Morning Tantrums - Bellmore,NY

A.,
Some get late risers, some get early. I got both. ; ) the late riser got changed around by the early. UGH!

Room darkening curtains, a sleepy lullaby CD on Shuffle and repeat, a fan, a lot of things to add to white noise (I would go the music route vs fan though - too many people have had bad luck with kid being addicted to fan being on at a later age...)

She is going to WAKE. I'd say you're extremely luck you arenot like a friend of mine who had a child who slept maybe two hours at night - if at all. ALL THE TIME.

Aim for 12 hours total sleep. 10 hour night + 2 hour nap is all she needs (unless you see she needs more but you can only ENCOURAGE a nap or sleep, you can't FORCE it).

Good luck,
M.

I always had this problem too, until one magical spring forward when 6:30 became the new 5:30. But I always put mine down much earlier at that age -- 6:30 pm. Even if it doesn't do what you want it to (make them sleep later) at least they are getting more sleep and less likely to be so overtired that they throw tantrums first thing. Seriously, you need an earlier bed time, she is overtired.

OK so here is something I did when my kids woke up very early.
1st make sure you have some good blackout blinds in your childs room to make sure its not the sun waking her up. The you have to try & help her antural alarm reset, One of the things i read is that the early waking like 5:30 was normal in your natural sleep cycle and the child just needs "help" getting back to sleep. But it will take a little while. The first thing is to consider shortening the nap or pushing it back a little during the day. Definitley make sure the nap is after lunch. You push nap back a little everyday and shorten it to maybe 1 1/2 hours, doing this by 15 minute increments..this should help her to slowly get to a later awakening time....
Also IMHO 8:45 is kind of late to put her to bed... I found that the later I put my LO to be the earlier they got up.. =(
And more sleep may help with better attitude.

My dad and his second wife had a night light on a timer and taught their kids from 2 yrs old & on that they have to saty in bed until night light went off indicating it was no longer night time. IT worked! They set timer to turn light off at like 6:45 or 7 AM nothing crazy....

We've been struggling with sleep issues, too. My 2 1/2 year old woke "early" at 6:30 and then suddenly stopped sleeping on his own entirely. One thing I've read is that if they are put to bed earlier they may sleep later in the morning, making the bedtime earlier by 15 minute increments until the right time is found. And, if that doesn't work, and they seem well-rested, they might be getting enough sleep, even though it is difficult for the parent. We haven't had luck with the later sleeping yet - still trying to get him to start sleeping through the night on his own again.

My son (19 months) gets up between 5:30-6, no matter what time I put him to bed. His normal bedtime is between 7:30-8, but this past weekend he went to bed around 10 because of a party, but still was up at 5:30. I too have read that the earlier to bed the later they get up...yeah right! That never worked with my kids. My son's allergies are bothering him and he has some teeth coming in so I am hoping that eventually he will sleep later but I'm not sure. In the morning I hear him yelling for me and he will also yell for water. I refuse to in to his room at 5:30 and I try to push it at 6, so what I did to stop the water issue was to put his sippy cup in his crib when I go in and check on him before I go to bed. He has one of those light-up musical seahorses, kind of like a glo-worm that is in the corner. I wedge his sippy cup between the seahorse and the rails and I've never had a problem with it falling over or leaking. I'm starting to think that he is just an early riser and I'll have to deal with it, however, I absolutely refuse to go into his room before 6. If I do go in, he will throw a fit when I walk back out, so I just don't do it. Today actually, I heard him around 5:45, but he fell back to sleep and woke up and hour later which was nice. I had a friend whose daughter woke up at 5:30 EVERY DAY! She is 6 and still wakes up that early! My friend tried everything and eventually just gave up and started going to bed earlier so she could wake up earlier with her daughter. BTW, It might be worth it to try to move her bedtime up an hour or even a half hour earlier. Good luck!

We had a problem with my 2 year old waking up early as well. What I did was, I bought this clock- http://www.amazon.com/American-Innovative-Teach-Talking-N... It lights up (night lite) and turns green at whatever time you choose, letting the child know that it's ok to wake up. I told my daughter that if she wakes up before it's green, she can play quietly in her bed or read a book. She quickly learned to stay in bed and then started to sleep until 7 or later. It is worth the $$, not only because it got her (and a couple of her friends that also bought one) to sleep or stay in bed later, but it is also a teaching clock that with the push of a button will tell you what time it is, it also has digital and analog display. We love it...good luck.