2 y.o. Waking TOO EARLY!

hi D.;; i'm just writing to give some moral support and to LOL w you; my 2.5 yr old son is still in a crib and gets up at about 5 almost every day and always has; he has always been excellent about going to bed whenever we start his night time process, be it 7 pm or 9 pm or anything in between; so i didn't feel i could really fight him on staying asleep. also he wakes up very awake like your daughter and i don't see how he can be coerced into going back to sleep if he's not tired. once in a while he will do us a great favor and sleep till 6 or 630, maybe once a month he sleeps till 7; he likes to cuddle in bed in the morning but never for long. ONE TIME he fell back to sleep in bed with me.

my 11 mo old daughter will usually stay asleep till 6-630 but she too, once sh'es up, that's it, her day had started.

i have NO advice for you, only compassion! but i would say that it's way too early to try the tape over the numbers thing; my friend w 3 kids does this but the alternative for her kids is that they are allowed out of bed, just not to come into mommy and daddy's room till the clock number is 7; however her kids are 6 and 4 and know all thier numbers, obviously. 2 is too young for that.

good luck to you!

We put a baby gate in the doorway. Just baby proof her room really good. Remove anything that can be climbed up like hampers and anchor bookcases to the wall. Cover all exposed plugs and put anything like lamps up high. Then tell her if she wakes that she is to stay in her room and play until Mommy comes and gets her. We use to do the same thing with our son while he was still in the crib. On the weekends sometimes he was up as early as 5:30. We use to let him play in his crib until 7:00. This way you can stay in bed, but you can still hear her if she needs you. Don't forget to leave toys so she can entertain herself.

OH my goodness, I know you asked this months ago, I'm looking at a bunch of old emails I never got to and this was one of them...

I hope things have gotten better for you since then, but if not, it could be something as simple as keeping her room dark in the morning hours with some room-darkening shades or curtains.

My son's sleep-wake patterns are definitely governed by light - we recently moved into a new apt. with white mini-blinds and I need to put curtains up because he is waking up when the sun starts to shine into his room, no matter what time he goes to sleep at night, and it is much harder to get him to nap during the day. Prior to the move we had darker window treatments on the windows and his naps and bedtime sleeps were easily accomplished.

This is also healthy for development of their own natural body clocks, and helps with melatonin production (partially responsible for that natural body clock - the circadian rythms), also shown to be an important anti-oxidant so helps with immunity, etc. Also, I just read a quick blurb about a study linking autism to decreased melatonin production. Melatonin is considered the "hormone of darkness" because light inhibits its production, so that's why room-darkening window treatments can help.

Don't know if this is relevant to your situation or not, but I just thought I'd chime in, even if it is almost 6 months later! By the way, I'm assuming you gave birth by now, how did everything go? What did you have, boy or girl? HOw is it with 2? Good luck and enjoy!

When she wakes up calling you, call her to your room. Hold up the blankets, and tell her to come snuggle with you. You might not get to actually go back to sleep, but you can still rest. She might even go back to sleep there with you. Just make sure you only do that in the mornings, and tell her it's your special cuddle time. She'll love it! Especially if she still gets to do it after the new baby is born. Another thing you can do is make sure she isn't going to bed to awful early at night, and that she has a snack before bedtime incase she's waking up hungry.

Hi, I don't know if this will help or u will get her addicted to it. I bought a Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby Sound Machine with Picture Projection from Bed Bath & Beyond. (i thought about getting a small CD alarm clock but saw this instead, also think the CD player might get broken fast!)I am sure u can find it online. After his naptime routine, I put him in his crib & put the machine on with a timer. I set it for 30min. but he falls asleep much quicker. You only have to press a few buttons so its very fast & easy to use. If he happens to wake up too early in the morning, we put it on & he goes back to sleep. I have told him if the music goes off & u are still wake then I will take u out of the crib. He is usually asleep soon so we don't have to worry. Of course, there are times when he just won't go back. But we can tell when he wakes up upset, he def. needs more sleep. The only problem we have encountered with this machine & prob. some others is there are times he wakes up in the middle of the night & yells for his music. So my husband thinks now he can't get himself back to sleep. And needs his music to get back. So I created a music monster :) So I will have to warn u about that. Otherwise, give it a try. Maybe u will get some sleep when u are pregnant. And u can always use for the next child. Especially since the machine seems like it is for an infant.
P.S my son is almost 2 1/2. He have him in a crib still since he doesn't climb out. He has a few times but not consistently. So we are putting off the todder bed as long as possible.

Hi--My son is only 11 months old so I haven't done this yet. But I do know people who put the digital clock in the room with only the hour showing. It worked for them but don't set an alarm you never know maybe she'll sleep in one day.

I agree with Monica. Try keeping her up later. Try ditching a nap, or waking her early from it. I know its tough because you get quiet time at night when she finally goes down and you get free time to do housework during her nap. But, I'm sure you could sacrifice a bit of that for another hour or so of good restful sleep! Good Luck!

Sweetie, i know it's hard being pregnant and all..... Still trying to tend to the little one. If she/he wakes up hungry...fix her something to eat... Even if they are not hungry...u would have tended to your babys' need.. Most of the time they just want ur attn and want to be w/ mommy. Let her get in bed w/u when she gets up early

Try getting light block curtains to give the illusion that it is dark and early, she may become drowsy again and fall back to sleep and/or giving her a safe and quiet toy to play with. These things will give you more (not a TON more) sleep that it would if she didn't have anything to play with.
I like the idea of gating her room and child proofing it really well, I think that would work wonders for you.

Hi Darci. Hopefully things are getting better as time goes on. You said you put your daughter in her own bed last weekend...this could be just a transition for her (fingers crossed). I know if we change anything, for example the time change for daylight savings, my 2 year old took 2 weeks to start getting up at normal time. So, hopefully the novelty of getting out of bed on her own and when she wants to will wear off. I have to say I agree with your first response about putting up a gate or something and having her stay in her room until you say it's time to get up. I think cutting outnaps, or changing bed time will not be good in the long run. if anything this time right now is a good time to let her understand the rules and for you to be consistent.

Anyway, hopefully that helped. Bless you for doing the switch this soon. I'm not that brave. :) I could see my little guy doing the same thing!!! Good luck!

For about $10 you can get a device (at home depot) that you can plug a light into which then plugs into an outlet. This device can be set to whatever time you want and only when it's activated will it pass the electricity through to the light. We use one for a table lamp in our hallway when we go on vacation so it looks like someone's home. I haven't used them for this yet but your clock idea made me think of it. You could plug a nightlight into it and set it for 6 or 6:30. If the light is off, she has to stay in bed. If it's lit, she can get up and come get you. That may work better than the clock since, as one poster already pointed out, she may not be able to match the numbers yet and even if she can that will require her to wake up enough to process the thoughts required to match the numbers. With the light she can rollover, see that it's not lit yet and roll right back over to continue sleeping. Just make sure you use a dim nightlight that won't wake her if she's still sleeping when it lights up. Good luck!

It's hard to tell what the problem may be without knowing more, what time does she go to bed, does she take naps, ect. It may be that she is just reacting to being put in her bed or that she is getting older and getting enough sleep to wake up that early. Try letting her skip a nap or staying up an hour later and see how that goes. My 2 year old daughter usually plays in her crib for about an hour before she wants me to go get her, but I don't know if you can trust that in a bed. The bed is still new though, and a big change for her, so she probably needs to get used to it.