Early Bird Toddlers?

[BarefootinBrooklyn]

Hi all,

After finally reaching the amazing and long-time-coming milestone of sleeping through the night, my 2 year old is now waking at 4:30/5am every morning. I know I shouldn't complain as there are many mamas with frequent nightwakers at this age, but she has nightweaned and now we're just looking for one extra hour of sleep in the mornings...She's always been an early riser, 6 or 6:30, but that one hour earlier sure does make a difference in the whole day...she's napping earlier, and then sometimes twice a day, then getting to bed later, and having wakeful sleep...just a tricky cycle that we're hoping to improve on.

Have any of you successfully and gently been able to help your little ones sleep a little longer in the mornings? We're in the NorthEast so the darkness in the winter mornings isn't the problem...

Thanks in advance!

[moonmom08]

Are you co-sleeping? My 18-mo LO is in her own room and wakes btw 4:30 and 5:30 too, but I bring her into our bed and that buys us another couple of hours of sleep, till 6:30 or 7 (we have always brought her to bed at first awakening, it's just gotten later and later). But if your DD is already in bed with you, I don't know what to suggest.

FWIW, among my friends (even the CIO-ers) this seems to be a common issue at this age.

[kdescalzi]

Try to get your lo down earlier for bedtime. My 3yr old gets in these ruts of waking super early every 3-5 mos so I have BTDT! Once I realize he is back into this phase I make sure his nap has ended earlier in the day and he is asleep by 7pm no later. After a couple of early nights he starts to sleep in...sleeping in for us is 6:30am Trust me, it has worked like a charm for many of my friends HTH

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS is an early riser too, 5 AM lately. Can you nurse her when she wakes up at 5 and see if she will go back to sleep?

[BarefootinBrooklyn]

We're no longer co-sleeping, she goes down to sleep in her own room and then when she wakes we have tried bringing her into bed with us to buy some time, but it's really just her nursing nonstop for another hour (and my milk is nearly gone as it is) before deciding she's ready to face the day...we've just been trying to "start the day" whenever she wakes up to maybe wean her off that first morning nursing session, but it's just making us crazy.

I've heard other people suggest the earlier bedtime too, and you know, she has been going down a little later lately...I'll try that. Thanks! She was up so early this morning that her nap was at 9:30am for an hour, and she was all too ready to go down at 7:30. Hopefully tomorrow goes better!

My CIO friends who have the same issue are just able to give their little one a bottle and they go back to sleep, but for my daughter, there is just no substitute...she freaks out when my husband tries to go to her in the morning. I feel so bad for him, because he tries to help but she refuses him.

Thanks for listening! I know it's probably just a phase, but it was "one of those days," and I needed to commiserate.

[shanniesue2]

DS is also an early early riser. And we've been trying to up his bedtime... but it's not really working... he's still going to sleep at about the same time (maybe 15 minutes or so earlier) it's just taking him longer to get to sleep. And he still wakes up early. DH is also an early riser (always has been) so it's usually not too big a deal. Although one day last week DS was up and ready to go at 4:30... he had been in bed with us and kept saying down down... the house is pretty well toddler proofed so we put him down. But then he was mad because we didn't get out of bed too. So we pulled him back into bed and he tried again. We both just told him "it's not time to wake up yet. you need to go back to sleep" he tried to play with us and we both just sort of rolled so that we weren't facing him. He got mad and yelled for a few minutes. We told him we knew he was upset but that it was still sleepy time. after a few more minutes of yelling (not crying. yelling) he settled down and went back to sleep. Slept until 6:30 or 7. It's the only time that has ever worked.

[moonmom08]

Originally Posted by kdescalzi

Try to get your lo down earlier for bedtime. My 3yr old gets in these ruts of waking super early every 3-5 mos so I have BTDT! Once I realize he is back into this phase I make sure his nap has ended earlier in the day and he is asleep by 7pm no later. After a couple of early nights he starts to sleep in...sleeping in for us is 6:30am Trust me, it has worked like a charm for many of my friends HTH

Interesting! Maybe I'll try this too. Man, if she'd just sleep through that extra hour, what a different life it would be