Early Riser

My good sleeper is suddenly waking at 5am! He then screams and cries and wakes up his brother. He usually goes to bed by 8pm and naps 2-2.5 hours a day. I thought it could be teething but he just seems to have gotten enought sleep and wants to start his day. Any suggestions on how to get him to sleep longer?

 

How do you handle night-wakings (if you have any)? I picked a time (6:30am here) and any wakings before that time I treat just like a night-waking. For me that means waiting a moment to see if they will go back to sleep, and if they don't, then I go in and rock for a few minutes telling them that it's still night-time and it's time to go back to sleep. Usually if I put them down, they will go back to sleep.

Do you have blackout shades? Keeping it nice and dark in their room is really handy for convincing them that it's still night!

I hope you find something that works; early wakings are no fun!

 

For some reason all of my kids are/were early risers. I don't really have a good advice here, but I can tell you that my daughter outgrew that stage and I hope the boys will, too.

 

Can you put things in his crib to play with? Mine often rise before we do and play in their cribs with stuffed animals, scout, etc. They also get a sippy of water in their crib and sometime a book as well.

 

I also treat it like a night waking. I ignore the babies until 630 am. One other thing that seems counter-intuitive that you might try is put them to bed at 730. Often, an earlier bedtime fosters longer sleep. Mine still go to bed at 630 pm. I hope this goes away quickly for you!