My kid wakes up every day at 4am and I’m drowning

[nekkam]

@mickaela I have an early riser, too. He's always up by 6am, no matter what time he goes to bed. He's usually up around 5-5:30am. Honestly? We have a "wake up time is 7am" rule. If he wakes up before that, he's watching TV. I'm not proud. But I need sleep to function.

He's 4 1/2 years old now and still an early riser. It started to become a pattern when he was 2 or so.

 

[txdave35]

@mickaela This happened to us. I would re-examine the possibility of teething and give tylenol before bed. This phase lasted about 7 weeks around 20-21 mths, but it did come to an end. SURVIVE.

 

[item1]

@mickaela My twins are 3 now. But we went through this phase for a while. One thing that really helped push back bedtime was taking a walk around the neighborhood 30-45 minutes before we head upstairs to start getting ready for bed. We let them walk or run, they would fall asleep if we pushed them in a stroller.

 

[whitephoenix]

@mickaela The light worked for my daughter!

 

[tinisha]

@mickaela Lots of comments so not sure if anyone had mentioned this but if she's still sleeping on a crib mattress, try her out with a regular one. Also make sure she's not cold. Once we fixed both of these things my now 19mo sleeps 11-12 hrs religiously

 

[mickaela]

@tinisha Funny enough, I put her in heavier fleece PJ's last night, and she slept until 5:30. Which I will absolutely take. Then I came to my parents house to get a break, and she took a 3 hour nap in her room here which is way warmer than her room at home. So you may be onto something...

 

[tinisha]

@mickaela Yes I scanned all the other comments and I'm surprised no one else mentioned this! And I know the AAP doesn't recommend changing their mattress til they're 2yo but if you've ever rested your head on a crib mattress, it is extremely uncomfortable. Gave me a headache lol. My kiddo is on a regular twin xl mattress and he loves that thing. We also give him a water bottle to take to bed (at his request) and that also minimizes wake ups

 

[monkeyweather]

@mickaela I will tell you my 20 month olds routine that has been working for us for the past 2 months (knock on wood). Some context to keep in mind - I work from home and we have a nanny that watches him during the week.

6:30 he wakes up and hangs out in his crib fairly quietly for 30 minutes or so until we come into his room. I usually put one of him favorite stuffed toys safe for the crib in the corner and he finds it when he wakes up and it keeps him entertained until 7.

7:30-8:00 Breakfast and then offer him a bottle of milk. Sometime he drinks sometimes he doesn’t.

12:00-12:30 Lunch with milk

1:00-2:30 Nap

3:30 snack with milk

5:00-5:30 Dinner with milk

6:00-6:30 Bath time and while he bathes he snacks on some sort crackers (I think these help with keeping him full through the night)

6:45 Read a couple of books

7:00 - 7:30 Finishes his last bottle and is asleep no later than 7:30.

He will occasionally wake up in the middle of night but we don’t go in unless he is sick. Usually after 2 minutes of whining he falls back asleep.

The key is to let them cry it out. It takes about 3-5 nights of them getting used to the new schedule and then something clicks in their little brain that the parent will not be showing up so they go back to sleep.

Good luck

 

[provers1717]

@mickaela Any update on this post? How is the early rising coming along now?

I'm going through the same with my 20mo now and need some hope.

 

[mickaela]

@provers1717 Yes! We were able to push back her wake up time consistently. We moved her bedtime back by half an hour - that took about two weeks to fully “stick.” Previously we were giving up on bedtime shifts after a week. We also started doing more things to tire her out. More running around before bed, more mental stimulation, more time outside, etc.

We also instituted the noise maker light trick (certain colors for wake up time). The change happened gradually. At a certain point she was still waking up early but she wasn’t screaming, so when she did that, we let her chill for a while until it was an okay time to wake up.

She started waking up early again so we moved back bed time another 30. It’s working!! One tip for moving back bedtime: you may successfully get to your desired bed time one night, and then the next night not be able to get there. That’s okay. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

 

[provers1717]

@mickaela Thank you so much for responding. Gives me some hope! So safe to say, the early morning wakings does not necessarily go away fully. And we need to keep adapting to it. We pushed bed time last night by half and hour 8, instead of 7.15 or 7.30). She was up at 5.30 and crying now, instead of a 4.30 waking. At some point (during a 4.30 waking) she eventually gets tired and sleeps again around 6.30, so gets some sleep before going to daycare.