How to get up in the morning without waking kiddos?

[JessieBird]

Hey everyone - If you have to get up and get ready for work in the morning, how do you do it without waking up bed-sharing LOs? DS used to sleep right through our alarm but hasn't in about two weeks and it is making mornings so difficult.

We're working hard to make mornings more enjoyable but really I'd like to get back to those days when the alarm wouldn't wake him up. We've switched from buzzer to radio and are trying different gentle iphone alarm noises. Either they wake him up or they don't wake us up!

Should I just accept that he's now an early riser or are there tricks to sneaking out of the family bed without waking the baby?

Thanks for any advice you have!

[rzberrymom]

Have you tried a white noise machine? (or you could use a radio set to just get static)

Or set a cell phone to vibrate and put it next to your pillow?

[Maluhia]

I'd try a vibration on the iPhone?

Or just figure out a way for him to be up with you as you get ready for work....he sees the grownups are up, so why not be up? Silly little sweethearts

[jewelsJZ]

Well, I always wake up on my own, I just try to think about it really hard before I go to bed, what time I have to wake up. I usually wake more frequently during the night because of this, but almost never over sleep. Anyway, realizing that that is not for everyone, I will tell you what we do when the kids wake up too early and we are still getting ready and not ready to go downstairs.

Keep dry cereal upstairs and dixie cups, let them eat a few cupfulls while they watch educational kids t.v. in our bedroom. This is for our 2 y.o. and over.
Put a kid in the tub (we have a separate tub and shower but if you were just done with your shower/bathing, you could put a kid or two in the tub. Since my kids usually get bathed at night, they think it is a special treat to have a morning bath.
Bring up toys that they don't normally play with in the bedroom/bathroom and let them play there.
I have also gone downstairs and gotten their breakfast and brought it upstairs for them to eat (that was when we ran out of the dry cereal).
We used to keep an extra high chair that I got used in our bathroom when my youngest would actually sit still in it. Put toys on the tray or bits of bread/cereal.
After he wouldn't sit in the high chair, we had a portable crib/pack-n-play in our room filled with toys just for mornings.

And, yes, we do also use a white noise machine. This really does help drown out noise. My kids are so used to the noise machine now.

[JessieBird]

Originally Posted by jewelsJZ

Well, I always wake up on my own, I just try to think about it really hard before I go to bed, what time I have to wake up. I usually wake more frequently during the night because of this, but almost never over sleep.

This really works for me too! It's so cool. However, its not reliable enough to get me up at 5:30, which is about 2 hours before my natural clock says I should be getting up. Sadly it's necessary in order to get to work on time.

Thank you for all the suggestions on how to make the mornings easier - we have been using some strategies like these and they do help but still I would really prefer for DS to stay asleep a bit longer. DH and I are both very slow and cranky in the morning and it is so hard to hide this from DS. When we have a head start of just 45 mins, it makes all the difference. Then we're in great shape and ready to play and cuddle when DS wakes up.

I hadn't thought of using a white noise machine or the vibrate function on the phone! Great tips, I'm going to try them tomorrow morning!