Toddler and Baby Wake at 4:30Am for the Day!

Same boat here with 4 and 2 1/2 year old...just reading the answers with some smiles. been there, tried that, and best advice from me is to go to bed early and when they are ready, teach them how to cook...I have earned some nice breakfasts!!

Ha ha ha! I know, not sympathetic to laugh... The poopy diaper part is so funny.

That sounds alot like our house. We have an almost three year old and a 14 month old and the toddler has always been an early riser. He got up between 4 and 4:30 for months when my daughter was a newborn. Its gradually moved later and now he is @ 5:30 which is great, for us, but would be horrifying to my neighbors, who have to wake their kids up at 7:00.

I havent found anything that really works to get my son to stay in bed in the morning. When he is up, he's up. I've tried keeping the room super dark, not letting him do anything fun when he wakes up, putting him back in bed over and over... He runs and runs and plays all day, sleeps like the dead at night, but gets up early. Nothing seems to have made a big difference.

What we do to cope - 1)I go to bed early - @ 9:30. My daughter still gets up once or twice a night (a story for another post) and I get up with her. 2)My husband gets up with my son in the morning and puts the cartoons on and gives him a breakfast bar. My son will sit like a little zombie in front of the tv with his breakfast, and my husband dozes on the couch. Not the picture of perfect parenting (shouldnt we be outside discussing the science of the sun rising or something?) but its the best we can do now.

The only thing that consoles me - by the time the kids are in highschool, they wont want to get up in the morning...

One thing we did was get a clock with easily read numbers, then in the same block numbers, wrote 7:00 on it and taped it above the clock. Our DD was allowed to get up when the numbers matched, before that if she woke up early she was allowed to play quietly in her room. This worked out really well.

OK I'm lauging at the first post who said that her preschooler is an "early riser" at 6:30. If we make it to 6:30 in our house, we call that sleeping in!!!

I'm in your boat. I have no suggestions to offer (very curious in what others suggest), I just wanted to let you know you're not alone. DD (7mos) was up for the day today at 4:40am. I fed her and left her in her crib for about an hour - until she started really crying.
DS (3) gets up around 5:30 everyday. We've waffled between 5-6 his whole life, and nothing we've ever tried works to get him to actually sleep more.
Now, we just put a CD on in his room and he will hang out in there until we get him at 5:30.

So I guess, all we do, is leave them. We've decided that we refuse to get up before 5:30. I'll do a feeding, if needed. But then the baby is going back in there until at least 5:30.
Hang in there mom. Everyone tells me that eventually they won't want to wake up. I keep waiting for that.

Does your 3 yr old nap? What time does he go to bed at night?

Basically what I'm wondering is how much sleep is he getting. I know some kids thrive on an early bedtime and are early risers. While others are huge nappers and don't seem to sleep well at night.

If you think he's getting enough nighttime sleep and NOT napping, I'd try putting him down a little later at night. See if you can shift his "nighttime sleeping" so that it's more like 8pm - 6am.

I know that there are some big proponents of sleep schedules and certain sleep specialist's views, however as a mom who's BEEN THERE myself, our child just didn't seem to adjust to the schedules we tried.

Also because your son is pooping early that may be part of what's waking him up! Maybe try to see if you can get him to eat MORE at breakfast and lunch and a lighter dinner so he doesn't wake up because he has to poop.

Sorry I don't have a magical answer.

First of all, I would eliminate any naps. Not all kids need naps. Sounds like he doesn't need any daytime sleep, if he is getting up that early.

I would also try this. Get a full-spectrum light. (You can get full-spectrum lightbulbs at Home Depot or Lowe's) Every morning, especially on dark winter and spring mornings, eat breakfast in front of the full-spectrum light. (In the summer, he can just sit in the morning sunlight). The light helps to set his natural biological clock. So, only turn on this light in the morning, when you'd like him to be awake. It will help him to be sleepy at the right time every night as well.

Next, put him to bed at the same time every night and wake him up at the same time every morning (weekends or not). And do the same bedtime routine every night. He should be sleeping about 10-11 hours a night, so if you put him to bed at 8, he should be up no earlier than 6am.

Give this a try and I know you will see an improvement. http://keystosimpleliving.com/kids_bedtime.php

Sorry I don't have much new to add- I especially like what Paula Tarver said though!

I also agree w/ the moms who suggest putting them to bed a little later. The 3 year old might be done w/ naps- mine is :(

I recommend Dr. Ferber's book- really helped us a lot

http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp...
(check out the reviews too)

Hang in there. It won't be like this forever- just feels that way :)

Have you tried adjusting bed times? My 3 year old is also an early riser, usually 6:30. She had times when she was getting up earlier and we worked with her that she could not get up until the sun. We actually bought one of those clocks that has a green light for when to get up. This has helped some. We also started putting her to bed a little later (between 8-8:30, this helped her sleep longer). Have you tried to go lay with your 3 year old when he gets up at 4:30...I know that has helped with my older one sometimes.

What time does your 14 month old go down for the night? Have you tried to sooth him back to sleep when he first gets up...I know with my 18 month old if she is up and crying for more than 10 minutes, then she will not go back to sleep.

Know that this phase will pass, just think when they are teenagers and need to get up early, you are going to be fighting them to get out of bed. good luck.

you never mentioned what time they go to bed? Do you have a routine? You should expect a solid 11 or 12 hours of night sleep from your 14 month old. When mine was wakign up, I first would go in to check (Never pick her up though) she just woke up....I bought an aquarium for her crib (hangs on the crib) she loves that thing and puts herself back down.
The 3 year old, I would keep putting him back in his bed...maybe think about getting him one of those alarm clocks that teach little ones when its ok to come out of the room...talk to him and tell him its not ok and he need to go back to his bed and offer a reward if he does stay in bed time the clock says 7 or something..
sorry about no sleep..that stinks.

Maybe he just has to go potty, put him on the potty when he wakes up and then try to put him back to bed. Plus the clock change has made a difference in sleep schedules of little ones.