that does not work. Since the time change he is not getting up at all different times. We have a very good bedtime routine and he gets into his big boy bed without a fight most nights. I am exhausted at 5am, please offer some advice ?????
Still struggling with this and we have now been doing this for 2 months. He is in a big boy bed (the crib that converts). I cant really let him cry it out since he has full range of his room, and he comes out of his room screaming for 'momma or dadda.' I also cant shut the door and let him cry for that is just crazy to even think about that. He will sleep on his bean bag of floor better then his bed. A few people told me that there kids did the same thing and once they got him a BIG BOY bed they slept better and that helped there problems. So today I am assembling a big boy bed.
How much does he nap? If he still takes 2 naps its probably time to phase out one of them. He is sleeping 9 hrs at night right now and only needs a total of about 12 hrs sleep total so if he is taking either two naps or one long one cut it back a little.
Honestly, lots of kids go through this and there isn't much you can do about it. When my son went through his "early riser" phase, my husband and I rotated who got up with him (especially on weekends) so that there was only one over-tired parent. We also made that first hour he was awake a quiet time... reading books, puzzles, coloring a little t.v. so that he didn't think that it was a good time to gear-up the toys.
The only thing I can tell you is... this too shall pass. Literally out-of-nowhere he started sleeping until 7:00 ish again. No reason... didn't do anything differently... just got back on track.
There isn't anything you are doing wrong or should do differently. My kids were the same way, both of them. You need to go to sleep earlier, trade off with your husband so you can sleep some days and sleep when your little one takes his morning nap.
Both my kids went through this about this age. There isn't anything you can do about it. This is the age I let my kids start watching Blue's Clues on Sat. and Sun. mornings. I let them watch 2 episodes in my room so I could stay in bed an hour longer. During the week, I just got up with them whenever they got up.
Like Krista said, this too shall pass. My husband and I rotated who got up on Saturdays (my day to sleep in) and Sundays (his day). Other than that, you need to go to bed a bit earlier!
I would just make sure that there is no light coming through the window, that the room is still dark around 5am.
first of all as crazy as this sounds kids will sleep later if you move the bedtime earlier! I know it sounds nuts but it works! The other thing is don't go into his room for at least 30 minutes. And then only if he has been crying. He may 1. fall back asleep, 2. learn to play in there by himself. If you keep moving back when you go in there he may learn to play in his crib by himself for an hour plus! Turn the moniter off and don't get up unless he has really been crying for a while.
My son has always been an early bird, but he went from getting up @ 5:45 or 6:00 to getting up at 4:45-5:00 when he was @ 20 months. Since we also had a newborn, the whole family was exhausted and it was miserable!
The only thing that seemed to help was to shut his door. I think if he woke up and the door was open, he would think... "I can walk out there and do things!" If it was closed, he must have just rolled back over and went back to sleep. That seemed to help a little but was by no means a miracle cure. He is now 30 months and getting up @ 5:30-6:00.
We tried putting him to bed earlier and also later, and neither seemed to work consistently. Putting him to bed later backfired alot, because if he still got up early, he was MISERABLE because he was extra tired.
Good luck! You are not alone! :)
It sounds counterintuitive but try putting him to bed a half hour earlier and you may find it helps him adjust back to a later wake time even 6 am would be better! It's normal for waking patterns to change at this age and it stinks that it's 5am. My personal clock is still messed up from this time change, why does it seem to get worse as we get older? So his could still be as well. The next suggestion is to tell him (hard at 18months, I know) that he needs to stay in his room until mommy or daddy comes to get him but that he can sit and play toys or read books.
there is not much you can do. this will pass - can you put some books in his crib, so when he wakes at 5 you don't have to go get him right at 5?
in my experience, putting the kids to bed later never works, they always wake up at the same time.
