Early wake ups

Any ideas on how to make my 2 year old NOT wake up at 5:00 a.m. EVERY morning?? I'll take any suggestions. . . I think I've tried most. . . They attend daycare during the day so I'm unable to extend or change their nap time. . . I would LOVE anything you got ;o)

Sleep deprived momma!

 

I told mine they couldn't get up before teh sun was up. If they wake up nad it is not light, they have to go back to bed. This has really helped. My goal is 7 am wakeup but sometimes it is 6:30 and rarely 6 (as it is getting light).

 

That's great but mine are only just turned 2. . . I'm not sure they will understand what that means. . . I did plan on, when they got older, to put a big clock and tell them can't get up until little hand on 6 but that won't work now. . .

 

I know many people wouldn't be okay with this, but I keep an air mattress in their bedroom and when they happen to wake up at 5:00 a.m. (especially on the weekends), I put the air mattress down on the floor, bring a pillow and blanket, and lay down. They lay down when they see me lay down - and usually sleep til 7:00 or 7:30. Works for us great!

 

We have been doing the "you have to stay in bed until its not dark out" routine. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Don't know why they seem to have a built in clock set for 6am. Good luck! If you find the magic trick please post and share for the rest of us.

 

The "you stay in bed until it's not dark" also wouldn't work because we have black out curtains on their windows ;o)!!

 

How do you handle the changing seasons? 4am in the summer is okay but in mid-winter it must 8am?

 

I get my baby up at 6:00am and my twins used to get up at 6:30am - 6:45am. My one twin DD started waking up at 4:45am - 5:30am, and I told her that I would get her up at 6:00 when I got up to give the baby her bottle, but she had to lay quietly and not call out for me and wake her twin up. Well, she's done just that since we talked about it. I remind her of it every night and praise her when I get her up. I can see on the monitor that she's awake, but she's being quiet so my other DD gets to sleep another 30 - 45 minutes. I'm hoping she eventually starts sleeping in a little later.

 

I have heard lots of recommendations for the tot clock for just this reason. The main reason my kids are still in cribs is just because of this - right now we simply don't go get them until 7:00 and they have learned to sleep until then or are content and talking and happy after waking at about 6:30 until we get them. When they can get up anytime they want I don't know what we are going to do - we have climbers and need to switch, but I really love that extra time! The tot clock seems like it would work better than a lot of solutions, and I would think that it wouldn't take long to help them understand when they were and were not allowed to get up.

 

Thanks guys! This morning when S got up at 4:50 I went in and told him to lay back down and I would put the blanket on him. . .he did and I patted him for a few minutes then left. He slept in until 6 when his BROTHER woke up! Of course mommy didn't sleep because I was just waiting for S to wake back up ;o)

 

I have friends who used a timer on a lamp in their little early riser's room... he was told he could not leave his bed until the light turned on, and it worked pretty well! They moved from 4:30 to 5 am wake-ups to 6:30 wake-ups over the course of a month or so (they had the light turn on a bit later every day).