My almost 29 month old daughter has a habit of waking up anywhere from 5:30 am - a rare 6:30. She usually goes to bed between 8 and 8:30. It doesn't matter what time I put her to bed, even if it were later, she is just an early morning riser. This morning I tried to get her to sleep longer but she had a major tantrum.
The tantrum was so bad that I thought my daughter was going to throw up and I could tell she was shaking by her voice. Alyssa is almost 2 and a half and still reacts this way if I don't go to her right away. I have tried to get her to sleep longer with black-out shades to no avail.
Is there anything I can do to get her to sleep longer? Thank you. P.S. She usually takes at least an hour to an hour and a half nap a day but is starting to resist naps too. Alyssa definitely needs to nap otherwise she is irritable.
Sleep begets sleep, try putting her to bed EARLIER. Too late a bedtime causes early wake times. Just try it for a few nights, what do you have to lose? I would try putting her down by 7 or possibly earlier initially until she gets caught up on sleep.
Read Healthy Sleet Habit, Happy Child!
When my daughter was about 2 she was doing this too. I taught her to look at her clock and if the 7 wasn't in the first spot, she couldn't come out of her room. She finally got to the point where she was tired of waking up and not coming out so she just slept later, most of the time! If she didn't want to sleep she could play with the toys in her room. If she came into my room I'd ask her if it was 7, if it wasn't I took her back to her room. This worked great for us.
My children are both like this. Our daughter will be three in October and our son is almost 6. Ours won't sleep in if they stay up late either, they still wake at the crack of dawn. Then they are just a cranky mess all day. I have yet to find any solutions that work that great. I know we used the time change to help train our kids to "sleep in" until 6:30. We would let them get up for a few minutes and show them it was still nighttime (Because it was dark out) and not time to get up. A few minutes of cuddles and back into their crib they went. That usually convinced them to stay in bed a little longer without the screaming. In their little brains they thought they just woke up in the middle of the night. Now that they are both in big kid beds, I have trained them to come in to get me when they wake up. Then we can "cuddle" for a while. Which, I admit, often means I turn on cartoons and doze if they are up before 6:00 or so. My SIL had great success with the alarms that you can set with red and green lights. She sets the time. If the clock turns green, her daughter can get out of bed. If it's red she has to stay in bed (or her bedroom now that she is older). She started this right after her daughter turned 2 and really knew her colors well. (We tried this with my son, he's not a big a rule follower as his cousin. He kept coming in and announcing what color his clock was to us). The down side it that she has accidentally trained her daughter to sleep in until 8 or 8:30 and waking her up earlier is a complete nightmare. She is VERY concerned about starting a kindergarten school schedule here in a few weeks. So it may not be all bad.
As HenrysMamma says, try to get her to bed earlier rather than later.
It's been my experience that some kids only need 10 hours of sleep...my daughter stopped napping at 2 and only slept 10 hours at night. She was so tired by 730 so she was waking up at 530 every morning! I could not get her to sleep later even if we did push her bedtime back. She'll be four on Sunday and goes to bed anywhere from 730-830 and is up at 7am every morning - so somehow she's learned to sleep later, but I don't know how that happened?
That's about the age we introduced the GoodNite Lite to our daughter. She started waking around 0530 and it kept getting earlier and earlier. After introducing the GoodNite Lite and gradually bumping it back 5-10 minutes a week, she routinely wakes at 0700 now. It's worth a try!! (Our daughter has always had a 7:45 p.m. bedtime and naps 1-1.5 hours)
That's when mommy gets up with the kid and we fall back asleep on the couch.. I think when ours does this it's not so much she's not tired she just got woken up and wants us so usually me on the couch (or in our bed) with her is enough and we'll go back to sleep for an hour or so.. plus I love the cuddles. I'd be frustrated if I were you!
I would think that your daughter is done sleeping at that point. If she goes down at 8 and wakes at 5:30, she has had a decent night of sleep. My daughter does the same but she is only 15 months. I just have to remind myself that just because Mommy and Daddy want to sleep more doesn't mean she does. I am not going to make her stay in bed if she doesn't want or even need to be there but that is just me.
good luck on whatever you choose.
I've always told my now 3 yr old at bedtime 'See you in the morning, when it's bright and sunny!' To this day he comes in my room at 6 am or 7 am and asks "Sunny M.?" Sometimes it is. Sometime's it's not. When it's not sunny yet, if I am lucky, he will fall back asleep in bed with me (husband's gone to work). So other than cuddling with her and telling her "We can't get up until the sun comes up" then I don't know what you should do.
Is she getting enough physical exercise. I know kids run around all day long. But is she getting organized time to be rowdy and use all her big muscles? I would also try and look close at her diet and see if there are improvements that can be made and make sure she's eating just before bed because she could be waking up hungry. Do you use background noise or a fan? Also, is her bed comfortable enough. She's past the threat of sids so she should have a soft mattress and be dressed right for the temps and have a few lovey's of course.
We had some of the same issues with my son. I actually find that if I try to just have him nap every other day or so, he is less likely to resist because he is more tired for the nap. Also, I have found that when he doesn't nap, he is ready for bed around 7:30 easily and often sleeps in later! If I keep him active in the afternoon, he usually does not give me many issues! I still don't quite have the schedule down this way and I know summer does not help but it is something to try!
We also just recently taught our daughter (about the same age) to look at a clock. We secretly set it about 15-20 minutes later, so if she woke us it would really be later than 7am. We showed her how the short hand would touch the 7 in the morning. If she needed help or she was scared, she could always come in... but just a hello would have to wait until 7. She also learned to play in her room most of the time when it's not time to wake us. If she does come in, we let her sit in our bed and watch cartoons on VERY low. It takes time. I wouldn't push her to sleep more, just keep teaching her to play on her own in her room or to look at a clock. My friend's daughter knows how to turn the TV on and press 123. Even easier! Good luck- it is possible to get more sleep!
