Too-early riser tips?

[allisonrose]

My son tends to wake around 5 am. Sometimes he goes back to sleep with a bit of milk (unfortunately I don't tend to fall back asleep). Other times, that's it for the day. Anyone have any luck getting their early riser to sleep in till a more reasonable hour?

[akind1]

if milk doesn't help (well, all the time) I am sure the little guy is mobile . . . will he stay on the bed quietly while you sleep, or in a pack n play near the bed? DS is 6 months and sometimes will just lay there talking to himself a while while we catch a few more zzz's. (when we are lucky, he talks himself to sleep)

What time does he go to bed? any luck pushing that a little later?

[Parker'smommy]

When my kids did this, I treated any waking before 7 am like the middle of the night. Seriously. I would nurse them and shhh them and say things like, " It's still nigh nigh time....go back to sleep". At first, yah, it didn't work. But I was consistent and viligant and man....it worked. It helps that I keep my room ( and now their rooms too) dark...very dark. I have darkening shades in all of the bedrooms.

I still do this to this day. In fact, today, dd woke up around 6:30, asked where her daddy was ( left for work already) and then I told her it wasn't time for us to wake up and to go back to sleep. She knows I'm not playing around...I mean it. We are NOT waking up yet...lol. So she rolled over, asked me to cuddle her and we went back to sleep. In fact, she stayed in my bed till 8 am, when I was up at 7 am with my 8 year old getting him ready for school.

[allisonrose]

akind1 - Yup pretty much as mobile as it gets! He doesn't just hang out quietly - he often ends up climbing over me and his dad.
Last night he went to sleep at 9! I don't think later is going to accomplish anything in our situation. I think bedtime should be earlier but hubby does bedtime and gets frustrated that he takes him up there but he doesn't get down for a while.

Parker'smommy - I think you have a good point about making the bedroom darker. We moved into this house nearly a year ago and the blinds for the bedroom still are not installed. We just have some flimsy curtains up. Hubby is talking about installing the blinds this weekend and getting some nicer curtains.

[lifeguard]

I agree with pp's. Anything before 7 (ok, 8) is just not morning in my books. Very occasionally ds will not be able to go back to sleep & I just let him play in the room well I doze (obviously you need to have the room baby proofed for this) but generally he gets it.

[CherryBombMama]

most of the time i can pat my ds back to sleep (we cosleep so i just roll over and start patting) but once a week or so it will take up to an hour! but its worth it in my book cuz we live w/ the in laws and there is no way i wanna see them at 5am! LOL

and yeah, darkening the room helps. i have blackout curtains, but i didnt buy enough so light would escape the ends of the curtains, so i just added a thick flannel sheet and hung that on one side to push the black out curtains all the way to the side. make sense? and we have two very dim night lights for when i need to pee at night (7 months pregnant!)

[LCBMAX]

ok, but wait you guys -
are some of you saying that even with a napping 2+ year old who wakes on the later side (7) you still get a decent bedtime? like before 8:30? even now in the summer?


we've finally got 28 month old son sleeping a little past 5, and while I crave more morning sleep, I'm bummed by the bedtime creeping toward 9. I have NOTHING left after that, and I miss my husband!

[lifeguard]

LCBMAX - We have accepted that it is fabulous that ds sleeps until 8:30 most mornings but that sacrifices some evening time - he just is not a child that needs 12 solid hours at night. Although I miss my evenings a lot I am NOT a morning person & it's better for all of us being shifted this way.

[curiouscanadian]

OP, it sounds like we have the same child! Sometimes DS will go back to sleep but more often than not he's up for the day. Today it was 4:30!!! This is NOT sustainable! :yawning

We've got a white noise machine, a dark window blind, I don't offer him breakfast until a more reasonable hour, have tried both pottying him (he's PLing) and not pottying... I'm not sure what else to try! I have heard getting them to bed earlier can help them sleep later (sounds backwards but I've heard it enough places I'm guessing it's true), but he goes to sleep around 8 and earlier just isn't realistic on a regular basis for us.

DS just won't (can't?) lay quietly. He tosses and turns and ends up climbing/kicking/sitting on whoever's laying with him and trying to sleep. A few times he's even told me to "Wake UP!"

I would nurse them and shhh them and say things like, " It's still nigh nigh time....go back to sleep". At first, yah, it didn't work. But I was consistent and viligant and man....it worked.

Parker'smommy, how long did you do this before it started working? I tried it for the first time this morning, and am willing to keep working at it if others have had success, but it did nothing this morning!

Confession time : There is a door handle lock on the inside of his bedroom door from when we switched him to a bed and were afraid he'd wander at night. We've never used it (rarely even close his door) but I was so fed up this morning that I told him to either go back to sleep or play quietly and closed him in his room. He lasted a total of about three minutes before he started freaking out so of course I went right back in but darn it! Kid, I don't care if you don't sleep, but please let us!

[Aries1985]

I'm in the same spot. My 23 month old is waking up at 4-4:30 every day, despite black out shades and having someone come in to help soothe her back to sleep. She just started sleeping though the night or with only 1 waking, but the cost seems to be this insanely early wake up time. She is like a zombie in the mornings and then, gets so over tired for naps/bedtime that she has a really hard time falling asleep. I have tried EVERYTHING to get her back to bed, but nothing works. She's always been an early riser (usually 6), but this is too much.

[allisonrose]

Well, at least I'm not the only one wrestling with an early bird. He slept in until 6:45 this morning after a quick 5 am waking. We cosleep so at least it's relatively easy for me to nurse him back down. Last night was actually pretty good: he slept 11 pm to 5 am. Maybe the nightweaning is starting to pay off!

Hubby installed the blinds and we got some curtains that are supposed to block out a lot of light but they aren't great. I need to talk to my mom because she has some curtains that really do block out light....