We are having a really hard time with the daylight savings time change. My son is 22 months and I have a 9 month old daughter as well. They are both very loud when they wake up and wake each other up. Here's my problem: My son is waking up very early. Between 3:30 and 4:45 a.m. For the day. And he wakes up the whole house, whether we leave him in his room or go into his room or let him come into our room, and he will not go back to sleep. He does not comprehend the fact that it's THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. I am at my wits end. Our daughter still wakes in the night, I'm recovering from sinus surgery, I work full time, and I really need my sleep. My husband does get up, but if it's after 3:30, my body can't relax itself back to sleep no matter what I do. Plus, then our daughter gets woken and my husband can't soothe 2 kids at the same time in different rooms.
Our son goes to bed between 7:15 and 7:30. We solved this problem back in September by moving him out of his crib into a toddler bed and things have been wonderful since then. He appears to be getting his 2 year molars in so we're giving motrin before bed. We now are trying a later bedtime but have to give it several more days before we can decide whether it helped or not. In the meantime, I'm exhausted and I'm starting to be on edge all the time, which isn't making me a good mom.
Help! Is anyone else going through this? Does anyone have tricks to keeping a toddler quiet and happy early in the morning (other than TV) or to getting one back to sleep? He's been difficult with sleep all along - he's a light sleeper (so the baby crying will wake him at least half the time). He does go to sleep on his own though. We've done blackout curtains, nightlights on/off, rearranging the room, humidifier/fan for white noise, moving bedtimes, dragging out the bedtime routine, etc. I feel like we've tried everyting - we've had this waking early problem on and off since last January.
My personal threshold for waking up is 6am. So I'm not asking for "sleeping in" by any stretch of the imagination. My son simply is NOT getting enough sleep. He consistently needs 11-12 hours at night, and he does not nap long at daycare (generally 1-1.5 hours, he's never been a long napper, and this is consistent with what he does at home).
Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately, the night after I wrote the original post, my son figured out how to get out of his bed! So the problems have become much worse, getting out of bed at all hours. We are power super-nannying him with the "taking him back to bed without any interaction" routine but we've been doing this for 3+ weeks and we are exhausted! The later he goes to bed, the earlier he wakes, and so we're holding at 3:45 to 4:00 a.m. this week! We have yet to talk to his doctor, so this will be our last try and then what? Something like give up, I guess. :) -tired mom
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A.T.
answers from
Syracuse
on
I feel your pain! Have you talked to your pediatrician about this and do they consider it a sleeping disorder(a far reach I know.) I wonder if he's deficient in seratonin or is it melatonin. The component in your brain that helps you relax and sleep. Just a thought I would run past you.
I know this is a far reach to because I am pretty sure you guys are really active, but is it possible he needs more exercise or something that will really get him tired and require alto of sleep to recover- have fun with that suggestion.
But after reading through your question again I am a little stumped.
So he is tired when he wakes up but he's still waking up? You said he's not getting enough sleep so he must be grumpy or exhausted just not wanting to sleep in or go back to sleep when he wakes up.
I wonder if you did try T.V(and a cozy blanket) if he would end up falling asleep in front of it anyway.
Unfortunately my advice comes down to ploppin' your kid in front of the T.V, exactly what you didn't want to do. Good Luck!
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J.P.
answers from
New York
on
Hi M.,
it sounds as though you had things under control until the time change correct? I remeber this at times when my kids were little it is awful to go thru. Everyone seemed to give good advice but I am wondering how long you have been giving him Motrin this can make some children excited rather than calm them down.This could be part of the problem.
Good luck
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L.M.
answers from
Rochester
on
Hi, I was wondering if maybe you should move the bedtime to a later time. Maybe try starting at 7:30 so he is asleep by 8 pm or maybe even later. This way, he will sleep later in the morning. Just keep it at a consistent 8 pm bedtime and when he wakes up, put him back to bed and say its still bedtime. Then do it again without saying anything (the supernanny routine). Another thought is could he be waking up with a wet diaper? That could be the problem too. Sometimes a wet diaper is cold. These are the thoughts that I had.
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J.N.
answers from
Buffalo
on
put him to bed later and really try to stimulate him in the evenigs, either by dancing to burn off any energy, take a brisk walk etc...
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D.S.
answers from
New York
on
Dear M.,
I own a daycare center and prior to that I worked at many. Are you sure he is not sleeping long at daycare, or are you just going by what they are telling you? If there is not a director always on site most teachers are not going to wake up a 22 month old unless someone is there enforcing the rules. Trust me its not going to happen. As long as those teachers can get a break they will. I know at my center the kids go down for a nap at 12:00 and most are up by 1:30 everyone else by 2:00. They then have their diaper changed, wash hands for snack at 2:30. I would make an unexpected visit at the time they say he is waking and just make sure its happening. I have worked at centers where kids have slept 3 or more hours and were watching a lot of tv so they were not getting enough physical activity (which is why I own my own now). If a mom tells me she is having difficulty with her child sleeping at night and to please wake them after one hour we do. In some cases we have cut out naps all together we just have them rest for 30 minutes. If he is not tired there is a reason he is making up for that sleep sometime and its probably at school. I would first insist that he is woken up after 1 hour and see if that helps. If that doesn't help then you are just going to have to let him cry and learn to sleep through the night. Try to do it on the weekends when you and your hubby do not have to go to work and can maybe take turns catching a nap.
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K.W.
answers from
New York
on
Let him stay up at least until 9 if you want him to get up later.
My son two and daughter 11 months went through this briefly this year.
My little girl woke at 3:30-4 am to play and the next night she was up at five.
I gave her a very short nap the next day as opposed to two hours and kept her up until 9 instead of 7:30/8 pm.
she got turned back around the next night.
Good luck
