My Son Wakes WAY Too Early...

I once read some advice on a forum and have never seen mentioned again which either means it won't work or that it is a brilliant and innovative idea. :)

It basically involves "conditioning" your son to wake up to music. The first day start the music fifteen minutes before he normally wakes up. Each following day push the music back 15 minutes later. (In your case: Day one: 4:45, Day two: 5:00, Day three: 5:15, etc.) Keep this up until you reach the desired time. It might be helpful to have a CD player you could pre-program. Hmmm...

I wonder if it really would work?! Good luck. I miss my sleep too. :)

My suggestion is similar to Alisha S, but mine involves light instead of music.

We had the same problem with our son, so we bought a small lamp for his room with a 15w bulb, so it's pretty dim. We plugged it into a timer and set the timer back by 10 minutes or so every couple of days. When we put him to bed we told him we wouldn't come in until the light came on in the morning. A few mornings he fussed for a few minutes until the light came on, but then he got the idea. Now he sleeps until 6 or 6:30, which is still early, but livable.

The reason we didn't want to use music is that if he was sleeping soundly we didn't want to wake him. The lamp we use is quite dim, so it won't wake him up if it comes on while he's still sleeping.

My son was a very early riser as well, and all the rest of us are NOT morning people! It may be a phase with your son, or it may be his personality. Kids generally get up at the same time no matter when you put them to bed. A couple things worked for us. First, the blackout curtains made the biggest difference. Second, I would keep a portable DVD player in his room with a Baby Einstein video in it and when he woke up, I’d go in and start it on continuous play. Most mornings, he’d watch it for an hour and a half before calling me back in to get him. If he was not willing to let me leave the room, I’d get a pillow and blanket and sleep on his floor while he watched. The one last thing we did was NOT feed him breakfast in the morning until 7 or 8. Their little bellies get conditioned to eat at the same time everyday, so if you feed him a big meal at 5:30 then he’ll wake then hungry every morning.

My son did this to. He didn't really want to be awake, but I think he was hungry. I would give him a bottle or sippy cup and turn on the music on his crib and go back to bed. Often he would go back to sleep. It just depended on how long he was awake before I got him his bottle or cup. Now I know, allowing them to fall asleep with a bottle is supposed to be bad for their teeth and habit making, but looking back at it now I don't believe it. I got my babies off the bottle in no time and they don't have bad teeth. I also got a lot more sleep.

Have you tried letting him sleep with you in the morning?

That's how I used to get a couple of extra hours of sleep.

When I get really tired. I take a nap with my son. And he sleeps much longer for that nap than a typical snooze, so we both catch up on sleep.

Good luck!

Find and read this book: "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. It addresses many different types of sleep disturbances in kids, including waking too early. It is an awesome book---it saved our lives :) and I have 2 friends that have borrowed it and loved it.

I recommend reading "Solve yoir childs sleep problems" by richard Ferber. He talks about a lot of different issues that children have, and I believe that there is a whole chapter dedicated to children who wake too early. It has been a fabulous resource for us for all ages. He does a great job of explaining sleep patterns and having that knowledge is really valuable. He has a chapter dedicated to just about every kind of sleep disturbance possible and then talks about a solultion for each one. He does have a very well known cry it out method that he talks about in this book but I don't think that that is the part that will apply to you for this issue - I don't think you would have to let him cry it out. I think his method for this is gentle and gradual. I've used most of his advice and it works for me everytime for all 3 of my kids. I think that crying it out would work for this but I would try his advice first. I did have one baby who was starting to wake early every morning and I was too impatient to take Ferbers advice which is gradual so I let him cry. I would go check on him when he woke (sometimes w/o letting him see me) to make sure he was ok (if he was poopy then I would change him quickly w/o interaction and promptly put him back in bed - ohter than that I would never pick him up) and I definately didn't feed him(then he would be conditioned to feel hungry every day at that time) then I would let him stay in bed until it was time to get up. He would play or talk for a while and then cry before he fell asleep again and it was stressful the first day, but by the second day it was better and by the third day he was sleeping until 8 and still sleeps until 8. i have twins so I needed a quick fix because I was too tired that time to do anything different but it worked. I would read ferbers book before doing that though and only let him cry as a last resort. The book also has a section about preschool age children when they start to have bedtime fears so you will find it helpful in the years to come. I have gone back to this book over and over again during the lifetimes of my 3 kids when I was at a total loss to know what to do with sleeping issues and it has helped every time. I don't know what I would do without it! Good luck to you. D.

Hi A.,

You have already tried the things I would suggest. I do have a friend whose little boy is the same way and 5 is his magic time, too. Once he turned 2 1/2 they started telling him he couldn't call for them until 7. They got a cute clock and taught him to know when it was 7 and rewarded him when he waited until that time. Your son seems too young for this yet. My daughter has always been a really good sleeper, but on the occasion that she wakes that early, I go in and give her headphones to listen to music and books to look at and tell her it's not time to get out of bed yet, and then I go back to sleep. Every time, she ends up falling back to sleep. It might be worth a try, if he is not the kind of child who screams until you take him out. I feel for you...I am NOT a morning person!!

I know this may not be your cup of tea, but, if you are nursing, you may want to consider cosleeping. (I know, I know, touchy subject.) My son regularly wakes at 4:30 or so, and I just roll over and nurse him. We both fall back asleep within minutes.

If you don't feel that this is right for you, consider taking him a warm bottle and rocking him back to sleep. Or giving him a bottle and letting him play in a safe, childproofed place while you snooze on the couch.

Alisha's suggestion also came to mind... but maybe because she told me about it a while ago. :)

Believe it or not, one day you'll be surprised when you can't wake him up and it's eight a.m. This is just a (long) phase, but it does end.