Sleeping Issues - North Salt Lake,UT

I think you just have an early riser as someone else pointed out. My daughter is going on 11 months and has always gotten up around 6 am (we put her on a schedule in the early months to accomplish this but now she wakes up on her own-ack-sometimes even earlier!) as she goes to daycare and we both go to work. I feed her a bottle at 6am,get her up and dressed and ready, and then she has breakfast later on at daycare. A lot of the daycare babies are exactly this same way--it's normal! I am grateful every single morning that my girl sleeps well enough for both of us to get a great night's sleep, even if she does wake up early sometimes.

I just dealt with this with my then 14 mo old. (he is now 15 months)He would get up at 5 or 6 and I would give him a bottle and he would go back to sleep. Well I got sick of it so I stopped giving him a bottle. He cried for about 1 -2 hours until it was time for all of us to get up and then I would go get him. This lasted about a week. Then he would just be awake playing in his crib and talking to himself until the rest of us got up. That lasted about two weeks and now he doesn't wake up. He sleeps until 7 or 8 in the morning when the rest of us get up. You just got to stick to your guns and not give in even once cause then you have to start all over again. I hope this helps. Good luck.

let him cry and don't worry abt daughter

H.,

That is a tough situation. He is a little young for this idea, but it might work. Also your 3 year old sharing a room with him may be a blessing. He is probably not liking be alone at that age. First make sure he has access to books at 5 am (couple in the crib). Second Parents (the magazine) has a special night light for sale that is a moon all night until your preset time for wake up time. At that preset time (by you) it turns into a sun and lets the kids now it is okay to get up. Also there is a ladybug and turtle for sale on babyage.com that will put a constellation in the color of your choice on the ceiling for your little one to look at (45 min timer on it). Shipping on the ladybug is free right now and the item costs 30.

Good luck, you will survive. Oh and at 14 months I had to leave a sippy cup of water in the crib with my boy! Don't forget the time change is coming so soon her will be waking up closer to his 'normal' time.
R.

He might just be an early bird. My kids both are, sleeping until 7 is a blessing. I get up with them like the previous response was get them a drink, put on a show and snuggle with him while you fully wake up. I make my kids "hot cocoa" it is just instant breakfast to get a little something in them before I make them breakfast. I dont know what time you go to bed but anything past 10 for me is entirely too late just because I am not sure what time the little guys will be hollering for me that its time to get up. I wish I could be like my parents and get up at 5 voluntarily and be ready to conquer the day before the kids get up but holy cow its hard!!!!

My only advice is to make sure he only gets water in a bottle. At any time of the day. Avoid tooth decay!

If you really, really want him to just learn to sleep a little longer without the bottle, start putting less and less in the bottle. Each decrease the oz. See if in a week or so he'll figure out he's not really getting much and just go back to sleep.

This is so hard! What we did was give our son water in the bottle instead of milk, and I had my husband give it to him (not sure if you can, since you have crazy work schedules). After 5 nights, he just slept (until 6:30...). Best Wishes.

This will sound horrible, but you might have to just get him up at that time, and give him breakfast. My son is an early waker, and I am NOT, but I have to get up with him (5:30 sometimes). I make him a smoothie--just mix juice and whole milk yogurt in a sippy cup--and then I let him drink that and watch a movie, while I lay on the couch until I wake up all the way. It is the best way I have found to ease into the day. Also, he is quiet when the movie is on, and doesn't wake his dad and sister. Since you are going to be living with your parents, I would expect that keeping him quiet at that early hour would be important.
P.S. I hope that this doesn't fall into that "don't let the TV babysit your kids" catagory. I don't let my kids watch a ton of TV, but I think that in this case it is very helpful!