Why do I have such a hard time waking up my child?

[StephandOwen]

It's such an emotional thing for me and I don't understand why. I hate waking him up. I want him to be able to sleep as long as he wants. Some days I have to be at work between 8:30-9:00 and I wake him up at 8:00. I don't mind that, but I HAVE to go to work and he HAS to come with me. So it doesn't seem like I'm just waking him up just to wake him up.

So, why is this an issue? School starts next month. As of right now he usually goes to sleep around 11pm and, if left to sleep as long as he wants, wakes around 9:30am.

The goal is to get him in bed by 8:30 and awake at 6:30 (school starts at 7:45). It seems impossible though. How do we transition to this? We had planned on this schedule...

this week- in bed by 10, wake him up at 8
next week- in bed by 9:30, wake him at 7:30
following week- in bed by 9, wake him at 7
following week- in bed by 8:30, wake him at 6:30 and continue this until school starts

But I'm having such a hard time waking him up (it's now 9:30 and he's still sleeping ). He went to bed later than 10 (probably around 11) last night.

We're going to get him an alarm clock for his room and hope that helps.

Should we stick with the schedule we have or should we just cold turkey it and start waking him up at 6:30. It would be a rough couple days of tired crankiness, I'm sure.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by StephandOwen

Should we stick with the schedule we have or should we just cold turkey it and start waking him up at 6:30. It would be a rough couple days of tired crankiness, I'm sure.

I would not recommend cold-turkeying this. We as adults had to do this recently when DH went from a job that required him to be in at 10 to a job that requires him to be in at 8. It wound up being a lot easier than we expected just because we did it gradually (albeit a night at a time, not a week). *I* couldn't handle doing it cold turkey, I can't imagine how your DS would feel about it.

[LynnS6]

Two thoughts:
From all the reading I've done on sleep (and it was a lot because dd was a lousy sleeper!), the one thing they all had in common was: A consistent WAKE-UP time is the most important thing in terms of resetting a sleep clock. It's true. We got back from vacation last week where our sleep was thoroughly messed up. This week, dd had summer camp every day where we had to be out of the house at 8:30 am. Day 1: Rough, rough getting up at 8 am. Day 2: Rough, but better. Day 3: OK. Day 4: She got up on her own at 7:50 am.

Second, I think shifting bedtime/wake-up time by 30 minutes is a bit drastic. I think you might have better luck with 10-15 minute increments. So, that one Sunday, you start the bedtime routine 15 minutes earlier, and wake him up 15 minutes earlier the next morning. Tuesday, start it 25 minutes earlier, wake up 25 minutes earlier. Wed or Thursday (depending on how it's going), start it 30 minutes earlier, wake him up 30 minutes earlier.

[SimonMom]

I definitely would not start waking him up cold turkey on his first days of school! He'll need all the rest he can get before a big transition like that. I hate waking up my kiddos too, but luckily ds1 who was in K last year doesn't have any problem getting up at 7. I think you just have to steel yourself and start waking him up earlier.

For reference, my ds, who is 6, went to bed at 8 through the school year last year and woke up between 6:45 and 7:15. It's off now that it's summer and we don't have a schedule to keep, but he usually gets around 11 hours of sleep

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by SimonMom

I definitely would not start waking him up cold turkey on his first days of school! He'll need all the rest he can get before a big transition like that. I hate waking up my kiddos too, but luckily ds1 who was in K last year doesn't have any problem getting up at 7. I think you just have to steel yourself and start waking him up earlier.

For reference, my ds, who is 6, went to bed at 8 through the school year last year and woke up between 6:45 and 7:15. It's off now that it's summer and we don't have a schedule to keep, but he usually gets around 11 hours of sleep

Thanks for the reference! Just as an aside... I wouldn't do cold turkey right as school was starting. *If* I did cold turkey it would be this next Monday (over 3 weeks before school starts) so that hopefully by the time school starts he would be used to waking up early and going to bed early.

[LuckyMommaToo]

I agree with Lynn that the wake-up time is key. What happens if you, say, open his door and are a little noisy, but still give him 15 minutes or so to acclimate? Unfortunately, if he's not waking up earlier, he's not going to go to sleep earlier, either.

good luck,
-e

[eirual]

If it's any consolation, I hate it and thus am terrible at it too. If I know I have to get him out the door I'll try to factor in "coming around" time where we can cuddle and he can nurse, and still try to be out the door on time. Other times I pray he sleeps in the car if he can keep sleeping afterwards.

How old is he? Up until a certain age (I forget when) kids don't respond to alarms....including smoke detectors.

Try to have something exciting or fun to wake up to (good breakfast, a fun outing, some activitiy....seeing the sunrise?)....might make it easier on you too 'cause you'd get to put a positive spin on it.