My husband is a school teacher and gets up very early. This has caused our 3 and 4 year olds to get up very early as well - they would hear his alarm/him waking up and got on the schedule of waking up when he did - at or just before 6am!! Prior to my husband starting this school year they would always sleep until 7:30. Well, now my husband is out for summer and they continue to wake up at 6am! It is driving me crazy as I work late nights and often don't go to bed until midnight or so. They come into our bed when they wake up and lay "quietly" like I tell them, but their "quiet" is not so quiet and very cramped with 4 in a queen size bed and I can't go back to sleep like this. I need some suggestions to get them to sleep a little longer! They do nap in the day - 2-3 hours usually, but sometimes my son skips a nap now that he is getting older. We have tried putting them to bed as late as 8:45 (their normal bedtime is 745-800) and it still does not seem to matter - they are still up at the crack of dawn. All that a later bedtime results in is cranky kids. Help me plz I need that extra hour to be sane!!
Jacqueline's comment is spot on! this will also teach them self control and executive functioning which is a critical tool for children.
I have trained my kids to stay in bed until I come to get them. The 2 year old is in a crib and has not tried climbing out yet so he is "stuck" anyway, but the 3 year old is in a toddler bed and he would tear the house apart if I let him get out of bed before I was up. I'm not sure how to train kids to stay in bed once they are used to getting themselves out, but the alarm clock idea sounded pretty good to me. I may try that with my kids to keep them quieter in the morning.:) They stay in bed, but they make a racket sometimes! I don't know how to get them to sleep longer. I think that all you can do is give them the adequate time for sleep, which you are doing. Overtired kids tend to have trouble sleeping, but that is not your kids. I have the same experience with my kids when they get to bed late - they still wake up at the same time, sometimes even earlier!
If you are going to try to keep them in their beds, I would suggest letting them have a couple of toys and/or books nearby to keep themselves occupied (and hopefully quiet!) until it is time to get up.
And one note for your sleep, mom. I have noticed for myself, if I am woken up early and I have another hour or two to sleep, if I have trouble getting back to sleep or even if I do fall back to sleep I am even more tired when it is time to get up. I think it has to do with not getting through an entire sleep cycle when I try to get that extra bit of sleep. I have heard that not getting through an entire sleep cycle leaves you extra tired. Even if I only slept 5 hours or so in the night, I feel better if I just get up, rather than try to get a few more winks. My husband is a Marine and I am an extremely light sleeper. There are many mornings that he has to get up at 4 am (or earlier!). If I get back to sleep immediately and can sleep another couple of hours, I feel OK. But if I have trouble getting back to sleep and lay there for a while, or only have about an hour to sleep longer, I feel much worse than if I had just gotten up when I first woke up. I never want to get out of bed, but I thought I would share that with you in case you want to try it. Or this may just be me! Somehow, I hope you are able to get the sleep you need and not feel tired!
You're getting a lot of good suggestions. I have a couple, too: limit their naps to 1 1/2 - 2 hours MAX. This one thing I have found critical to my children sleeping in a little later. Have your husband get up with them and get them their breakfast and a quiet routine in the morning for an hour or so while you sleep. (This is probably not too likely. My husband is a schoolteacher ,too, who gets up at 5:30 regularly and loves to sleep in on the weekends.) The last suggestion is that you could get up with them at their early hour and then ask your husband to watch them a little later so that you could take a mid-morning nap. This may throw you off, though. Training them to stay on their bed with the alarm clock, a special box of "morning only" toys that you put on their beds after they go to bed (vary their selection) and a snack baggy of small crackers and spill-proof cup of water can be helpful. The only problem with food, though, is the possible choking hazard and the mess. There's also the habit of eating in bed. I have, in desperate times, though, done this and it has been very helpful. Anyway, good luck! Sleep is such a precious commodity!
Set the alarm for 7:30 and tell them they can't get up and come in until they hear it. Practice the routine, sounds wierd but I took care of my godson and he would get up uber early!! He was only 2, he would sit on his bed and clear his throat to let me know he was awake. I tried the alarm thing and he would stay quiet until it went off.
The trick that works for us is covering the windows. Keeping the room dark for the mornings is how I've managed another hour out of my 2 girls.
Good luck!
It's dad's schedule and he's off from work so can he get up with them and let you sleep for an hour since you work nights? As humans, we have internal clocks and that's what's going on with the kids but by the time you change their clocks it will be school time again and it will start all over. No matter what you do the alarm clock is going to wake them up...unless you get them outside and run them raged all day so they are so pooped that they can't wake up even with the alarm clock beeping. That would be my only suggestion other than trying to get yourself to bed by 11pm so you can get 7 1/2 hours of sleep before they get up. Best wishes to you and your family.
You can get some floor pillows that are long and wide enough for them to lay on comfortably and insist they lay on those instead of your bed when they come in your room in the morning.
We use that solution for when kids have a really bad dream. They can sleep on the floor pillows without tossing you like a salad for the rest of the morning.
If sun light is waking them up, you can put velcro around the corners of the window in their room and then buy some thick, dark, vinyl-like fabric at a fabric store and stick it up with the velcro at night and it will keep their room dark like night until you are ready to get up. We trained our kids to go to sleep early using that technique, but it could work for mornings too.
This next solution is a long shot, but maybe alarm clocks might come with headphones or an insertable ear thing that only your spouse could hear...yep, a long shot, but, you never know, maybe something like that exists...
My daughter goes to bed around 9 and gets up at 7:30. Now that it is summer though, she's been staying awake until 10 and she has just started waking up between 8 and 8:30. Maybe 8:45 isn't late enough. We've been out of school about two weeks now and that's how long it took for her to shift her sleeping schedule. It also helps that it's still light out here until 9:30 as her internal clock works really well.
I don't mind it because I'm a night owl and I get up with her. Plus, she does have her entire life where she will have to be on schedules and they will all change.
I'd also try to keep their rooms darker in the mornings (that whole internal clock thing) which will help them sleep a little later. We put up dark blankets over the bedroom windows.
I could have written your exact post - our kids are even the same age, how funny. My husband is a teacher too and we are having the same problem!! We have a king size bed and its still cramped lol! My son will sometimes come in our bed and fall back asleep but our daughter (the younger one) never does - and she whispers and sings to herself while she is laying there which of course prevents me from ever falling back asleep once they come in. I can't wait to see the suggestions - I am pregnant and so tired. :)
Make a rule that they can't leave their room until 7 or 7:30. They can't tell time yet, but at least the older one might know his numbers so give him a digital clock, and write the time on a piece of paper and tell him they can't leave their room until the numbers match. And if they get up, tell them to go back to their beds. Tell them once, and if they don't listen, take them back. I know this sounds like it defeats the purpose (because you're still having to get up), but after a few days they will get the idea and stay put, then you can sleep!
