Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months

good gravy...SUPER early waking

I need help..DS is normally an early riser (between 5:15-6am), but since daylight savings he's been getting up between 4-4:15am...today 3:45.  DH & I feel like we're at our wits end.  We've tried everything.  This morning, I went in, told him it's still sleepy time, sat in his chair & "shhhh'd" him.  He settled down until 4:15am in which he turned into complete hysterics.  If he's not up at 4am, he's up in the middle of the night (Monday night he was up from 12:30-2:30).

I tried letting him cry it out, but by the time he actually gave up (55 min. later), it was time for me to wake him up to get to daycare for the day...


He's also very tired.  Lots of yawning & eye rubbing all morning long.  This makes me think that he's not really ready to be up either.

Is it a perfect storm of daylight savings time (shouldn't he be adjusted yet?) & teething?  I know it's a phase...and it will pass...but I work 55+ hours a week & DH is gone all week for work...I'm tired.  I'm just tired...and over it.  There has to be something I can do to get him back on track...

DH thinks daycare lets him nap to early in the day (9:30-12:30) so he's over tired at his 7pm bedtime (generally, getting him to bed is no problem).

In the mean time.  I'm going to try & focus on the bright side - I get house chores I'm to tired to do in the evening done in the AM.  Can I get a high five for getting 3 loads of laundry folded & put away this AM?

Re: good gravy...SUPER early waking

  • I have no advice. I just wanted to say that I read the post title as "super early walking" and then was confused when I read the post.
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  • Have you tried a sippy of milk (without turning lights on or anything?) If it's THAT early and DS won't put himself back down with his paci replaced, then I try milk and a few minutes rocking. Usually works. But admittedly, he's always been a good sleeper.
    And yes a 9:30 naptime is too early. I've NEVER heard of a 9:30 naptime unless that child is taking two naps/day. if it's one nap a day it doesn't usually start until around noonish.

  • brazzalebrazzale member
    edited November 2013
    If he's up in the middle of the night, I try a sippy of milk as a last resort. It sometimes works, sometimes not.  This morning, after I got him up, I thought he'd want to snuggle after his morning sippy of milk, but he didn't. 

    I try not to pick him up, because then all bets are off.  He for sure won't to back to sleep by himself (instead he'll sleep on me, but I don't really get any rest either).

    He falls asleep in the daycare van on the way to dropping off the kids at school.  Our daycare provider than just puts him down for a nap.  I've asked her to try & keep him up until 10:30 at the earliest, but she says he doesn't wake up so puts him down.  On the weekends, its common for him to fall asleep in the car between 9-10am while we run errands, but when we get home, I wake him up & then put him down after lunch. 

    I do agree it's an early naptime, but I haven't fought it much because it seems to work with their schedule.  The early waking started long after this ritual started so I"m not 100% convinced it's correlated.  I'm willing to insist she put him down later to see!
  • I hear ya! Since DST, DS has been getting up 1-1.5 hours earlier as well. I was chalking it up to soaking through his overnight diaper, but now he's wearing two diapers to prevent that and still waking up screaming at least an hour earlier. I have no suggestions. I know that since he's been doing this he is READY for a nap at 9-9:30, so I've been putting him down then. We try for a second nap around 1-2, and sometimes he just uses that as a time to talk to himself in the crib. DS is also yawning a lot...you know he's still tired, but won't go back to sleep. Ugh! :( Hang in there!
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  • Thanks ladies!  I might have DC try to put him down around 11 tomorrow.  She needs to leave by 3:30 to pick kids up from school, so I worry if he goes down any later, she'll have to wake him up for his nap (usually 3-3.5 hours).
  • 11 should be a very good time to put him down if he sleeps 3-3.5 hours and needs to be up before 3:30. What time is his bedtime? DD has always been a good sleeper, but I try very hard to keep her consistent with sleeping, otherwise she becomes a tiny demon. She gets up around 8 every morning, goes down for her nap between 12 and 1, and usually sleeps 2 hours. Her bedtime is 7-7:30 every night. Usually she wakes up between 7:30 and 8 every morning, but she'll play in her crib until we get her up, which is usually 8-8:30.

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  • We were having the same problem. Early waking between 3:45 and 5:00, and very cranky mornings. I discovered that the later I moved his bedtime, the earlier he would wake. I got some advice on here to put him down earlier, even though it sounds counter intuitive. I mistakingly kept his bedtime at 7:30 after the time change. But once I moved it back to 6:30 he began sleeping later and was less cranky because he was sleeping an extra hour or two. Now I am slowly inching his bedtime later by 10 minutes every week and we're at a 7:00-7:15 bedtime now, with a 5:45-6:00 wake up time. So it is very very slowly improving. It is a lot of trial and error to find the perfect formula for sleep sometimes!

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  • You know, now that I think of it...we went through this problem before, and I couldn't remember what we did to solve it.  But now that I think about it, and read your response @ktpaladino, I think we moved up his bedtime.

    Logistically, I don't know how it'd work, aside from hiring a cook or dog walker :)

    We don't get home until 5:35pm most nights.  I still need to make dinner, feed everyone, & walk the dog.  It seems like we're done w/ all of that by 6:15/6:30pm & we get 10 min. of play before it's time to get ready for bed. 


    Maybe this weekend I'll give it a shot & see what happens.


  • We were having the same problem. Early waking between 3:45 and 5:00, and very cranky mornings. I discovered that the later I moved his bedtime, the earlier he would wake. I got some advice on here to put him down earlier, even though it sounds counter intuitive. I mistakingly kept his bedtime at 7:30 after the time change. But once I moved it back to 6:30 he began sleeping later and was less cranky because he was sleeping an extra hour or two. Now I am slowly inching his bedtime later by 10 minutes every week and we're at a 7:00-7:15 bedtime now, with a 5:45-6:00 wake up time. So it is very very slowly improving. It is a lot of trial and error to find the perfect formula for sleep sometimes!

    I agree with the earlier bedtime. I started putting L down an hour earlier, and he started sleeping 90 minutes later in the am. So 2 1/2 hours more sleep per night. Unfortunately this means no family dinner because he eats at 5pm! But eventually I'll move his bedtime later.
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  • if bed time isn't a problem, I doubt an early nap has anything to do with it.  It might be the 3 1/2 hour part, that seems really long.  Our daycare naps from 12:20-2:30, I know at home if DS doesn't have a cold or anything he'll sleep for about an hour.
    DS is 1 1/2, we're going on a cruise just before he turns 2 so I'm not taking him off the bottle because it's a really easy way to calm him down and get him to sleep.  If he has trouble getting to sleep or wakes up at night I give him a bottle of water, 90% of the time it works, if not I'll go to milk.  If he wakes up around 4 I take him into bed with us and he goes back to sleep.
    Neither of these are really establishing great sleeping habits, but like you said it's a phase.  DD is 3 1/2, I've done the same thing with her, and other than letting her cry for a bit sometimes to get her worn out enough to get her to sleep, I haven't had to do any other sleep training.  She'll wind up in our bed once in a while around 2, but alot of the nights she's in her bed until 6 or 7.  I believe in doing what ever you need to do to get sleep and everything seems to work itself out.
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