We switched my 2 year old to a toddler bed a month or so ago with almost no problems. The only issue he's having is that he wakes up and comes into our room at about 5 am. We tell him to go back to bed and he does, but he comes back to our room repeatedly until we get up around 6:30. I've explained that until it's light outside he needs to stay in his bed, but obviously that's not sinking in. Should I go with a baby gate? Close the door? Any other ideas?
Thanks for all the great advice! Last night we tried the baby gate and it worked wonders. I woke up at a little after 6 and was surprised to realize we had all "slept in"! I will probably also throw in some extra morning cuddles on the weekends, but having tried that in the past I know that our little squirmy worm won't go back to sleep if he's up at 5. He will lay in bed, but he mostly just moves around for an hour!
I absolutely agree with the other posters who say let him cuddle in bed with you from 5:00 - 6:30. You all can enjoy this close time and very soon he won't be interested in this anymore. I've raised two (27 & 24) and it's amazing how quick they are driving away and are grown up. I have a 7 year-old daughter now who gets MUCH cuddling time.
T. - This may sound like strange advice but I would put him in bed with you and tell him to go back to sleep. In about 10 years from now he'll be too busy to notice you and you'll wish you spent more time holding and cuddling him.
My son is 16 and taller than his dad. When he was around 3 or 4 he would come in to our room every night because he was wet. At first I would get up, change his sheets and clothes and put him back to bed. But I worked a stressful full-time job and needed sleep so I started stripping him where he stood at the side of the bed and sticking him in the middle of the bed. These are really fond memories for all of us. We have a very close relationship still and every now and then (it gets more rare every year) but he'll jump into our bed and say he's going to sleep in the middle, reclaiming his spot in the bed.
Enjoy these times - they pass very, very quickly!!
Good luck,
Both my 3 1/2 yo and 5 yo have on occasion also gotten up that early, although usually to go to the bathroom. However, they always want to come in our bed and we say it is too early and lead them back to bed. Then usually my husband or I lie down with them for about 5 minutes and leave. A lot of times that is all it takes and they are back asleep or close to being asleep and stay in their bed.
If your son is not tired at that hour and it it is not simple to get him back to sleep, you may want to evaluate the number of hours of sleep he is getting a day and what time he is going to bed, etc. I recommend a great book called " Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". It has a lot of charts that give you typical number of hours of sleep, bedtime hours, and suggestions for changing schedules for different scenarios such as getting up too early.
Hello, For the last few months our 2 year old son gets up between 5-5:30...i know the feeling. Our pediatrician said, you can try keeping him up later in the evening by 5 minute increments, but sometimes that doesn't work. It didnt work for us. We went from a 7:30 bedtime to 9pm with no improvements. Some kids internal clocks are just set to wake up early, is what we were told. Great :( I also look forward for others suggestions.
We had this problem, and it was solved by this great "clock". Check it out at this website: http://www.arf-kids.co.uk/
It's a clock/nightlight/alarm clock that has two pictures of a bunny on it. One shows a bunny asleep in bed, and the other shows the bunny awake, walking to school. You can set the time at which the sleeping bunny changes to the awake bunny. (it lights up either one) It worked immediately for us. You can gradually get your child to sleep in later (or at least stay in their room!)
The first thing my daughter says in the morning is "Bunny's awake!" We have it set for 7:10 am, and if she comes out of her room before that, we just take her right back to her room. Only takes once or twice for her to realize that she can't get up earlier.
I love it & highly recommend it. Several of my friends have bought it too & love it! Hope this helps.
Unless you and your partner want some quality alone time between 5:00 and 6:30, you could let your son get into bed with you for a family nap. He would probably sleep that remaining hour and a half with you. If not, you could try putting him to bed a little later in the evening. In fact, a later bed time might take care of it completely.
My 2 year old Granddaughter started doing that also when she was moved into a toddler bed. It is an independence thing. My daughter in law and son would let her cuddle with them instead of sending her back to bed then she would sleep until 8 or so.
Now for a funny story on her being able to get up on her own. She was eating dinner at our house with my other daughter in law and granddaughter when during dinner she informed us "When I get out of bed at night, my voices tell me to get back in bed" My daughter in law asked if she heard voices in her head. She answered "No.. they are the voices in my room" Seems she would wake up in the middle of the night and get up to play. Her parents would wake up in the next room and yell at her to get back in bed. Since it was dark and in the middle of the night, she never associated the voices with her sleeping parents so she assumed they were voices in the room....lol
I don't know if this will work for you now, but keep it in mind for later if not.
When our son was 2, he knew his numbers, so we bought him a digital clock. We covered up the minute numbers, so he could only see the hour. Then we told him, "you need to stay in bed until the clock says 7."
That next morning we heard him say, "oh, it's not 7 yet," and from then on that has been a hard and fast rule in our house. Worked beautifully for us; I hope it does for you, too. Being woken up too early is definitely painful.
We just switched our 2 year old about six weeks ago. The first two weeks, he got out of bed a lot and like yours, seemed to come into our room around 5am. He is three flights of stairs below us, so more for safety reasons than anything, I decided to put a gate across his open door. We also told him he had to wait until the sun was up. The first night he'd get up and stand at the gate (we'd just go to him and tuck him back in) but once he realized he couldn't run up the stairs and to our room anymore, he started just staying in bed. Now he'll sleep right through and sometimes in the morning will call for us and say 'Mommy, Daddy, the sun is up!' He also asks us to put the gate up at night and even at naptime, I think it must make him feel safe too. So the gate might be worth a try. Another thing we did is rewarded him - we went grocery shopping one evening and let him pick out some cupcakes and told him if he stayed in his big boy bed all night, that we could have a 'cupcake party' the next day. I don't think he got his party that very next day, we just explained to him that he didn't stay in bed, but we would have the party as soon as he did. The following night he did stay in bed, and the next day we put a candle in his cupcake and sang a silly song and he LOVED it. Now he's very proud to announce to us in the mornings that he stays in bed all night. Good luck! :)
