I need help, actually my whole family does. We have a loving, energetic almost 3 year old ball of fire on our hands and he thinks that waking up anywhere between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. is acceptable - EVERY.FREAKING.DAY. and truth be told, it's not. We are all exhausted and this is causing our evenings to be really, really tough.
I've googled and read every possible thing on what you can do for a child who is constantly rising really early in the morning. So far the following have not worked for us:
Going to bed later
Going to bed earlier
Covering him up with extra blankets
Making his room darker
Trying to get him back to sleep
Trying to convince him to play quietly in his room
A night light
The only other thing left to try that I can think of or read of is white noise. We are going to try a fan in his room to see if that will work, but other than that I am at a loss.
At first we thought it might be that Ryan's alarm wakes him up, but low and behold on his days off Cole is still up. He runs into our room asking us to play and then proceeds to fly down the hallway turning on all of the light switches (for some strange reason our light switches are at child height, weird I know).
Please, oh please send me any and all of your suggestions. But please don't say toughen up and deal with it that's the joys of parenthood, because I am an overtired expecting mother and I may just hunt you down and sick him on you for a good solid month. All others would be greatly appreciated.
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6 comments:
Honestly Ashley, I have the same issue - although mine is worse, my kid won't sleep WITHOUT me..we have tried everything...she doesn't get up early or anything but I have realized that she just doesn't need sleep. She can go to bed late and still wake up in the morning fine and ready to go....some kids just don't need sleep...so I mean if Cole is getting his 8 - 10 hours then maybe he's just not tired...you sometimes wish he was old enough to just turn on the TV and leave you guys alone...haha!
I bet it's hard with you being pregnant and being tired...that is one thing I worry about with our sleeping arrangements with Maddy...if I get pregnant, I cannot be sleeping with her - always kicking me and stuff...anyways, so when you find a solution, let me know!
Until then...I know you have been researching it, I would seriously check out www.supernanny.com
She has ideas for EVERYTHING!
Oh no! I can't speak from experience but I DO know that D's cousin uses white noise machines in her kid's rooms and LOVES them. She said not only does it help in the morning, but it also helps later at night esp. if you've got company on a Fri night & the kids are in bed. They can't hear a thing.
Confession: I have one myself. ;)
So sorry to hear, that's brutal. I can't speak from experience, but white noise might help. I know more than a few people that swear by them. Another option is there are digital clocks that instead of an alarm going off, they change color. So... maybe you can tell Cole he needs to be in bed or in his bedroom until the clock turns a different color. I would try setting it to change color at 6am at the beginning and then slowly move it later in the morning. Who knows if it will work, but crazier things have happened.
Best of luck and hope you get a full night sleep!
Oh no!
I think we all have our own internal clocks... I can't seem to ever sleep in past 7, no matter how hard I try.... and luckily, the kids have started sleeping later now too.
Have you thought of maybe something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019IHE8I?ie=UTF8&tag=thearealist-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0019IHE8I
Let Cole know that it's okay if he's up early, but that he can't come out of his room until the clock says so? Could you put a baby gate up at his doorway so that he is confined to his room until you are ready to go get him? Although if he's anything like my monkeys, he'd probably climb over it! ;) Good luck! If I stumble across any good advice for this sort of thing, I'll let you know! Hang in there!
Oh I feel your pain! I have a 3-year old and a new baby. When I was in my last few weeks of pregnancy, our son decided to wake up with the chickens as well. I'm not sure what actually worked but we just kept putting him back in his bed. He also had issues of getting up once we put him down at night and we implemented the "sleep rules" to kick that habit. It seriously took a couple of weeks to get him to follow the rules but he eventually got much better. I read it in some book and they just kept emphasizing repetition and consistency. One thing that was effective was the no-talking part. We would put him back in his bed, cover him up, and leave his room (shutting his door behind us) without saying a word. There were some tears initially but he eventually quit those and quit getting out of bed. Now maybe he would have just grown out of it on his own, who knows. I feel for you, I really do! Just be consistent (and sometimes for many days) before you give up on an idea.
By the way, I'm new to your blog!
oh no!!! that does not sound like fun!!! i hope you are able to find a solution quickly!
xo
monica
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