Getting 3 yr old to sleep in

td

Any ideas???? I know it's not strictly money saving but my daughter wakes up at 5 every morning and it's wearing us down. We are currently trying the sticker encouragement thing but it's early days (pardon the pun). She's a lovely little girl in every other way so I know I should be very very grateful - but any ideas??

td x

Jay-Jay_4

What does she wake up for, toilet, drink, breakfast of just because she's fed up being in bed and wants to play?

Have you tried leaving toys in her cot?

Have you tried getting her up, giving her something to eat and putting her back to bed?

Have you tried an alarm clock? novelty value of waiting in bed for the bell to go off.


When my daughter was around that age we told her that it wasn't getting up time until it was light. (works well in winter... no so good in summer ::)) She understood and would play in her bedroom until getting up time.

Good luck


Failing that, put a telly/video in her room, set it to come on at 5am and let her watch Tellytubbies ;D

Yoga_Girl

Having exactly the same problems myself!

We're currently trying the sticker chart thing, so when my little boy wakes we say "its too early to get up/ its still night time/ time for a little bit more sleep etc etc" and remind him that he'll get a sticker for being able to get back in bed. If he does well and actually goes back to sleep he gets more than one sticker, loads of praise and some sweets.

We're also encouraging him to sit in bed and read a book by himself once it gets near 6 am, cus by that time he's wide awake but we'd love a bit more sleep!

I once saw this clock that had different colour sections I think, so that when the hands moved into a certain section that was the time your child could get up, so you teach them to look at the clock when they woke up to see if it was time to get up. Can't remember where I saw this but I'm on the lookout for something like this, I'll post if I find anything.

Squidgy

I have seen an alarm clock like that, and am racking my brains trying to remember where.

Good luck with trying to get them to lay in, my daughter doesn't get up that early, but she stands in her cot shouting "MUMMY! DADDY!" until we get her up!

Squidgy

Here is the one I was thinking off, but I don't think it's very obvious for small children, there's not much difference between asleep and awake.

alarm clock

Sarahsaver

mY SON (4) has an alarm clock and he is supposed to stay in his room til it goes off at 7
works sometimes
Dont send her to bed too early
Get a blackout blind for the window
I have adjusted my patterns to fit the kids. my alarm goes off at 6.15 during the week. Sometimes its the only way. Your daughter needs about 12 hours sleep but this will vary of course. I dont believe sleeping in the day makes any difference, from my experiences. My youngest have gone to bed 3 year old at 7.15 and 4 year old at 7.45. They will probably both get up around 7 although earlier isnt unusual for the 4 year old.
Good luck whatever you try.

Jay-Jay_4

There's a bit of a forum-type chat here regarding sleep problems though it may be aimed at younger children.


One of the replies is from someone who used the bunny-ears alarm clock though  :)

Savvy_Sue

When he was about 2, I used to scatter a selection of unmade jigsaw puzzles in my son's bedroom doorway after he'd gone to sleep. He was unable to leave the room until he'd completed the puzzles. Unfortunately this didn't take him very long!

And the 'he was unable' relates to his inability to walk past the puzzles, not my insistence that he should do them! Not all children have this sense of order, I fear!

Mine learned that there were very few rewards for waking mummy up before 7 am ... they were welcome to snuggle up in bed with us but being read to, being given breakfast, and loud games just weren't going to happen. Mine could cope with this: some children can't and just have to be up and doing early.

jo_b_2

Mine learned that there were very few rewards for waking mummy up before 7 am ... they were welcome to snuggle up in bed with us but being read to, being given breakfast, and loud games just weren't going to happen. Mine could cope with this: some children can't and just have to be up and doing early.

Same here. My little boy knows that Mummy doesn't do the crack of dawn! >:( If he is ever up very early, I just have him in bed with me and he usually drops off again.

Sarahsaver

Few of us get 'ideal kids', that is we dont get what we expected. We all think we know what to expect having read magazines, websites, listened to friends' experiences. But our kids haven't read the same books as us! I just hope I come up to scratch as a parent. I used to bath at night so I could just get up and get dressed in the mornings, until I was ill once and my son heard me coughing in the bath, and came down to 'look after' me.

John_M_Business

Few of us get 'ideal kids', that is we dont get what we expected. We all think we know what to expect having read magazines, websites, listened to friends' experiences.

At the same time that this is true... generally it's what you do when you respond TO kids' needs that determines future behaviour.

If you allow them to play, or play with them, or feed them, or let them watch TV - then they will enjoy getting up early, especially if they get even more of your attention than at other times of the day (what else do you do at 5 in the morning??).

Therefore I suggest not making early rising 'fun'. Maybe they have to stay in their room... no TV... not much play with Mum/Dad.

The alarm clock is a good idea, I know some friends of mine who bought a pop-up one... their daughter couldn't leave her room and wake up her parents unless an animal popped up... it worked well until one morning when they didn't see her until past 9... the batteries had run out any they found her sitting up in bed staring at the clock . :-*