Three Year Old Waking up Too Early.

Hi S., I have two tips if you'd like them? :)

1) Put the gate higher. LOL My children are both very tall, (I am fairly tall and my husband's 6'5"), so we had to start doing that early.

2) Take away the nap or shorten it, (or just shag his little butt out in any way possible)! I know that will stink but I had to do the same with my daughter and, knock on wood, it's helped. She also has a playmate now, I watch my friend's boys, so she's more active which is good... another person for her to run after!

Hope this helps!
S.

Our daughter is also an early riser. We put a radio alarm clock in her room and set the music really low (so that it won't wake her, but so she can hear it if she's up) and told her that she can't get out of bed until she hears the music (we made it 6.30 - there'd be no way she'd make it 'til seven at this point. If your son is up at 5.15, you might want to start with 6am). She doesn't have to go back to sleep, but she does have to lay there to rest, or talk to her "friends", or whatever. The hardest part is the follow-through - we also have a little little one we don't want to wake up. But we've realized if we let her out of bed because she starts to cry, it defeats the point. So it might be a few early mornings for all of you, but if you keep following through, I think that he'll learn to sleep later (or at least stay in bed!) You might find that if he starts sleeping later he might want to cut out the nap, but I wouldn't cut out the nap first - I think you'd end up with a really exhausted little guy who's still getting up at 5am! My bet is that the early morning waking is because of the newfound freedom, not because he's really done sleeping.

Hello,

I have 4 children, aged 7, 7, 4, and 1. The older children all get up very early, around the same time yours does. I have tried many different methods to get them to sleep later, such as letting them come into my bed, the clock, offering a special prize, and here's what I found: nothing works. Here's what we do. We give them quiet toys to choose from in the morning, a good selection, books, legos, lincon logs, tinker toys, things like that, so when they do get up they can play with them quietly, and it did take some time, but they learned that if they are not quiet they will be punished and have to go back to bed and that is boring because there are no toys in bed. It's just constant reinforcement and encouragement that they are doing a great job being quiet when they are.
Hope this helps.
M.

You need to take away the nap! Trust me the only thing that works with my son or make sure the nap is not too late in the afternoon. My son is waking any where from 3-4 am & staying awake for 1 hr or more at a time (I don't get him up but will go check after 1 hr to make sure all is well). I believe it is because he still takes 2 naps & the afternoon one is way too late. He is all off schedule too. So now I have to make sure he is up at 7 am takes first nap by 9:30 & 2nd one no later than 2 or I am just going to have to take away the am nap & give him earlier pm nap. Good luck!

S.,

We are going through this, too, tho our son will be 4 next week.
We set up a clock in his room, and he knows he can't wake anyone up until it says "seven-oh-oh", but we set it a little fast, since it's hard to wait that long. He shares a room with his twin sister, so we set up some things in a spare room - books, puzzles, quiet toys, that he can go to after he uses the potty when he wakes up. Stupidly, one is a book of songs that he loves, so we often wake up to him singing.

It's working okay, but some mornings are a struggle for him. He was up at 5:00 the other day, and just couldn't keep quiet.

We keep trying!

Try room darkening shades and a fan or sound machine to cover early morning noises, that is just about the time the sun rises and birds start chirping!
Is there a place in your room to put a sleeping bag and "quiet basket" of toys where the 3yr old could come and stay until a reasonable waking time? Books on tape/cd work great for this early morning entertainment.
My 3yr old is still napping too, but not everyday. he is the youngest of 4 and gets dragged along in the routines of his older siblings. On nap days he does go to bed much later(about9pm) than your average 3yo! but he sleeps until 7:30-8 oclock. I found it takes several weeks of a consisent sleep schedule to readjust the body clock,not just once or twice. Good luck!

Put him to bed earlier and do away with nap. They also make taller gates that have a walk through door instead of the traditonal style gates.

Hi S.. Has he outgrown his nap? How long is his nap? You might need to cut it short, give him an earlier bedtime and see if he'll sleep later in the am.
Just a thought!

My boys are seven and nine now but around your sons age is when naptime ended. I would suggest either cutting out naps or shortening them. My kids had an hour of quiet time in their rooms. Also,you might could try a little later bedtime. Hope that helps.
Angelia

Hi! When my second son was 2 1/2 my third son was born and we cut out his naps. A little too soon for me...but he did great with it. It might just be time to get rid of the nap in the middle of the day. He will probably be cranky for about a month, but give him quiet time consistently at the same time every day and he will probably do just fine. Then put him to bed a bit earlier and hopefully he will sleep longer. We are currently having the same problem with our youngest who is 13 months old and wakes at 5am sharp every day!!! We tried boot camping it but he wakes the other two. I know it's challenging...but just remember this too will pass...and all too quickly no doubt!!

Good luck!

H. Z. (SAHM to 4 3/4, 3 1/3 and 13 months old boys)

Hi S.- I agree with the other moms. My son is 3.6 and a few months ago I stopped his nap. With no m ore naps, he was falling asleep almost immediately after story time and sleeping until about 6:30. He goes to bed at 7:30.

If you are looking for some down time in the day for you, I just made him do quiet time in his room for about 30 minutes. He could play or look at books. Gave me some time to breathe!!