Advice on Getting My 2.5 Yr Old to Sleep Later in the a.m.

How dark is the room in the am? I know my gal is up early too, but once we put in some dark shades... she does sleep a little later. I also keep books near her so when she does get up she has something to do for a little while and "wake up time" as we call it.

What about a rule of you come and get him if he wakes up early? Something along those lines?

T.
www.liasophia.com/tarasamuel

How about putting some toys in his room and telling him when he gets up he can play there for a while. My daughter loves her special bedroom castle that she only plays with in her room in the morning-all pieces are big enough that i do not worry

My aunt and uncle had success with a digital clock--a superman and batman one in their son's room. (Have him hep pick one out.) He learned to read the clock and knew that he was able to play in his room with his books and toys until the clock said 7:00 or after. It worked like a charm and he stayed in his room playing quietly. I plan on using this with our daughter one day.

My daughter did the same thing and I realized that her bladder was getting bigger so she was wetting her pullup and was uncomfortable so she was no longer sleeping through it as she had when she was a baby. I would give her a light snack change her and cuddle her because she was still pretty tired and luckily within a few minutes I could get her to go back to sleep. She then would sleep another hour or so whcih was good. She only did this for a month or two I don't know if it was growing pains or what butI realized the sooner I changed her she would settle back down again so I attributed it to the wet diaper. When she wa syounger she would wake up for feedings and we would change her diaper and now that she is older and sleeps longer I think the wet diaper is really annoying for her. Maybe your little tyke is having the same problem. I would try to keep the lights and shades down so I could coax her into thinking it was still sleepy time or night time. I hope this helps!

This is a common complaint of my husband believe it or not!! We have a 2yr old, and we go through the same sleep schedule with her. The only thing I can say is thank your lucky stars he sleeps through the night even though he gets up early. Would you rather be up at 3am with a raring to go boy?

Just hang in there, perhaps in the fall w/ the time change and once he gets use to his bed, maybe he'll sleep a little later. Or maybe try to adjust his bedtime a bit.
Best of Luck

You moved him to the bed just as the spring came, and the room is probably very light at 5 AM. Can you get light-blocking curtains or a window shade, or just put some heavy towels over the window? It might buy you another hour plus! Also, some sort of fan or white noise machine may block out the sounds of the birds - they start chirping up a storm around 4:30 AM. If your child thinks it's still night time, he may just go back to sleep! It worked for us.

Partly it may have to do with the sun rising earlier in the summer. What I did was put a digital clock in the room - and told my daughter she couldn't get up until the first number said "6". If it said 1,2,3,4,or 5 then she would have to try to fall back asleep. I actually set the clock 1/2 hour slow, so that when it said "6", it was really 6:30 in real time. (I had to fess up when my oldest turned 7 and learned to tell the time for real - and she questioned why the clock in their room wasn't right! LOL!)

This actually sounds very normal. My own children were all this way as toddlers when they went into their beds. I would suggest room darkening shades to begin with but he proabably will still awaken.
When our oldest went through this, we taught him the 6 on the clock. He had a basket of 'special' toys that were by his bed. If he woke and the clock did not say 6, he could play with his special toys until it did...then he coud come wake Mama and Daddy.
He was 2 and a half and it did the trick.... now, I can't get them out of bed before 11am! (teens!!)