My Son Wakes up WAY Too Early!

Try a sheet or a blanket in the window. That way, if he is waking up when maybe the sun is starting to come up, it will still be dark in his room!! Don't forget the nightlight, though!!

my son does the same thing. I put him down about 6:30 then go back in about 9 and get him up. I give him a bath, feed him, change him etc. let him play till he shows signs of being tired again and out he goes till about 9 am after that

Maybe try keeping him up later, a 7PM bedtime seems awfully early if you want him to sleep past 5AM. Don't move his bed time back in one big chunk, slowly push it back in a few small increments. I also read once that some one put a light with a timer on it in their child's room. If the child woke up before the timer went off they would go in and tell him/her to go back to sleep. Eventually the child learned that it wasn't time to get up until the light came on. At our house we have a rule that we don't get up before 7AM. My son is almost 3 and doesn't have a real way of knowing when it is 7AM, but if he tries to get up before then (which rarely happens since we've gotten the routine established) we go in his room and tell him it's not time yet go back to sleep. I guess my long winded advice is... If you're not ready to get up, tell him to go back to sleep and don't let him out of bed. Eventually he'll figure it out and start sleeping later.

Try to work in a mid-morning nap and an afternoon nap so you can put him to bed a little later. Or if he really only needs one nap a day, try moving that nap to a bit later so you can put him to bed later. Also, try encouraging him to sleep in, he should be getting more than 9 hours sleep at night, more like 11 hours.

My husband and I have found the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" VERY helpful with all of our sleep issues. Many libraries have it including the Pierce Co system.

You might try to get him to take his nap later in the day. Or you can wake him up early from his nap and try to get him to take two. My son was doing the same thing but I just added another nap in late in the evening. He was only 9 months so it might have been easier for me. Hope this helps.

like a couple other mom's have said... try putting him down later and/or giving him 2 naps...my son took two naps until right befor he turned two...he'll be 3 in June. he took one in the morning and another in the late afternoon. He now only takes one nap and it's in the late afternoon...some days he doesn't take any, it just depends on how busy we are (i'm alowed to have him with me where i work) good luck.

the only thing that i can think of is for you to not put him in bed that early keep him awake and then mybe depending on how that part works out he may not need naps my daughter did that a little bit then i changed her sleeping around a little bit and things got a lot better now she sleeeps from around 9 p.m. till about 8 a.m. some days she needs a nap and some days she doesn't she is just turned 3 in december. so maybe you should try that and see how things go. good luck and i hope it wirks out for you.
S.

If your son is only getting one or two hour naps then maybe try having him take two naps a day and keep him up latter. I don't put my son to bed until about 9 so that he will sleep in later.

I know how you feel. My son will get up at 5:30-6 almost every day. Usually I just put him back to bed for a little while and tell him that it isn't time to get up until the sun comes up (although that will get harder in the summer). He used to get up even earlier, but I have trained him a bit. I would try to get your son to go to bed at least half an hour later and then if he gets up before 6:00 or so, just tell him that he has to go back to bed until it's time to get up. I use the phrase "it's the middle of the night" even at 5:00 AM to get my son to go back. If he is resistant to going back to bed you could try telling him that his favorite stuffed animal is tired and wants him to go cuddle with it. If none of this works, you could just tell him that he can play quietly in his room until you are ready to get up. Also, do you take naps while he does? I know it's hard. I'm a single mom and sometimes feel like I never get any sleep. Hang in there!

Hey Lori! When I read this I totally thought of my son, he is now 4 but he has always been an early riser. He used to wake up at 4:30 but now sleeps in until about 5 or 5:30, still too early for me! I used to put him to bed really early also b/c he would get cranky, so i guess i would suggest just trying to keep him up later?! But even when I put my son to bed at 8:30 he still wakes up early, I think some kids are just not much of sleepers! I have a 2 yr old daughter who can sleep in until 7 or 7:30, no problem! What school are you getting your degree from? I am going back to school starting in April to get my masters in teaching too! Good luck w/ everything!

How about keeping him up a little later? It seems like 9 hrs. straight is pretty good. Maybe if those nine hrs started at 9 or 10, I'd try that first.

Hello,
What time does he take his one nap? My suggestion would be if his one nap is in the morning to have it be an afternoon nap instead, that should help him to stay up a little bit later. My guess is you've gotten into this awful cycle of him getting up at an ungodly hour and then needing a nap before lunch and going to bed early because he gets up so early in the morning. The only thing I could suggest is trying to stretch him to go longer. It might be miserable for a few days but it also might work. Who knows?

My daughter's natural wake up timer is between 4:30am and 6:30am. And she can't tell if it's a weekend. Also she will wake up at those times no matter what time she goes to bed (early or late).

It's hard, very hard. She hasn't had a crib since she was around 15 months old so, she just climbs out of bed full of smiles and ready to play.

I've tried to lay with her in her bed as she sips a bottle just to keep her warm and cozy as I pretend sleep also, just to send the message that it's still sleeping time. But, she'll toss and turn, and peek her eyes at me for like and hour. She always wakes up so happy and refreshed.

Well, that's just the way it is... I don't have advice on how to change it. I can only say, that you're not alone.

I don't know how to put this to you- my son is nearly 2 years old and he still goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at 4:30-5am every morning. In retrospect, this is not that outrageous because from 7pm to 4:30 am is still 9 1/2 hours!

My most earnest advice would be to learn how to re-prioritize your time and ask your spouse/family for help.

With my son, I cut back to only one nap which is usually about 2 hours long. He kind of did it himself... he wouldn't fall asleep in the afternoons anymore. He goes to sleep around 7:30- 8 and wakes between 7:30am-9am. He went througha phase of waking up very early, but I started to just soothe him back to sleep and now he sleeps later. Wouldn't it be nice to have a day like in pre-baby years were you get to sleep til noon?? =] Good luck!

dont put him to bed. set a time and stick with it , do we need the nanny?love tree

I went through the same thing with my daughter, who is now almost 4. What we did was slowly make her bedtime later, which made her sleep later. I would suggest trying minutes, like 10 or 15 at first. This may slowly solve your problem.

My 21 month old does this sometimes too. He goes to bed at 8pm and sometimes is awake at 5:30am. We just put him back to bed. He only takes one nap in the late morning or noon for a couple of hours.