Any advice for a child who wakes up really early?

[erinmc]

My 17 month old daughter has always been a pretty good sleeper but we have been having an issue the last few weeks.

She wakes up very very early. Between 5:00 and 5:30 on most days and today she was even a few minutes before 5:00AM. I don't mind that she gets up early but that is just insanely early to me! My goal is to get her to sleep until 6:00AM.

I have tried the following things: Room darkening shades, bringing her to bed with us at 5:00AM, moving the bedtime later, moving the bedtime earlier.

Right now her bedtime is around 7:00 and this is when she genuinely seems tired and when she goes down the easiest.

I have tried moving her bedtime later (tried several different times up until 8:30pm) with no change in wake up time. She dropped her morning nap about 6 weeks ago and that is about when this ultra-early wake up time started.

So right now she is up at 5:00, nap at 12:30 or 1:00, up again between 3:00 and 3:30 and down for the night around 7:00.

Any ideas on how I can tweak her schedule to help her sleep until 6:00 or so? I fear that I may just be stuck with an early riser but I will try any ideas that you guys have.

Wow, this is long. Thanks for reading.

[HadassahSukkot]

I wish I had a suggestion. My 1mo old wakes up at 5 with daddy, sleeps after eating and then is up again to eat at 6:30 after daddy leaves for work. He's extra fussy when it is time for daddy to be home again at 5:30 too... but I was warned -- he was that way before he was born too (showing signs of doing that as early as back in November when he was only 3months along..

[vintagegyrl]

I am wondering about this too. We do OK - DS #2 (23mos) gets up around 6:30. We have had more physical activity outside and cut out the afternoon nap (unless it just happens) and both boys go to bed around 8. I do wonder, however - last fall at daylight savings - Josh started getting up around 5:30 - which was normal for him - his clock didnt change! He never went back until we changed the clocks back!! GL!

[amphibology29]

Your daughter is quite a bit younger than my son, but since he was about 2 he has been getting up much earlier than I am ready to start my day. When he was about 2 I started by bringing quiet toys into my bedroom so he could come in and play quietly on the floor while I finished up another hour of sleep. Then as he got older I expanded it. I started keeping a box of granola bars and a small table and chairs in my bedroom so he could have a small snack while he played. Now that he's four and can handle going to the bathroom completely alone if he needs to, every night we put a granola bar and cup of water in his bedroom and he's allowed to get up in the morning when he's ready, eat, and play in his room until I get up.

[Katherine]

during the school year dd (now 3) gets up super early on the weekends. We just started letting her climb into bed with us and watch a cartoon or video. She'll usually cuddle nicely for awhile, but after a bit gets too awake and starts jumping around, trampling our skulls....but we get some extra sleep out of it.

[titania]

sounds like my kids at that age. and older. only very recently have things started to improve. that is all i can say about that, it seems every time i say anything positive about their sleeping habits, they change back to unbearable! all i can say is, hang in there. hopefully it won't last long.

[eilla05]

OKay IMO you need to move the whole routine up a few hours. My guy is not your littles one age but IMO I think you need to move her whole day up a few hours and put her to bed super early for a few day to see if that helps.

So if she gets up at 5 try putting her down for her nap at 10:30-11 and then down for the night at say 5-6 and see if it works. It seems to me that she is staying up way to long in between the wake up time and the nap and therefore might be getting a bit overtired.

how does she do for her nap? Does she go down easy ? how about for bedtime?

[erinmc]

Originally Posted by eilla05 OKay IMO you need to move the whole routine up a few hours. My guy is not your littles one age but IMO I think you need to move her whole day up a few hours and put her to bed super early for a few day to see if that helps. So if she gets up at 5 try putting her down for her nap at 10:30-11 and then down for the night at say 5-6 and see if it works. It seems to me that she is staying up way to long in between the wake up time and the nap and therefore might be getting a bit overtired. how does she do for her nap? Does she go down easy ? how about for bedtime?

She goes down for her nap fairly easily. Fusses a little but less than 10 minutes. She usually sleeps for 2-3 hours. At night she goes down easy peasy with no fussing at all (just talks to herself) if we put her down at 6:30-7:00. Later than that and it is impossible to get her to sleep.

I agree that her wake time is too long in the AM and that is partially for my convenience (I know this is not good). DH comes home for lunch at 11:30 and he likes to see her, etc. So I usually just try to keep the mornings ful of fun stuff so that she has no chance to get bored.
But the poor kid is just about falling asleep over her lunch!

I am going to give your suggestion a shot. This morning she was up at 5:00 grumpy and tired. I put her down for a nap at 9:00 since there was no way she was going to make it until lunch. We are just at a weird time where 2 naps is too much and one nap is not really enough, KWIM?

I appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks.

[AmyCivic80]

Originally Posted by erinmc She goes down for her nap fairly easily. Fusses a little but less than 10 minutes. She usually sleeps for 2-3 hours. At night she goes down easy peasy with no fussing at all (just talks to herself) if we put her down at 6:30-7:00. Later than that and it is impossible to get her to sleep. I agree that her wake time is too long in the AM and that is partially for my convenience (I know this is not good). DH comes home for lunch at 11:30 and he likes to see her, etc. So I usually just try to keep the mornings ful of fun stuff so that she has no chance to get bored. But the poor kid is just about falling asleep over her lunch! I am going to give your suggestion a shot. This morning she was up at 5:00 grumpy and tired. I put her down for a nap at 9:00 since there was no way she was going to make it until lunch. We are just at a weird time where 2 naps is too much and one nap is not really enough, KWIM? I appreciate all the suggestions. Thanks.

I thought the same thing about my daughter and one day as an experiment I tried putting her down for a nap a lot earlier. She wakes up between 7:30 and 8 every day and I used to put her down for a nap around 11 or 11:30. The last few days I have putting her down for a nap at 10 and she's been going right to sleep and sleeping for 2 1/2 hours instead of 1 1/2 hours. Because she takes an earlier nap, she's definitely ready for a second nap around 3:30 or so (she sleeps for about an hour to an hour and a half for that nap). She wakes up, plays, has dinner, and is ready for bed around 8.

Try putting her down for her first nap a lot earlier and I bet that second nap will naturally follow. I've heard that sleep begets sleep so hopefully the more rested she is, the later she'll sleep for you in the morning.

By the way, my daughter is almost 14 months old.