early riser

[LauraJames]

Hi all,
I'm new to this site, but thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas about this. We have a 15 month old who sleeps wonderfully at night, but wakes between 6 and 6.30 every morning. This is not a major major problem, I just wondered how I could encourage her to sleep slightly later in the morning. So far, I've been a complete believer in the "sleep breeds sleep" mentality, but her routine hasn't changed in about six months and I'm wondering now if she's getting too much in the day. She'll be exhausted by 9 am so will have at least 30 mins then, then anything from 1-2 hours after lunch each day. Bedtime is 6.45pm (! - I know sounds ridiculously early, but we can't keep her going much past then + I've been advised by some people that the earlier you put them to bed, the later they sleep in...) Obviously, we can't put her to bed any earlier!
So, this not what I'd call a matter of life or death, just thought I'd ask if anyone has any tips about encouraging more sleep.
Laura

I'm sorry, I can't help as my ds(11 months) is the same. He has always slept through the night 7-7, but recently he has started waking between 5-6.30. Though I'm at work early mornings, it's still horrible when it comes to the weekend and i need a lie in

We have tried a blackout blind on his window, so that it is pitch black-but no luck.
I hate letting him sleep in the day, but like you said, you just can't keep them going if they want to sleep.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!

HI,
Well, not sure what happened last night, but bless her heart, she slept until 7.10 this morning . A record! And only had two naps of 1/2 hour each yesterday - so maybe she's just trying to tell us she needs less sleep....!

You could try putting her to bed 10 minutes later each day to see if this helps but frankly, my ds2 wakes up early no matter how late he goes to bed. The other thing you could try is letting her have slightly longer naps during the day so she can last longer in the evening.

However, you may just have to resign yourself to early mornings for the forseeable future. (My three kids were all early risers - the eldest still wakes up fairly early but at least she now stays in bed reading.)

In my house, if we don't get woken by the kids until 7-7.30 we feel like we've had a lie-in!

The only children I've come across who sleep late in the morning tend to stay up quite late at night (by my standards). I'd rather have my evenings to myself and put up with the early rising (even though by nature I'm not a morning person.) It doesn't sound like your dd is having too much sleep during the day - my 17 month old has 2-3 hours at naptime and then about 11.5 hours at night.

My 15 month old has a similar pattern - to bed at about 7:30pm and up at about 6:30am. I am happy with that after hearing some other mum's stories of cildren getting up at 5am!
For some reason or ds seems to be able to sleep a little longer on weekends if he doesn't hear us moving around - sometimes helped by a dummy...

I've gathered from other mums if they have less of a nap during the day they tend to sleep longer at night. Its the total daily amount of sleep that they need. So if they drop the 2 hour nap during the day they go down earlier and rise a little later. So you need to work out what suits you best.
My ds has had the following routine for about 6 months now (he's 17mo). Wake at 6ish, 1.5-2 hr nap anytime between 11 and 1. Bed at 7.30. This suits me cos it means we can cuddle for 30 mins before getting ready for work/nursery and don't have to rush. His long nap at lunchtime means I can have lunch, do some tidying, have a nap myself and then he's down for the night earlish.

Lj
i think too its a phase abies/toddlers have , my dd was an early riser 7am but now close to 3 she sleeps til 8 and goes to bed at 8pm, whereas ds nearly 1, goes to bed at 7 or 7.30 and wakes at 6.30/7
but I KNOW he will sleep later eventually
as i said t my dh only another year of early starts and then they 'll both sleep til 8am, like this morn a 1st!!!

Later bedtimes have had no effect on dd except to make her grumpy when she wakes up (at 6.30)! On holiday last week she went to bed two hours late and made no differnce at all - mores the pity! She is 15 months too.

I have changed nap times, number, length etc but nowt seems to work for long! She just seems to like the early mornings... grrrrr

While on holiday I did leave a drink in her cot and she would generally drink that first so I would get a bit of extra sleep!