My son is 22 months old, and he's always been an early riser. We start his bedtime routine about 7:30 pm, which puts him in bed about 8. He never fights at bedtime. He just goes to sleep. The problem is he wakes up early - between 4:45 and 5 am. When he was in his crib, I would just let him cry it out until 6 am. He would wake up early a few mornings; I'd let him cry it out; and then he'd give in and sleep until 6 am for a week or so.
The problem now is we recently switched to a toddler bed (he was climbing out of his crib). When he wakes up now, he screams and pounds on his door. Not only is the impossible to sleep through, I worry he might hurt himself. I can't keep getting up at this hour though, it's sucking the life out of me. Any ideas on how to handle the situation or get him to sleep later in the mornings?
I appreciate your ideas!
Get a dog bed and let him come in and sleep on your floor at 4.45. Teach him how to do it quietly. We did this with my daughter for a bit, and she finally figured out that it's just more comfortable to stay in her bed. If he doesn't, at least hopefully you can sleep through it a bit. Good luck.
My advice would be to keep him up later and see if he sleeps later.
You could buy some earplugs and let him scream a few mornings til he gets the idea. He won't hurt himself. How about a gate instead of closing his door? Maybe that wouldn't make him feel isolated, unless he climbs that, too. Also, when my first was waking up early, I used to put a snack in his room (after he went to sleep, obviously) for him when he woke up. It kept him occupied for awhile and I slept a little longer. You could try a sippy with some watered down juice, graham crackers, raisins, cut grapes, goldfish, whatever. You could also push his bedtime back a little, as suggested. Blackout curtains help, too. Just tell him, "it's still night--go back to sleep". Good luck.
Does he know his numbers yet? I have an early riser too and I taught him that if the clock says 5, he needs to go back to sleep. If the clock said 6, he could wake up. I had a digital clock in his room and had the minutes covered up.
It sounds counter intuitive, but I've always heard that if they are waking early, it could be that they need more sleep. Is he napping during the day? If not, he may need to go to bed by 7 or 7:30. If he's not napping consitantly (my 2 year old did that, would nap some days, but not others), we would put him to bed early on the nights he didn't nap (about 7) and if he did nap, then he could stay up until 8. That seemed to work. The other things that I would do would be to let him get in bed with me (or I get in his bed with him). When mine wakes early, this usually gets him to go back to sleep. If that is not an option, have you tried just going into his room quietly and saying "it's not time to wake up yet. You need to stay in your bed until mommy comes and gets you." You can try putting books and/or quite toys in there and maybe he'll just play in his bed until he falls back asleep.
Make sure his room is baby proofed too so that you don't have the worry of him hurting himself. I hope something works!
My daughter did the same thing at that age. The only thing was she was still her crib at the time. She is now 25 mths and still sleeping in her crib. Luckily she hasn't started climbing out yet. Maybe you could try putting a cool toy in his room right before he goes to bed. That way when he wakes up early he might would play with it for a while, then go back to sleep. Also, you could try getting one of those clocks that tells the child when it's time to wake up or go back to sleep. Wish you the best! I know you both need your sleep!
