My 18 month old gets up between 5:30 and 6:15 every morning. What do those of you with early risers do? We've tried cuddle time, but he squirms around. We've tried telling him it's till night-night time and letting him fuss/cry (difficult because he shares his room with big brother). We've tried letting him go to get later, but really it happens no matter how early or late he goes to bed. It drives me crazy -- I usually get up between 6:30 and 7:00, so it's not even that huge of a difference some days; but I have to go to bed later, so I'm counting minutes!! I know the rest of you are too, so any advice, words of wisdom, etc.? Thanks in advance!
Teach him the number 7.
Put a digital clock in his room where he can see it. Put tape over the minute numbers. Tape a large #7 above the clock. Tell him he wake up when the clock says 7.
The clock rules!
I did this with my children and it worked quite well -- especially when they were toddlers in big kid beds. If the clock doesn't say 7, you can't get up.
LBC
Get used to it. :) Mine has been an early riser since birth. I can't remember the last time I slept till 7am. Probably since before she was born, and she's 5 now.
I started turning the tv on in my room and letting her watch tv while I semi-snoozed w/ her in bed w/ me while watching tv.
My kiddo is up at 545am for daycare all week, so her sleeping in till shortly after 6am is sleeping in. It sucks, but that's our life. Up w/ the birds. At least it's getting easier to be up now that the sun is up too.
During the week we have to get up at 6 so I feel your pain. I usually don't allow a lot of tv for my son (18 months), but on the Friday night, I will make sure that everything is toddler proof, gate off the hallway so he can go to into his room and mine. Saturday and Sunday I turn on Thomas the Tank Engine in my room so I can snooze, but keep and ear out for him, and he will sit there for hours. I usually will only do this for half an hour to an hour, then no more tv for the rest of the day.
I get a little more sleep, so he and I both are happy.
I feel you. I don't know how temporary it is. Both my 5 year old and 2 year old are early risers. And they both ALWAYS have been! If they sleep in until 7 we consider it a win, but it rarely happens. And it doesn't matter what time they go to bed, still up at dawn! Around 2 they started letting us cuddle and doze a bit, but not much. Basically, we suck it up and deal with it. Not comforting, I know. The hubby and I try to trade days on the weekend so someone gets to sleep in, that helps. Although it's funny on how on his day "He just doesn't hear them"...hmmm. And we relish the rare days we ship the kids off to MeeMaw and Paw Paw's for the evening! :)
My SIl trained her kids to sleep later with black out curtains and sound machines. Her now 4 year old daughter has a clock that is red when she is supposed to be asleep. I tried her tricks and they didn't work for us. ANd now my SIL is concerned about her daughter starting school because she is IMPOSSIBLE to wake up early! So maybe having early risers isn't all bad.
I have to agree with the first two posters, it's just part of having a toddler (for some of us, some people are blessed with late sleepers). My son was up at 5:30 at the latest EVERY DAY until he was about 3 1/2. Then he "slept in" until about 6:30 for the next year, and then he was sleeping from 8pm til 8am! Now, at 6 yrs old he sleeps about 11 hours a night, and I have a two year old who's generally up around 6:30am. I just decided to go with it and use my mornings to my advantage. On a Saturday, I get up and shower right away and we eat and get to the grocery store before anyone else! :)
My youngest daughter is 21 months old, and this has been the case for all three of mine: They need more food during the day to sleep longer. Whenever I slack on their food, boom, less sleep.
Whenever she hasn't eaten a ton all day, she pops awake a good 2 hours before I'm ready for her. But on days like today, where she ate a lot yesterday and the day before: Here I sit, with my morning coffee, undisturbed and she's not stirring yet! 9:00am and she went to bed at 9 pm. ahhhhhhhhhh, the relaxatiooooon.
It will take 3 days before his body registers the increase in food, so don't get frustrated the very first morning. Stuff him for three days. He'll sleep longer.
ok here will be the most politically uncorrect answer you will get lol. When my oldest son was that age he was up for good at about 4:30 not good since at that time he had a 4 month old brother. I put a playpen in the living room in front of the tv and a small bowl of cheerios in the corner before we went to bed. then when he got up at 430 in we went to the living room. I changed him, plopped him down in the playpen with the cheerios and a sippy cup of milk. I lay down on the couch and dozed while he watched peter pan. he would fall back asleep about 10 minutes in. and we both got another hour and a half of sleep before the rest of the house was up and moving. Not an ideal solution but it was the only one that worked for us. As he got a little older I would stuff him full of a snack before bed and he slept longer.
It's only temporary! There's not much you can do for an early riser. Like you said, even if you adjust his bedtime he will get up at the same time - mine did the same thing. A playpen is a wonderful thing...After they were changed and fed, I would put them in it and lay down on the couch and chill until I needed to get up. Getting up early is just one of the many sacrifices we make as a mother :)
My husband and I work opp shifts so he has to get up early with the kids (when I leave for work) and he has usually just had about 5-6 hours of sleep the night before (bc he gets home so late) We have solved this problem a few different ways.
1) I make breakfast muffins that the kids can eat by themselves (mine are 4 and just turned 2)
2) We put up the baby gate in the living room, put on cartoons, and my husband naps on the couch.
3) We have one of our babysitters come over on Friday mornings so my husband can sleep in once a week. He says it makes all the other mornings doabel because he knows he will get to catch up on sleep once a week!
I haven't read any previous answers, but here's what we did:
We pre-set theTV to the Disney channel and our boys (two of them!) would get some special TV time before mommy and daddy woke up. When we got up, we let them finish what they were watching, and then it was time to get dressed, eat, and generally start the day.
We'd tried everything to get them to sleep later, and nothing worked. (Those of you who are going to judge, go ahead. Feel free.) But when we did that, our mornings became more fun for all of us.
This may sound counter intuitive, but try putting him to bed earlier. Sleep begats sleep. Give it some time. Don't assume it doesn't work if you just give it one night. It can take a week or two or three. See Mary Kurcinka's book, "Sleepless in America," for more information on this. I wish I knew this when my kids were toddlers. I didn't learn about this until they were preschoolers. I just put up with it and complained about being tired. (-:
My daughter was an early riser too. Keep the room as dark as possible as soon as they see light thats it.
With my boyfriend's daughter, she always wakes up early on Saturday and Sunday when she is at our apartment and she is 5. She even wakes up before her baby brother who is only 10 weeks! (I'm blessed with a great night sleeper in my son). So honestly, it may not be the most popular option but when she wakes up at 5:30 or 6 she'll watch TV and eat a "breakfast" snack type food in the living room until about 6:30 or 7 when her brother wakes up. Then we all get up. Now, because she is older, she can pretty much take care of everything herself and doesn't even need to come in and wake us up at all when she wakes up. But, when she was even younger, they used to do similar things with her and just put her in a play pen and let her play and eat some in there. I know it's not people's most favorite option, but at least we can get some extra sleep! My parents got me to where I was doing the same thing too when I was a toddler/pre-schooler so they could get extra sleep on the weekends.
