This girl's sleep is going to kill me! I feel like I come here every two weeks with a new issue. She's 26 months. Sleeps in a twin bed since 19 months (ugh). She's been waking up earlier every day. We've gone from 6:30 to 4:50 (this morning). She wakes up happy but also extremely amped up. You can tell the adrenaline is flowing because she talks non-stop, super fast and can't stop moving. We've tried taking her back to bed, letting her come into our bed, and just giving up and getting up with her.
Now we are on our way to gymnastics and it's only 9 am and she fell asleep in the car at 8:45. Clearly she needs more sleep but I can't figure out how to make that happen!
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@Mrs. Turtle: Have you tried pushing back bedtime just a little?
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@crazydoglady: We did for a few nights with no results. I'm afraid to cut back on sleep because she tends to sleep worse the more sleep deprived she gets.
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Both my kids did (do) that at this age. My 19mo is up at 5am everyday. So is his same age cousin. I put my son to bed early (6-6:30) to allow for adequate sleep. My sister keeps her lo up later to try to get her to sleep in with no Sussex. What I ended up doing with my older was using daylights savings to switch her from 6-5 to 7-6. That was the only thing that worked for me
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ETA today my lo was up at 4:30 i told him over he monitor to go to sleep. He laid back down until 5. I do have good success telling him that over the monitor for naps or middle of the night wakings
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Both my kids have low sleep needs. We are up everyday by 5:30, and my 20 month old, for a long stretch, was getting up at 4:30. What has worked best for us at maaaybe stretching it out to is let the baby (or big kid depending) come into bed with us in hopes they’ll fall back to sleep. That being said, this morning my 4 year old climbed into bed with me at 5 and decided to ask me questions every 10 seconds until I could not take it anymore and decided it would be easier to get up!!
Oh actually, the other thing that worked for us in getting better sleep (this was at night- the 4 year old was stretching out going to sleep for over an hour) was completely dropping naps. That began our first stint of easy bedtime and straight through sleep (I am crying because he recently started napping at daycare again and his sleep has gone totally downhill!).
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We had the same thing happen with DS at that age. It lasted a few months and eventually stopped. I’m guessing there is some developmental explanation.
ETA: We bought one of those stoplight clocks off of amazon which turn green when it is ok to wake. We started using it by setting it to an early time and once he saw he could make it to the green light, we adjusted the clock to a normal time.
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@Mrs. Turtle: 2 Year molars!?? They were a nightmare for us and cause all kinds of sleep disruption. What happens when she wakes up? Does she call for you or come find you? I would ignore/treat it like a middle of the night wake up (because as far as I am concerned 4:30 is night time still
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We have been fighting this for 3 years. No solutions, unfortunately. You could try an earlier bedtime...she may be overtired.
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@Mrs. Turtle: DS is almost 26 months and has gone in and out of phases of waking between 5 and 530. Sometimes well put him to bed early for 3-4 nights in a row (by 7) to try to reset him! Haha. But I can’t find a pattern in any of it. For months he wakes at a normal time then he goes back to waking early for a few weeks then back again..
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Do you have one of those monitors where you can talk to her? Usually if my son wakes up too early, if I talk to him and sing to him over the monitor for 5 to 10 minutes, he will go back to bed. Another possibility is do you have the sunlight blocked really, really well?
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Something that early I treat as a middle of the night wake up. If she did that at 2am how would you handle it?
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My son was like this. I basically had to make sure he had enough daytime sleep, which meant he was on two naps for a very long time. I tried an earlier bedtime, which didn't work for us, he just kept waking up at the same time.
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@gotkimchi: Yeah, we've mostly been putting her to bed early to make up for it. Now we just have to get to bed early as well!
@bloved: I think this is where we are at. She's just low sleep needs and an early riser. I've thought about the nap thing. She doesn't nap at home anymore, but due to everyone telling us it's a phase and she will start again, we've been napping her in the car almost every day for 45-90 minutes. Maybe we should just give up on naps in exchange for a later wake up!
@Shantuck: What age did the clock make sense to him? I've thought about trying it but I wasn't sure if she is too young.
@mrswin: No other signs, but she doesn't have them yet so it's certainly possible!
@Mrs. Lion: I think she is, but I can't seem to make our days work to get her to bed any earlier than 6:30!
@wrkbrk: Yeah, she's been asleep by 6:30 most nights lately because of this. So maybe she's getting enough sleep and I just need to suck it up!
@DesertDreams88: We took the monitor out of their room because it's a violation of privacy for an almost 5 year old. But I could probably have a sound only monitor by O's bed. And she's waking a good 2-2.5 hours before even a hint of light!
@ShootingStar: The thing is, her middle of the night wake ups are totally different. She fusses or sometimes gets up sleepily. We go in, pat her back for a minute and she's out. These wake ups start with, "HEY GUYS! MY AWAKE! GET UP! MY EAT?? MY PEE ON THE POTTY?? MY GET DRESSED??" I'm not kidding. She's superhuman in the morning. I'd give anything for a fraction of her energy and enthusiasm.
@looch: Yeah, daytime naps have basically gone away unless we are in the car. I do think that has something to do with it, but I really haven't figured out a solution! -
@Mrs. Turtle: That’s because she thinks it’s time to get up. I would still treat it like a MOTN wake up. Quietly tell her it’s not time to get up and leave. No lights, no other talking. If you encourage her in thinking that’s an acceptable wake time, she’ll keep going with it.
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@ShootingStar: We have done that. I laid with her for an hour yesterday while she talked my ear off and rolled around in her bed. If we leave, she will scream and wake up the 4 year old she shares a room with. If she had her own room it would be easier for sure.
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@Mrs. Turtle: I totally know whatyou mean about the massive amounts of energy when she first wakes up. My little guy is exactly the same way. We tried for years. Blackout curtains, staying quiet, refusing to let him eat until a certain time, trying To make him stay quiet/in bed until a certain time...noneof it works. He is a morning person and wakes up full if energy and life and there is not a single thing I can do about it. We have to work the other angles to control his sleep. We are religious about bedtime and naptime. Maybe try to bring naps back... It will probably be easier than trying to coax her to stay in bed in the morning. Will she transfer to bed after a 15 minute car nap? If you find the deep sleep sweet spot that might work to help her get back to napping.
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@Mrs. Lion: I haven't tried transferring from the car for a nap. She does OK at night but definitely wakes up a bit. We've just gotten to the point where we can drive around the block and then park in the driveway (car running) for the remainder of the nap. I'll give it a try when she seems really asleep.
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@Mrs. Turtle: the 15-20 minute mark seems to be the best transfer time for my kids. Earlier and they wake up and won't go back to sleep. And if you get close to 45 minutes they are coming up on a sleep cycle transition. The deepenst sleep is right around 20 minutes. Good luck
We got in a really rough cycle of chaos when C was about 20 months and our Dr recommended 2 weeks of using benadryl during sleep timea to get over the hump of overtiredness and in a regular sleep pattern. He still woke up early but the behavior issues lessened and he slept a little later (530 instead of 4-430.) If you get desperate it may be worth talking to your ped about. When my kid is overtired our entire life becomes a shit show and the more tired he gets the worse he sleeps. Its a mess. Hang in there
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@Mrs. Lion: Thanks
Benadryl makes her nuts, but I do have an in case of emergency script for melatonin that I thought about trying when the night wake ups are bad. Right now, she's not too bad except for the early mornings and I kind of doubt it would help with that.
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My twins are nearly 5 and still wake up early! Most days around 5:30, not-so-fortunate days 4:45...doesn't matter what time bedtime is. They do still nap most days. I echo the recommendation to try and do a car nap followed by a transfer to bed...it took a few tries but seriously, I did this for probably a year. Now they go nap on their own. They are freaking tired by 1:00! Some days I'm "lucky" and they "sleep in" until 6:00. Or 6:15. Any later only because they're really sick. We tried everything and they just wake up, happy and ready to go, earlier than most kids. On the plus side, it's not hard to get them out the door for school on time.
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I second an "Ok to Wake" clock. They are amazing. My 2.5 year old knows that when the light is green it is time to get up. Part of our night routine is me saying "goodnight, see you when the light is green".
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Benadryl makes her nuts, but I do have an in case of emergency script for melatonin that I thought about trying when the night wake ups are bad. Right now, she's not too bad except for the early mornings and I kind of doubt it would help with that.
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