How to get him to sleep later?

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Hello! I have twins that are almost 3. About a month ago they began sleeping in toddler beds. They USED to sleep all night until about 7 a.m. Well now my son periodically gets out of bed and tries to sneak into mine. NOW though, he has been sleeping all night, but getting up at 5:30 when my husband leaves for PT(Army).

I don't know why he's been getting up so early. It doesn't seem to matter how late he goes to bed(usually around 7:30) or how tired he is...any advice?

 

[paintnolish]

Darker cutains? A noisemaker in the room to cover the sounds of your dh getting ready?

 

[mjkacmom]

I never used toddler beds for this reason. For some reason, they stay in bed longer in regular twin beds - maybe a fear of heights?

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Darker cutains? A noisemaker in the room to cover the sounds of your dh getting ready?

It never used to wake him up and it's still dark in there that early. I used to let him come into my bed when he got up. Then I broke him of that and now he doesn't even want in my bed. He's ready to run. LOL.

For some reason he sleeps later when he has had a nap the previous day, but I can't get him to that either...*sigh

 

[5lilfish]

Th only thing I can suggest is to consistantly keep them up later.

One night of being up later will not stop them from waking up at the same time. I will take a few nights, maybe even a week, before you see a change in their routine.

M first 3 kids had your schedule. I put them to bed at 7:30 so that I could have some time in the evening. The only negative, they were up at 6am. I am not a morning person. Those 3 kids are now 12, 11 and 10. I now have 2 1/2 yr old twin girls (also in toddler beds...with a gate across their doorway). They have a completely different schedule than the first 3 had. It is no longer of any benefit for me to put them to bed early, because I still have my older kids awake and often we are out at one of the older kid's activities. So, the twins go to bed around 8:30-9pm. The advantage of this is that they sleep until 9am (or later). I would much rather have the extra time int he morning. Plus, when my girls wake up, they will play with each other, in their gated room, for quite a while before they call to come down. This works great for me.

Good luck...
Jess

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Th only thing I can suggest is to consistantly keep them up later.

One night of being up later will not stop them from waking up at the same time. I will take a few nights, maybe even a week, before you see a change in their routine.

M first 3 kids had your schedule. I put them to bed at 7:30 so that I could have some time in the evening. The only negative, they were up at 6am. I am not a morning person. Those 3 kids are now 12, 11 and 10. I now have 2 1/2 yr old twin girls (also in toddler beds...with a gate across their doorway). They have a completely different schedule than the first 3 had. It is no longer of any benefit for me to put them to bed early, because I still have my older kids awake and often we are out at one of the older kid's activities. So, the twins go to bed around 8:30-9pm. The advantage of this is that they sleep until 9am (or later). I would much rather have the extra time int he morning. Plus, when my girls wake up, they will play with each other, in their gated room, for quite a while before they call to come down. This works great for me.

Good luck...
Jess

I'm gonna try that, but my twins have seperste rooms because they DO NOT get along. LOL

 

[DMickey28]

They aren't napping anymore? We are in the process of transitioning from naps I think. My DS will be 3 in April. He NEEDS to be in bed by 8pm otherwise he is overtired and he will wake between 7-8pm. At this age, they still need between 12-15 hours of sleep.

Are they in daycare? Do they get outside in the winter? I find my DS sleeps SOOOOOO much better when he gets a chance to play in the snow outside or goes to a playgroup during the day. The winter is hard because he's in all the time but I try to bundle him up and get him out at least a few times a week.

I wish I had some advice ... we are struggling here too ... not with the early wake up but waking up screaming/crying between 1-2AM. Not fun.

 

[MizTink]

have mang things will make sleep up

huh????

 

[5lilfish]

They aren't napping anymore? We are in the process of transitioning from naps I think. My DS will be 3 in April. He NEEDS to be in bed by 8pm otherwise he is overtired and he will wake between 7-8pm. At this age, they still need between 12-15 hours of sleep.

Are they in daycare? Do they get outside in the winter? I find my DS sleeps SOOOOOO much better when he gets a chance to play in the snow outside or goes to a playgroup during the day. The winter is hard because he's in all the time but I try to bundle him up and get him out at least a few times a week.

I wish I had some advice ... we are struggling here too ... not with the early wake up but waking up screaming/crying between 1-2AM. Not fun.

My twins are 2 1/2 and we are in the nap - no nap transition. I still put them upstairs around 1pm every day. Most days they will just play together in their room for a couple hours (books and puzzles). They are happy and I get a break. If they do nap they are awake until midnight. I still put them upstairs by 9pm but they do not fall asleep. If they do not nap, I have to watch them and make sure they do not fall asleep during dinner. We have a few pictures of both of them asleep in their high chairs. When they do not nap, they will often fall asleep by 8pm...and still sleep until 9 or 10am.

Jess

 

[padams]

We went through that phase. The 5am thing started at our house when the time changed when DS was a toddler. DS' body clock didn't make the change. We put a baby gate in the doorway and told DS that he had to stay in his room quietly in the morning until mom or dad came to take down the gate. He spent some early mornings playing or looking at books but eventually he just started sleeping later.

 

[Duckyiam71]

I wish I had some advice. My DS10 has been waking at 5-530a since he was 2. He goes to bed at 830p-9p and wakes up everyday on his own. I could never get him out of waking so early. So we just set some rules...we set the alarm for 630a to let him know that it was ok to move around the house and make some noise. Before then he would have to stay in his room and play quietly. Now I also have DS5 who goes to bed at 7-730p every night and I have to pry him out of bed at 630a. He is like me...not a morning person! I think part of the DS10 problem was my DH was a single soldier and had to wake him at 5a and now it now it has just stuck. Good luck.

 

[Huggles]

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Nite-Lit...1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1264091493&sr=8-2-fkmr0

http://www.bunnyclock.com/

I know the first is available in the US but not sure where you can obtain the second (the one we had was sent by relatives.)

We had blackout curtain linings and then were given the bunny clock. No getting up and running around until after bunny wakes up. Worked well for us.

Good luck!

 

[Gabes_mommy]

How much sleep my DS needs drastically changed in the last few months (he is 3). We now have to put him to bed later (about 9:00) if we want him to sleep to at least 7:00. We also had to cut his naps back to an hour and a half because if he sleeps longer than that he doesn't go to sleep at night.

It's a bummer. I miss the time DH and I used to have alone before bed. Now we have a constant companion. Ds also climbs into our bed every night.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I had the same experience as Gabes Mommy--right around 3 we had to start letting him stay up later if we wanted him to sleep past 5:30am.

Someone then suggested that good night clock, but I just told him he had to stay in bed until the sun came up. I never would have believed it, but it worked. He still wakes up early sometimes, but he doesn't get up.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We went through the same thing with our son when he was around that age and a little older IIR (a twin also, but only had the problem with him). He'd come into our bed a lot. We got to calling him the Stealth because sometimes we wouldn't even realize he was there until we rolled over and found him there. The way we dealt with it was to just get him back into his own bed. I remember it being really frustrating for a long while and wondering if he'd ever grow out of it. He did, eventually. I think making his room really cool and comfortable helped him want to stay in there. Good luck.

 

[PatsGirl]

10 hours of sleep might be enough for them at this point, although both my kids needed about 12 or so at that age I know that some posters said they would keep them up later but personally I think it's best if you just resign yourself to the fact that your sleeping in mornings (yeah, like 6 am?) are over for the moment. My kids have had many friends over the years who couldn't get up at 6 and get ready for school in time because parents allowed them to sleep until 8 or 9 until kindergarten to accomodate late evening schedules. It can become quite a problem in my experience.

 

[Pembo]

When he's 13 and you have to drag him out of bed early in the morning, remind him how he never let you sleep when he was little. It's a nice payback.

My oldest was early to rise, it didn't matter if he went to bed early or late, nap or not...he was up with the sun. We taught him to come in and wake us up, then he could go and watch tv. He was so tv-addicted that once he started watching the house could fall down and he wouldn't notice. Come to think of it, he's still that way....

No real advice but a lot of empathy for you....

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

I'm going to go the different route of advice......maybe because I'm a little weepy lately since my "baby" DS5 is in Kindergarten, but I say.......let him come in your room at 5am and cuddle with you till 7.

My DS5 has been doing this about a year, and I LOVE it!! He sleeps in his bed all night (8pm-6ish), then I hear him scooting down the hall around 6 and he climbs into bed with me. 9 times out of 10 he nods back off and I get some much needed cuddle time, and he gets the rest of the rest he needs.

A few times he's gotten up earlier, say 4ish. I put him back into his bed and tell him it's too early for cuddles and to come back after he's had some more sleep.

I truly cherish that time of day!! It won't be long before he's like DS8 and not interested in cuddling at all.

 

[justhat]

My son has always gotten up unbearably early (for me, as I am NOT a morning person) and NOTHING we have tried has changed him at all. Well, not true entirely in that he can sleep till about 7am if, and only if, he goes to bed after 10pm multiple nights in a row. But then he's exhausted all day (he no longer naps) and is simply not practical for any of us.

In his case, he simply got my husband's gene, cause as a kid my husband got up before the sun too. I have never in my life done that and likely never would if it weren't that I have a 3yo to watch. And my daughter is more like me, wakes up later.


ETA: I forgot to mention my son used to get up and crawl into my bed when he woke up (by 6am, also in sync with when my husband leaves the house for work). Recently, however, he has zero interest in that, wakes up his sister, and they both play for awhile. They share a room and usually stay in there till around 7am and then one gets hungry or wants to tattle or whatever and then I'm up for good.