How do you draw the line on morning wake up times??

[StrawberryFields]

I am wondering how other moms handle early morning wake up times because I am not exactly sure what to do, where (or how) to draw the line? Dd is going to be 2 in January. She no longer co-sleeps, she has a crib in her bedroom. She used to get up at 6 AM. 6 AM turned into 5:45 AM and then into 5:30 AM. Now she is starting to get up at 5:20 or 5:15 and I'm sure that soon it will be 5 AM.

I have absolutely no idea what to do, I don't even know if there is anything I CAN do... but I thought I would throw it out there just in case anyone had an idea. She gets up at this early hour no matter what time she goes to bed. Even if she has a bad night of nightwakings, she still gets up at 5-something. Her bedtime is around 7-7:30 PM.

Her bedroom is pitch black at that early hour so it can't be light sneaking in that is waking her up.

I don't want to make too much commotion in her bedroom that early because she recently started sharing a room with 4 year old ds and I want to avoid waking him up.

I have tried bringing her back into our bed but she quit co-sleeping on her own by sleeping better and longer every night in her crib until eventually she stopped sleeping in our bed all together. If I bring her in our room at any time at night she just rolls around, sings and plays, and tosses and turns until I put her back in her own bed.

I am not asking her to sleep in until 8 AM or anything but at least 6 would be appreciated... or at least just STICK with 5:30 instead of moving that up earlier and earlier and earlier... what do I do if she eventually is getting up at 4:45? 4:30? How do I stop it?

Thoughts??

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS is also an early riser. 6 AM is a good morning for us. Lately it's been between 4:45-5:30.

No advice.. just some commiseration. Maybe you could have some sort of "signal" that it is ok to get up.. Maybe set an alarm for 6 and tell her that she has to play quietly until the alarm goes off? What if you put a mattress on the floor in your room that she could lay on in the early morning?

We have our bedroom babyproofed and I just let DS get up and roam around the room until DH gets up with him at 6:00 and stays with him until he is ready for work.

I see you are pregnant.. could your DH get up with her in the morning and let you sleep a little longer?

[StrawberryFields]

Originally Posted by LadyCatherine185

Maybe you could have some sort of "signal" that it is ok to get up.. Maybe set an alarm for 6 and tell her that she has to play quietly until the alarm goes off? What if you put a mattress on the floor in your room that she could lay on in the early morning?

We have our bedroom babyproofed and I just let DS get up and roam around the room until DH gets up with him at 6:00 and stays with him until he is ready for work.

I see you are pregnant.. could your DH get up with her in the morning and let you sleep a little longer?

Thankfully Dh is the one who gets up with her, as he has to get up around 5:45 to get ready for work anyway. He turns on the TV, gets her a snack, and helps her go to the bathroom. Then he has to get in the shower and start rushing around so I don't actually get any extra sleep out of it... but it does give me some time to lay in bed and get acclimated to the idea that I have to get up.

[Jayray]

I am a new mama with a 6 mo, so take this for what it's worth.

I have also heard of mama's using an alarm clock of some sort to signal when their LO can get out of bed. Apparently there are some that light up instead of making noise.

[gopalakrishna]

Oh my goodness...I am right there with you! My DS just turned two this week and is right now getting up around 6am. He was getting up earlier for a few months, 5:00-6:00, but thankfully that seems to have shifted back to 6am. The most frustrating part for us is that once DS actually gets up he is tired almost immediately. I know he needs to sleep a little more, but sometimes there just doesn't seem to be anything I can do. He is also not the "play quietly by himself" kinda kid, believe me I have tried and would love to just let him entertain himself until I am ready to get up, but he just screams until I get him. I do sleep in bed with him most nights so in the morning, once he is awake and wanting "out" there is no convincing him otherwise. I have tried playing like I am asleep and ignoring him but he will seriously cry for 45 min+. It creates way too much stress for both of us.

Of course letting him cry has crossed my mind, but I think if he is still doing this in 6 months or so when he can understand more, maybe I will try explaining to him that he needs to stay in his room until 7am and if he wants to play quietly that is fine. But I still don't think he would get that concept at this point. There was a good suggestion that I found of getting a on/off timer for a lamp in their room and telling them that when the light comes on they can get up, but if the light is off, they have to stay quietly in their room. I actually purchased a timer the other day(they are everywhere now because they sell them in the christmas section, because people use them for christmas lights). I haven't tried it yet, but I am holding on to it for later.

I am also pregnant, so thinking about what to do when the baby comes and sleep will become even more precious. I just figure we will continue to play musical beds for a while. I liked the PP's idea of you maybe putting a toddler bed or mattress in your room for her to roll around on in the morning? I think I may try that. Have a bed for him in his room for him to start the night in, and then another bed next to my bed for him to come in and lay down on when he wakes in the night. That way he has to work for it

It also may pass on its own. DS was getting up 5 and earlier for several months and it felt like eternity, but now we are back to 6am(although I still feel he needs to sleep more). DS also gets up at the same time regardless of when he goes to bed and his bed time is sometimes as early as 6:30pm. Anyway, I am with you mama! Hope it gets better and I am going to be checking back for some more suggestions!!!!

[moonmom08]

I have seen these threads before...but never have seen that any found a solution...except time passing! I'm in the same boat. DD used to sleep till 6:30, but this keeps creeping back and we're now in the ungodly pre-6 zone...

[StrawberryFields]

Well today I am giving the no-nap thing a try to see if that changes anything. She's a little young but she HAS been fighting naps a lot lately and swinging between taking 2 hours one day, 45 minutes the next day. So maybe without a nap she will push that wakeup time up a little.

While I like the timer/lamp/alarm idea, I think she is a little too young for it. I don't think she would really understand. Plus, since she is in a crib, she can't get up and quietly play in her room. And my 4 year old is sharing a room with her right now so if she is awake in her room at 5 AM "playing quietly," that probably means she is bouncing around in her crib trying to wake him up.

I could bring her back into my room but she is not going to lay on the floor or lay in our bed, she's going to walk around, climb on us, play and talk. So I might as well just get up for the day, know what I mean?

Oh well. I figured there wasn't much I could do but I AM really worried about the fact that used to be on the line between 5:30 and 6 and she is slowly heading toward being on the line between 4:30 and 5. Ugh, I just wonder what am I supposed to do, just get up at any hour if that is when she decides she wants to be up for the day?? Between 5 and 6 is still a somewhat reasonable waking hour but I feel like anything earlier is just not right!!!

Today dh just decided he wasn't doing nightwakings or getting up at 5 either so if he's suddenly going to be a d*ck about it I gotta figure something out. I'm 31 weeks pregnant and I have a horrifying cold right now so hauling myself out of bed 3x a night and then getting up at 5 is not cool!!

[confustication]

When dd went through that phase, we transitioned her to a proper bed instead of the crib. It made all the difference. She slept later, and since she could get up on her own (safely in her childproofed room) she would often play quietly on the floor for a bit until I got out of bed. It meant that I was able to get up, shower, and dress before greeting her at the door to her room with a smile- much better start to the day for both of us!

However, she was an early riser from about age 2 to age 6... 6am was the regular wake time...

[confustication]

Oh, and I'm currently writing off any hope of reasonable sleep times. I'm now up at about 4-4:30 every day, and at that point I may as well get breakfast started.

The oldest though- who was my horrible sleeper- yeah, she's still sleeping at about 8:30 a.m.....

[BMG580]

Yep, I'm here too. We're lucky if DS makes it until 5:30 a.m. He will be 2 in January. He still needs a nap, so can't change that, but I pushed his bedtime up to 8 p.m. because he was waking up before 5 for a couple weeks and that was my limit - NO!