2 Year Old Waking up WAY Too Early!

my best advise is to cuddle him, Maybe even lay with him in his bed until he falls back asleep. Is the baby awake when he comes in? He may think since they babys up he should be too and feel left out. Maybe have him cuddle with you and the baby. Or put him to bed a little later so he doesnt wake up so early. Or put a cup of water next to his bed so he doesnt have to get out of bed.

D.,
I sympathize with you, my children are 6 and 1/2 years apart, after the baby was born Celeste ( my oldest) went through a few funny phases. I would like to tell you one thing, please do not cut out a nap, this will only make your child more sleepy and irratable and possibly even keep him from sleeping, sleep begets sleep. You wrote that you are giving him milk at 5am, you might try cutting this out, he wakes wanting it, so he is in a routine, break this routine and I am guessing he may sleep a lot better.
It may sound silly but bring it up with his doctor, pedatritions usually know tricks that may very well help, my daughter's helped me though a lot of non-medical issues. Best of luck and congrats on the new baby :D

You don't mention if he is napping still. If he is, it is time to stop letting him nap. Even if he falls a sleep or is droopy earlier that his normal bed time, don't let him go to sleep early. That might help.

Another thing that might help but is harder to do, is to say to him, "Jaxon, this is sleep time, if you are awake now, you may play but it must be in your own room. You may not come into my room."

If you worry about him wandering the house you can use one of those baby gates to make him safely in his own room. Keep your voice calm. Tell him only once and then return to your own room, because soon your daughter will require more of your attention.

You need to do this, because you need your rest, to be a better mother to both children and a better partner to your husband.

Good luck.

Thas really hard, both my kids have done this and I never felt like we found a good answer. You could try getting him down earlier, cutting back on nap time, giving him a banana before bed (really sometimes it helps) DON't call it the bedtime banana though. You could also try explaining to him that your not ready to be awake and he needs to stay in his room and read or play quietly. Good luck with everything.

Your son can sense the difference in your house and this early hour is his new time for the two of you. Try as we may, our kids can't always be put on a schedule because you can't reason with a toddler, especially where his position in the family has been changed. Don't chastize him for his early hour, but maybe read him a book, give him some warm milk. You are going to be challenged for sleep and scheduling/juggling the needs of a newborn and an active toddler. Can your husband take 2-3 weeks off to help everyone transition? With FMLA, if he has an employer who has 50 or more employees, he has access to 12 weeks of leave time during this first year of your new baby's life. It might be worth it for him to take some time off to help all of you.

Is there any way you can give him a few toys and let him play in his room by himself until you wake up? When I was young there was a clock at the end of our hall and my mom had painted nail polish on it at the eight and 12 marks and told us that when the big hand reached the 12 and the little hand reached the 8, then we could go into them. Of course nowadays you could use an alarm clock or some other timer, as you said. This seemed to work for us, though.

One thing we've done with our son, because he thinks the crack of D. is play time, is give him a couple of books. He is almost 5 now, but we put a gate up in the hallway so he can only go to the bathroom, our room and his room. He cant quite read yet, but he likes to look at books and make up stories to go along with the pictures. If your son has any books, put a gate up in his door or the hall way and give him a couple of books, start a timer for however long you want to rest, and then tell him when the timer goes off its time to wake up.

We did the light on a timer trick and it worked great! Just remember to push the time back gradually, and be consistent about not going in until the light comes on.

Do you have dark curtains in his room because he is waking up right around sunrise. We have curtains in our kids room that makes it completely dark.

D.,

Why not just cuddle with him in your bed? That may be all he wants. About twice a week, maybe more, my 4 1/2 year old will come to me at some time after midnight and ask to sleep with me. He's done this since he was about your son's age. Most often he has had a bad dream, but it usually happens after a day of being in trouble and not getting much of my attention.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

I just had baby number 2 as well. My first son is 21 months. He had the opposite issue and decided that he was going to start not going to bed until about 10 at night and then not get up until about 10 in the morning. He started sleeping for 2-3 hours in the afternoon, and then a couple days ago, decided that naps were no longer necessary. This was a huge relief at first... but I talked to his doc at the 21 month appt and she said it is probably a reaction to the new baby. My second is generally laid back as well (though he does have an issue with colic-gas at times.) My first has become more attached to everything (especially me). He panicks everytime I pick up the new baby (particularly when it is to nurse him). He started throwing tantrums (that didn't get the results he wanted, so they didn't last that long), he started developing these suddden overwhelming needs when he saw me headed towards the swing to pick up baby brother. Most people told me that he would be totally used to the new baby within 2 weeks. This is just simply not the case. New baby is nearly 5 weeks old now, and it is getting worse. His doctor just told me that it doesn't matter how how laid back the new baby is... the fact that there is a new little life in the house that mom has to pay attention to is very earth-shattering to your first child, especially when they are so young that you can't explain or reason with them. Her advice was to just continue to do what you are doing in regards to loving your kid. If new behaviors are unacceptable, then don't accept them. With the sleep issue at night... we continued to put him to bed at 8:30... and if it took him until 10 or later to fall asleep, that was his issue. As far as the naps are concerned... yesterday, he wasn't asleep after being in his crib for 45 minutes, so I allowed him to get out, only resulting in his literally falling asleep during his dinner, and then extreme crankiness in the evening hours. So, my solution is going to be to follow docs advice on this too... put him down at the normal nap time and get him up when he normally gets up. If he doesn't sleep, it's still going to eventually be clear to him that this is the time to go down. She swears that he will even out. As opposed to yours, my first is extremely cuddly and wants me to actually be holding him for several hours a day. He has a very sensitive personality and I sometimes tiptoe around that sensitivity, and am really trying not to, because the last thing we need is a nearly 2-year-old controlling the atmosphere in the house.
I have really rambled here (from one sleep-deprived postpartum mom to another). The bottom line, try to have the schedule the way it was before your second was born, and your first should even out eventually. This is easier said than done, and I am only assuming that it will work. Will your first stay in his room by himself until regular get-up time? I am sure that lots will disagree with this, but it has worked for us to put a couple toys in the crib so that he has something to occupy himself. At first, I thought it would distract him from going to sleep, but it turns out that it just comforted him to have his familiar things around. Yes, he did play... but it was playing, not screaming, and that is always good. Good luck, and try to get at least 5 hours of sleep a day! (that, obviously, should be a much higher number!)

Congratulations on the new baby! Welcome to the roller coaster of more than one child.

Our son was 2-1/2 years when our daughter was born. His initial adjustment did not include a screwy sleep pattern, but there were other frustrations. When I came home with the baby, it was almost Thanksgiving (two days away) and we had a plethora of people showing up by car and airplane...talk about adjusting! He came to me on Turkey Day, held out his hands, and said "Pump-a-kin", which is what I called him at the time. He just wanted me to hold him so he could take a nap. I almost cried.

While you don't think you are taking attention away from him, he probably feels left out. Before baby, did he always go back to his bed after his cup of milk? Or did you sometimes let him sit with you and fall back to sleep in your bed? Did you sing songs or read? Maybe there were other things that you used to do that you just quit doing once you had baby.

Include him as your little helper (diapers, onesies, blankets, whatever). Cuddle with him in your bed in the mornings, since he'll probably love the snuggle-time with mom. You can hold him while nursing your little one, it just takes a little adjusting. It's tough on everyone to adjust, but you'll settle into a routine that won't involve your son staying up in the mornings. Best of luck!

Hi D.,
My oldest daughter went through a similar phase after I brought home my youngest (except she is cuddle bug and wanted to be in bed with me). Keep on doing what you are doing. Be consistant!!! Any time there is any sort of change your toddler will test to see what the boundries are.
We had a digital clock/CD player in her room and taught her to not come out until she sees the number 7. At 2 most kids can recognize numbers so it seemed to work. She would wake up early and stay in her room and entertain herself until she fell back asleep.
I think the visual timer is a great idea too!!

Good luck!!

MJ

first of all... do the two share a room? I wonder if this wakes him up? If the baby is in his room with him... consider getting a basinette and put the baby in your room. I had one that slept better in the car seat..so I brought it in every night and she slept in our room in that for a long time. (newborn)

and even though you have kept things as "normal" as you can for him.... it is still a very new and exciting thing to him to have the baby in the house.. and the baby is taking some attention that he used to get, he may be a little anxious too. It is so hard for a child that age to really express what is going on in his head.

okay.. so what would it hurt if he just stays in his room and looks at books or plays quietly?

maybe if you tell him: you may look at a book or two for a while.. and if you want to play, please do it quietly. tell him he must stay in his room. He may eventually just decide to go back to sleep on his own. Part of this is "reverse psychology" - and if he really isn't tired. he isn't going to go to sleep.. so why not let him do something quiet if you want to go back to sleep? Will he sit still and watch a movie? I had one that didn't sleep much at times either.. and I could sleep through a quiet movie right next to my son while he watched it...

As long as he is not doing anything to hurt himself or getting into danger.. let him stay up - he may eventually get back to the routine.. remember it is a new situation for him.. even if you have kept his routine the same - he still has to get adjusted mentally so give him some time - be thankful this is all he is doing! I had toddlers just about poking their new siblings eyes out..or trying to carry them across the room or something. Scary.

good luck

Yes a timer should work as long as it is one he can see the progress of. Even at 2 my kids understood the timer as long is it was the type they could see the progress of. A bit expensivem, but a large hour glass works great. They can see the time go by and if he does fall back asleep it will not wake him when it is done.
Another option (what I did) is to designate early morning as cuddle time. Once dad left for work I had nursing baby on one side and allowed the toddler to cuddle on the other side as long as she was quiet and still. If she did not cooperate then she would have to go back to her room (maybe then w/ a timer) GOOD LUCK!

This is not addressed to all of the posters before me but, D., don't you think it would be nice if the people who responded actually read your post in it's totality BEFORE responding (e.g. not a cuddler, room is dark, etc.) I would say try out the timer or night light on a timer. A neat (but more expensive visual timer) is the Time Timer. As time passes, the red "disappears". Check out this link if you want a better explanation. Good luck!!!!!

http://www.adaptivechild.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCAT...