Ways to keep them up at night?

H&J seem to fall apart around 630 so we put them to bed. However, they are now waking up at 530 because they are getting enough sleep (they nap about 2 hours every day). I love them but not at 530, i'm not sure I love anyone at 530. Any suggestions on how to get them to stay up later? We leave them until 630 but nobody is sleeping from 530-630.

 

Take them out for an hour before coming home and shift your entire nighttime routine back an hour? Go shopping or something on your way home, just for a few days until they get used to staying up that extra hour. Or alternatively, you can come over to my house and walk my dogs. They need it and I can't do it until after A&R go to bed.

 

LOL, are your dogs ok with being ridden? That might happen.

 

That's why there are two of them. Perfect size for toddler riding.

 

I used to give mine a bath to keep them awake later.

 

Welcome to my world! my 17 month olds get up by 5am (yes, that reads 5am!) everyday...and many days my DS is up around 4:30am. I dont open their door until 5:30 but it makes for very early mornings! By 8:45 at the latest, they are falling asleep and i have to put them in for a nap. They go to bed around 6:30pm and are usually asleep by 7 - my twins love being in their cribs and can play and talk for hours. Their afternoon nap is usually a 60-90 minute funfest in their cribs.....very little sleeping. i've tried every trick to get them to go to bed later and thus up later in the mornings but nothing works. They are early risers and so for their sake i put them into bed early so that at least they get enough sleep.

I will say that i work full time and leave my house at 6:30am most days and so the 5;30-6:30am hour is my favorite and its my time with them...of course that means i'm getting up around 4:15am to work out and get ready for work....

 

I guess I would try keeping them up a little later every night (maybe 15 minutes or so) by doing a quiet activity that they like. Maybe read an extra story, or bring out some crayons. Or you could have them run around like complete fools as my boys do. For some reason my guys fall asleep better when they do a lot of running before bed; I guess it gets out the excess energy. ardon:

Anyway, I'd get them interested in something so you can push back their bedtime a bit. Alternately, you could wait until the time change, and just make their normal bedtime 1 hour later! :good:

 

I will just caution you with moving bedtime back too much at night. My twins are 14 months and are also early, early risers. In bed by 630, up by 5 or 530. We have tried many times to inch bedtime back a bit with baths, food, trips, and anytime we move it back they don't sleep any later, just sleep less and are more irritable.

But-if you did it a few days in a row instead of giving up like I did, maybe it will work for you?

I have resigned myself to the fact that my kids like to go to bed early, and like to get up early. Ugh!

 

that was my experience as well when i tried to put them in later. i find that the earlier they go to bed, the later they sleep in the mornings... my grandma always said, "sleep begets sleep"....

 

Our boys are early risers, too....for the longest time, they were up between 5 and 5:30 every morning...now it is more like 6am. I don't go get them and if I'm VERY lucky, they will go back to sleep and doze until 6:45ish. But that is hit or miss. I have found that putting them to bed later doesn't make them sleep any later, and only makes them cranky the next day. It's worth a try to keep them up later, but if that doesn't help, I'm wondering if maybe you could adjust their nap schedule somehow. Could they nap 30 minutes later, and then maybe they could stay up later before bed?

 

It may be too early to tell, but they may just be morning people. I don't mean to scare you, but one of mine never sleeps in. Ever. Even if he was awake until 10pm the night before, he's up and ready to go at 6am. It was horrible when he was 2-5 years old, and the 5:30 wake-ups nearly made me lose my mind. We tried everything: moving back bedtime, taking away nap, shortening nap, having "fun" in the evenings. It got to the point where he simply fell asleep during dinner. No amount of manipulating on our part could change his hardwiring.

Now that he's 7 and can tell time, he's not allowed in our room until 6:30 on school days and 7am on weekends.

 

I'd agree with keeping bed time at 630 but tonight when I put them down, they talked until 715. That is a normal occurrence so we are going to work on doing a 645 bedtime. We won't go too drastic until daycare is able to move their nap later.

 

What time is their nap? It may help to push nap back a little so that they can stay up later. Mine basically did this on their own...the later their nap got the later they would go to bed at night. Also, mine often wake quite some time before we do and they have a ball with playtime in their cribs. We put a sippy of water, Scout/Violet (leapfrog toys) and stuffed animals in their cribs and they play with them, chatter to each other, etc. We also have musical crib toys that they can turn on and they love pushing the buttons to play the music.

 

Their nap is noon. I am going to talk to daycare about pushing it back to 1230. Mine have stuff in their cribs (toys, books, lovies) but if Henry thinks you should be in there, he will toss all of it on the floor and then pitch a fit that sounds like someone is being murdered. I swear, I have never had such a dramatic child. The other two look at him like he is crazy. They slept in this morning (they were still asleep when I left at 620).