Am I suffocating them?

sky

Thu, Nov 01 2012, 12:22 pm

yep, my kids used to wake up early no matter what time they went to sleep. They are older now, with the same bed time and now wake up at a more normal time. I think it was just their inner wake up time. My kids the later they go to sleep the earlier they wake.

Going to sleep early really helps me. But before 6:00\6:30 I still don't like noise. I give incentives to stay in bed when needed. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I got them a clock to tell them when they can make noise - that worked (For a toddler a nightlight that turns on at a certain time is good).

When they wake at 5:00 I find I need to get their bodies used to sleeping longer so the incentives are good. But at 6:00 or 6:30 it really is waking time so the incentives don't work as well.

BrachaC

Thu, Nov 01 2012, 12:29 pm

I have one friend who really felt like she needed both a calmer and later start to the morning, but faced the reality that her twins were not going to sleep late. She had a whole routine for them where before she went to bed she set out their Leapsters- sort of like a video game for little kids (meant to be educational) and cups of water in insulated cups so they were still cold. You could think about things like coloring books or a book on CD- anything that is a quiet sort of activity. Her kids got really into it and were upset when they started school and lost their quiet mornings.

I think that there is nothing wrong with wanting mornings to be calmer, and if you are a slow to rise person then you need there to be activities that they can get started with themselves, but if it really a matter of wanting to sleep later I am not sure that you are being realistic.

I have one kid who really dislikes most dinner foods and wakes up starving by 7. When I get up at 5:30 she gets up earlier. It took me a while to catch on, but she is really hungry, I would not try to push off a kid like that.