How to get toddler to sleep later?

MrsSavannah · July 2010

Savannah has been getting up at 5:30am and I sooooo need to sleep later than that. We have tried moving her 8pm bedtime later, but even if she goes to bed at 10:30 she will still get up at 5:30. When she gets a little older I want to get her something like this but for now I know she would just ignore it. We can't make any plans to do anything midday because she is so tired and grumpy she has to eat lunch early and take a nap at 11. Any tips? I've been thinking of trying room-darkening shades, but hate to spend the money on that if it's not going to work.

becki777 · July 2010

DS usually gets up around 6 so I am probably not the best person to help.

We have mini-blinds and long curtains (actually made out of sheets) on his window and his room is really dark. Now that I think about it, at first I just tacked a huge blanket over his window and that DID make a difference in his sleep. I would try something like that before investing in shades.

NatPhoto09 · July 2010

Nothing has worked for us. Nic used to sleep until 7-7:30am but not he is getting up at 6am. We have darkening shades and at first they did help but now it doesn't matter. I wish he would wake up and play in his crib but once he is awake he is screaming. GL

MrsSavannah · July 2010

That's what I'm afraid of - she's just going to be a super early riser. When she's a teenager I'm going to wake her butt up at 5:30! I may try using something on her windows to see if it helps any.

ECUGirl2004 · July 2010

Nothing has worked for us either. Nate woke up this morning at 5:10! Normally he sleeps until 6ish and if he makes it to close to 7:00, I'm happy. I know it's not a light issue b/c he often wakes up before it's very light out. Putting him to bed later almost never results in sleeping any later either. Usually he gets up at the same time, then takes a longer nap the next day.

Some kids just don't need as much sleep, I think. Nate gets 9-10 hours at night, plus 2-3 hours for a nap. That's plenty of sleep for his age.

mrsNnearly · July 2010

Do you have any kind of white noise in her room. DS has a humidifier and if it is on I swear he'd sleep forever. We keep his windows dark too. My friend got her son that clock when he was around Savannah's age and it seemed to help them a little bit. GL! 5:30 would be killing me too!

SalisburyBride · July 2010

Sounds crazy, but have you tried putting her to bed earlier? Closer to 7:30? John has always been an early riser and went through a phase of getting up around 5:30 instead of his usual 6:30. Changing his bed time for a little while did help some - 6:00 or 6:15 is still better than 5:30! We also changed his bedtime routine just a little bit after we pushed his bed time back up to 8:00. Hope you find something that works!!

raceyrae · July 2010

Does she just hang out in her bed when she wakes up or start crying/throwing a fit for you to come in? If she's just hanging out, I would let her do that until it's a more reasonable time (say start with 6 a.m.). She may surprise you and fall back to sleep or eventually get used to not getting out of bed till 6 and sleep till then. This is what happened with Natalie. She now gets up at around 7 - 7:15. If she gets up after 6:30, we get her up but if it's before, usually we just have to give her a few minutes and she falls back to sleep until 7ish. (granted Claire gets up at 6 a.m. so Natalie sleeping later doesn't do me a darn bit of good

We also have white noise and room darkening curtains (my MIL just sewed a dark fabric on the back of her existing curtains since I found the shades to never been the right width for our windows).

dbertagni · July 2010

Jocelyn usually wakes up at 7:15 but if she is up earlier and seems content I don't get her until 7. We don't have room darkening shades, but if you have curtains already you can go to Jo-Ann fabrics and by the black out (roc-lon is the brand) material and just tack it into the curtain. We've found that moving the bedtime doesn't work either, she's gone to bed as early at 6:30 and as late as 8 and always wakes up around the same time.

MrsSavannah · July 2010

raceyrae:

Does she just hang out in her bed when she wakes up or start crying/throwing a fit for you to come in?

She's beating on her door and screaming for her milk. I've tried just taking her her milk and putting her back in bed but that only lasts until she has drank the whole sippy.

I do have a white noise machine that I just broke out for her nap today. Hopefully she'll take longer than a 1 hour nap! We quit using it about 6 or so months ago because it didn't seem to do anything but maybe that will change.

I hate to make her bedtime earlier because then she won't get to see DH at all during the week. We usually aim for a 7:30 bedtime, but lately it has been 8.

MrsSavannah · July 2010

She just took what I think is her longest nap EVER - 2.5 hours! Hopefully this is a new trend and I will definitely keep the sound machine going.

How to get toddler to sleep later?

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