Need some advice.. my kids have started waking early again!

HI ladies, I just wanted to get some input from you. Noah and Sophie have been sleepy through the night for over 10 months now. We were going to bed around 6:45-7pm and waking at 7 ish am. At around 14 months we transitionned to one nap a day and it took us a while but we finally got it to be about 2 hours long. I was happy and so were they.

Our day looked like this:
wake 645 am
breakfast 7am
play/outdoors
small snack around 9-930 am
Lunch at 1100
play while I clean up
noon-nap until about 2pm
snack
play
630 start our bath/bedtime routine
sleep by 7-715

lately I am finding the kids are waking EARLY, like 5 something. I know Sophie is teething but Noah??!!! I have no idea. I am also finding them SUPER sleeping before their lunch bc they have been up so long!! I am not sure how to remedy this. Has anyone gone through something like this and any suggestions? Should I put them to bed earlier? I was hoping to extend their bedtime to later in the night, so we could be at the park longer and hopefully sleep in longer but this isn't working.

Any advice would be appreciated! TIA

Anna

 

You're going to think I'm crazy. But our boys were going to bed at 8pm, waking up by 6am at the latest, very grumpy, not napping well (sometimes napping only 40 minutes) and I was just about to lose my mind. :gah: :wacko: :drown: So we got really, really desperate for something to change and COMPLETELY covered their window with cardboard. It is now pitch black in their room. Since we did that, they are now sleeping until 7am or even 7:30am most mornings (maybe once or twice they have woken up early in the last month and that has been because they soaked through a diaper or something obvious like that).

Seriously, it's been a miracle, and they are SO much happier. Their napping is still up and down (some days 90 minutes, some days only 45 minutes), but I am so overjoyed that they are sleeping until 7:30am most mornings that I will deal with the naps. It may not work for you, but if you have some cardboard laying around, it might be worth a shot. Our kiddos seem to have a lot in common, so who knows! I honestly don't know why I didn't think of it sooner because we have blackout curtains in our own bedroom because I can't sleep once it's light out either.

 

Hey Eagleswings!! So glad to hear the boys are sleeping in! My head ached at the thought of waking so early

Sophie's room has black out drapes, so that isn't the issue. It's pretty dark in noah's room but maybe I'll try that, a little light might be getting through. Honestly though I think he's going through a spurt or mood or something, he is WHINING alot. I love the little bugger but some moments... Grrr! Too bad you don't live in the same city, our kids do sound alike. Thanks for advice

 

My schedule looks identical to yours except mine go to sleep at 8pm. We haven't had a good week, up at 5:30 a few days, but maybe you could let them stay u pa little later. I'm hoping the earlier time isn't a new schedule. GL

 

We actually already had blackout drapes, but apparently enough light was getting through around the edges that it was waking them up. And boy do I understand about the whining! Mike and Gabe have been better since they are getting more sleep, but they can still whine like crazy some days. I think they may be starting teething again already because they have been chewing on their fingers again the last few days. Some days I'm totally worn out by their bedtime! Hang in there - hopefully things will get better soon.

 

OMG....I was going to post the same thing!!!!! My girls are now up between 4:45 and 5:15 every freaking morning!!!! We put them to bed at the same time as your LOs and have a white noise machine in their room and black out curtains. I am so frustrated!!!!! I know they are both teething but come on!!!!

Mine started STTN fully 3 weeks ago (before that one of both was still getting up at least every 3 hours) and since they are no longer night waking (except for the last 2 nights for some reason) they seem to only be capable of sleeping for 10 hours at night. We have been contemplating putting them to bed at 8pm to try to gt them to sleep util 6pm but they are so tired by 6:40ish that I don't think this is possible. They are both so whiny during the day that I'm ready to loose it.

So, I have no idea what to tell you to do . If you figure it out please share because I'm tired!!!!

 

Hey Girl, I am SOOOOO with you. I am flippin' tired. Today I had to go to work too and frankly I could barely remember what the hell I was doing the minute before and that was after a STRONG tea with LOTs of caffeine!

I have no frickin' clue what is going on. Honestly, teeth or no teeth this is ridiculous. Like you, my kids would not survive until 8 pm. They are really tired at around 645-700 and have tantrums in the bath if we go later than that.

Good luck and keep strong bc this HAS to be a phase (tell me it is!!)!! Oh, the whining!! My son is the king of whining. I love him to bits but some days when he sleeps I still hear him

 

If you try adjusting their bedtime, I would definitely try earlier before I tried later - if they are teething right now, they may need the extra sleep.

Otherwise, have you tried telling them it's not time to wake yet, they need to go back to sleep? When my girls did this, we started repeating a bit of their bedtime routine (we would quietly sing their night time song again) & then tucking them back in. That usually bought us another 1 - 1.5 hours of sleep in the early morning. And when all else failed, we brought them into our bed with us. They didn't always fall back asleep, but they usually would lay quietly while DH & I dozed for another hour or so.

 

We have had great success doing CIO for early morning awakening. I really didn't think it would work, but it did. With my first, we just stopped going in his room before 6. With the twins, we went in and said, "it's not time to get up yet" and turned on their CD player that they go to sleep with at night. Both strategies worked surprisingly well after a few days.

 

Thanks, I will try that bc 6 am is not an option

 

How are they doing? Still up early? Mine are still up around 5am every morning...sometimes earlier. They are also back to waking a million times a night...I just don't get why they can't SLEEP!!!! We have just started sleep training during the night again and have stopped going in so this means I am not going in until 6am either. We had a glimpse that it might be working yesterday morning (which of course was Sunday, the one day a week DH gets up with them) when they slept in until 6:15. This morning when momma was back on duty they were up off and on starting at 1:20 and then up for good at 4:45...arrgghhhh!!!

I hope you're having better luck! I am about to try eagleswings tip of duct taping cardboard to their window. Even though they already have blackout curtains maybe the tiny bit of light coming through it what's doing it, also I'm desperate .

 

I definitely agree with telling them it's not time to get up yet. They are old enough that they are understanding more than they let on! Also, do they have anything in their cribs yet? My two always wake before I do but they have sippies of water, stuffed animals and a crib soother that lights up and plays music, so they chatter and play for quite a while before I have to get them out. If they cry out too early I would just hand them a favorite stuffed animal and turn their music on, rub their backs for a minute, and then leave the room.

As for getting to push their bedtime later, mine did that on their own about 18-20 months when they started taking a later and longer afternoon nap.

 

Thanks ladies! I will certainly try some of your suggestions!
E's 3-- things are a hit and miss around here! I hope they are sleeping better on your end bc getting up that early is just wrong!! I used to sleep in LATE and now if I can get to 730, I am in heaven!! The joys of parenthood lol!!

 

I don't have any advice. We're going through the exact same thing here. I used to blame it on teeth. It seems like one of them is constantly cutting a tooth. They've got to sleep, though! They finally started sleeping until 6:00 (versus 4 or 5), but now won't take a nap. It's such a challenge.