29 Month Old Waking at up Way Too Early in the Morning.

My daughter is 27 months old. I put her to bed around 1030 pm and she will sleep until anywhere between 10-noon the next morning. She then takes a nap from 330-7or8 pm. FYI- my hubby works 3rd shift and his alarm starts going off at 930 pm and that used to wake her up and she would be ready to go for 4 hours like it was a nap!

I tried to shorten her nap thinking that it was too long and that she sleeps too much but after speaking to her ped he explained that she will sleep as much as she needs. That if I try to shorten her naps or take them away it will just cause more problems. He was definately right! She would go to bed at the normal time we have for her and only sleep for about 5-7 hours and treat it more as a nap when I tried to adjust her schedule.

Come 9pm we do all quiet activities since I know she is getting tired. It is more of a wind down period where we will sit and snuggle, read books, watch tv, take a bath etc...When hubby wakes up she gets excited again but as soon as he leaves it is quiet again and 15 minutes later time for bed. The extra hour or two that I keep her up at night doing quiet things has really helped us to sleep in later the next morning (I am not a morning person).

So, I would try to make her bedtime a bit later and see how that goes with quiet time. Do it gradually though so you do not completely throw her off but within a week she should be sleeping later and still getting her naps in.

***forgot to add- We also bought a sound machine to block out early morning noises like our dogs and the birds and me on the phone etc! Only bad thing is, I hear it all night long on the monitor!

Good luck to you and many blessings!

Dropping a that nap is a hard transition. It seems to last a long time and you can't count on consistency. My daughter is 3 and for about 6-8 months she has only needed an afternoon nap a few times a week. The worst part is that she doesn't get sleepy at 12 or even 1, but at three or four in the afternoon. this is the kiss of death because then she won't go to sleep until 10. I still put her to be no matter what at 8:30, she may not fall asleep but she stays in bed. She brings her animal friends and barbies and talks to them and has books to keep her busy until eventually she just lays down and falls asleep. There are some nights where I fall asleep before her. She does get out of bed sometimes, because she has to use the bathroom or wants something to drink. So we take care of that business and she goes right back in and stays. I don't have any tricks to help you make a better schedule, sometimes you just have to make work what they need to do as best as you can. It won't last forever, although it seems like it. We don't have a nap schedule anymore. She lays down and falls asleep if she needs to and I just deal with whatever the night brings on a daily basis. The nights she doesn't nap it is great because she goes to bed a little earlier and falls asleep immediately. I love those days. They are starting to be more frequent now. Yippee. Oh and she sleeps until 7-8 in the morning either way.

My almost 4 year old still takes a 2 hour nap every afternoon. She goes to bed at 8 and wakes up at 6. I can play with her nap time start, anywhere between 11 and 1. If you want her to sleep later in the morning I would push her bedtime back a little and see if that works. Getting rid of the nap will just make everyone miserable.

Good Luck
Jenny

Hi there. My daughter was doing the same thing a few months ago -- she was sleeping 3 to 3 1/2 hrs in the afternoon and I had to go wake her! But now she has suddenly transitioned to a 2 hour nap...and sometimes keeps herself awake and doesn't nap at all. Ugh!!

Here's our current schedule:
1) She wakes around 7:30am. But if she's not up by 8am, I go in and wake her.
2) Naptime is 1:00-1:30pm (after I get her brother down).
3) Bedtime starts at 7:30pm and we try to leave the room no later than 8:15pm. (I can easily get out by 8pm, but she can manipulate Daddy for a longer routine. I've had to lay down the law and set an 8:15 deadline!!)

I hate the early rising problem more than any sleep issue, since I am not an morning person. Between my Pediatrician's advice and the sleep training method I use, I never allow my children to get out of bed prior to a reasonable hour -- no earlier than 6:30am for us. This has made for some tough mornings of crying when they were little, but they now know we are not coming in for them. Can you tell your daughter that if she wakes up earlier than she should, that she should stay in bed and talk/sing quietly, but that's she's not allowed out of bed?

I've read that a good strategy to help reinforce the healthy sleep schedule is to arrange the most vigorous, physical activities for the morning, so that the child is ready for a solid nap in the afternoon. You may also want to play with the bedtime. Is she well-rested in the morning when she gets up at that early hour? If so, maybe pushing the bedtime a half-hour later would help. If she's not well-rested, maybe the opposite would work -- making the bedtime half-hour earlier would actually help her and she would sleep later. (This has helped us in the past too.)

As for dropping the nap all together, everything I read says that some kids outgrow the need for a nap by 3 years old. Others maintain an afternoon nap through 5 years old -- it just depends upon the child. You've got another younger child in the house, so maybe you can maintain "quiet alone room time" during his afternoon nap time once she is done with naps. I know I will.

I am a firm believer in naps. My son and nearly all of his 3 year old-going-on-4 year old friends nap in the afternoon, usually from 1-3 or 4. It is normal & healthy. He is in bed by about 8pm and up at 6-6:30am. Totally normal, and if your child is only 29 months, well, I believe she has many many more months of napping ahead (which personally, I enjoy to the fullest!).

My son was in kindergarten am and would come home, have lunch and go down for a nap afterwards. I personally think 29 months is still too early to cut off children. THey need that down time and are still growing. I too put my son to bed at 7 or 7:30 pm (right up until he was about 8) because they truly do need about 12 hours of sleep a night. My son used to wake up between 5 and 6 every morning and there was nothing I could do to change that time. I tried cutting out naps to make him more tired but that was worse for him and his body. I tried putting him to bed later but he still woke up at the same time. I believe that they have an internal clock and that is when they wake up naturally. My son is now 9 years old and during summer vacation when he has the opportunity to sleep in like all the other children do in the summer, he still wakes up at 6 am. Even if he goes to be at 11 pm. Maybe try putting her to sleep at noon (1 hour earlier) and see if that changes anything. Good luck.