Hi everyone! I have read lots of other questions about how to get a child to sleep in. I have had nothing work for me, so I am posting again to see if I could get some other suggestions. My son was sleeping till 6 or 7 and then the time change and ever since he is up around 5. Some days it will be close to 6 and others it will be 4:30. I have tried putting him to bed earlier and I have tried keeping him up later, nothing is working. Any suggestions would be GREAT!!!
If you want to try keeping the room dark without investing in shades, try covering the windows with dark towels.
If you still can't get him to sleep in, you can let him play with a few board books in his crib while playing soft music/white noise machine, he might eventually put himself back to sleep.
Good luck!
Do you go right to him when he wakes at 4:30am or 5am, or do you leave him alone so he can get back to sleep again?
like someone else said,what about room darking shades,or i even put a few books/toy in my sons crib after he falls asleep so when he wakes up he sits and looks at his books (its the cutest thing ever)he flips threw and points to each object.anyway,you could try that it could buy you a half hour or so??You could even put a new book every couple days so he doesnt get bored?(my son LOVES books)Im really not sure what else to tell you,my son gets up around 6-6:30 then i usually get him bout 7.Hopefully that will work for you,give it a try!!Keep us posted
I would try to wear him out with exercise so he will be tired. Anything outdoors in the early morning or after a nap in the late afternoon. Running & swimming works for us. I put swim arm bands on him to tread water and he doesn't need me to hold him anymore. Last night he treaded water for an hour. I haven't heard a peep and it has been nine hours. He will sleep another hour. Good Luck.
I agree with the room darkening ideas. My daughter started waking up early after the time change until I put a dark colored blanket over it. Also, I like the clock suggestion. Another mom suggested just making it a known rule that its not time to get up yet. I did that with my daughter. My daughter now wakes in her room and plays in her bed until I come and get her, which isn't until 8 am. She can hear my alarm clock because our rooms are next door to each other so I told her that mommy isn't coming in until her buzzer goes off, then its time to get up. And she understands that. So I guess I would try explaining the "rule" to him, and ignore him the first few mornings (he will probably cry and yell, ect), then maybe after a few mornings he will get the picture that you aren't coming in.
Have you tried keeping the room dark and a cd of quite music on continuous play? I think some kids just have that kind of schedule, I'm so sorry for you!!
Does he nap? What time do you and your husband get up for work?
Have you tried a sound machine or leaving him for a pretty long period to see what he does??
My daughter was the same way. I believe the summer sun doesn't help, so block that as much as possible. What I did was as soon as she learned her numbers, I put a digital clock in her room, and I told her that she can't get up until the first number says "6". I told her if it doesn't say 6 yet, then she should close her eyes and go back to sleep. I set the clock actually late, so when it turned 6, it was really more like 6:25. If your child only knows the number 1, you could set the clock so that it turns 1:00 at maybe really 6:30 in the morning, or whatever time it is that you want him to get up. Then just teach him he can't get up until the clock says "1" as the first number.
Good luck!
Hi- I think a lot of times it is just breaking the habit. My 3.5 yr old went through this about a year ago. I tried everything, even bringing him into our bed to get him to fall back asleep. He was, but he started to get comfortable in our bed. So finally, when he woke early, I told him that mommy isn't coming to get him and he can play in his crib or go back to sleep but it is not time to get up and I am not coming to get him until it is time. We went through about 2 mornings of him crying and then every morning he was quiet. Eventually he stopped waking up so early.
Like I said, it is breaking habits. You have to have nerves of steal to listen to them crying but it is just "re-training"
Good luck
My 21 mo old also wakes at this time. It is bright and the birds are really loud. When we were in a hotel room last week for a couple days and it was totally dark and bird-free she slept until 9:15 so in our case it is the light and noise. I am able to get her back down quickly by nursing her down, but if I were you I'd try making it dark and running a fan or other white noise that will eliminate all those noisy birds (they are REALLY noisy at that time of the am).
Have you tried giving a nice warm (not too warm :) ) bath then follow up with massage with calm smelling cream before bedtime?
