Toddler bed question....

Agutka

My ds seems to regularly only need 10, maybe 11 hours sleep, so if I don't want him getting up really early, I just keep him up. But then he has no set routine, so keeping him up is no problem. Never ever stay up past when they're tired.
When he does wake early, he can sometimes amuse himself in his cot, even without toys. He's not hungry (ever!) first thing either.
But it sounds like your dd needs you in the mornings. She's used to getting up and getting breakfast, don't think the time would mean anything to her. How good is she at amusing herself in general? If she can be distracted from the lack of mummy with her toys, then have a go at the new bed and gate. I'm pretty sure my ds wouldn't notice my absence until he really needed help with something.

Jakesmummy

daveyjp wrote: »

Never lock a child in a room with a safety gate, they aren't wild animals. You have at least another 3 years of your daughter getting up early - our daughter is awake anytime between 5.30am and 6.30am and she is nearly 4, but by then she has had 11 hours sleep.

well outside my daughters bedroom is the stairs so i will most definitely be putting a safety gate on her door, prefer that than a broken neck!!

op i don't think its unreasonable to encourage your dd to sleep a little later, when mine wake up too early i treat it the same as i would during the night, quietly tuck them back in and leave them to it,

i would try a toddler bed if i was you, she may just amuse herself in her room.

Alikay

Sleeping 11 hours at a stretch is pretty good - I think you need to alter your routine, not find ways of keeping your child out of your hair for longer.

She will be hungry, thirsty and desperate to interact with her mummy and daddy....for goodness sake go to bed earlier yourselves if you can't face a 6am start!

claireac

daveyjp wrote: »

Accept the fact that 6.30am is your new time for getting up. It's a scientific fact that young children are early birds due to their body clock. In ten years time you'll be the one trying to get her up for 7am!

This is the bit I agree with (although I wouldn't have written it like that ).

At this age children don't understand that you want them to sleep later, up is up! I have 3 children and they've all been fairly early risers, with my eldest regularly waking at 5-5.30am at the same age as your little one. He didn't understand it was too early to be up.......Typically as a teenager (he's now 20) he need crow-barring out of bed.

My dd is 3.5 and it's only now that she's just starting to occupy herself if she wakes up, but that's only after coming into us for a cuddle first.

halaboo

Hi Everyone,

We are having the same problem with our daughter at the moment. She went into a "big girls" bed just after christmas and was fine for the first month and then she got chicken pox and worked out that she could get out of bed and come for cuddles.. Now we go through the bed time routine, do her story, sing her the "bed time" song and then slip out of the room. Moments later she's at the stair gate at the top of the stairs demanding cuddles..I'm trying to do the "super nanny" bit to get her back to bed (first time say "its bed time darling" and put her back to bed, second time just say "bed time" and third time don't say anything) some times it works and i think a lot of it is her testing me but it's exhausting after a whole day! We brought her a cow clock for the mornings to try to control what time she gets up, it lights up at 6.30am when she's "allowed" to get up (she wanders into our room and slings the door open like a cowboy marching into a saloon!) most mornings start with me saying "is the cow awake darling?!" and then we spend about an hour putting her back to bed and repeating the process. I'm sure she just needs to learn (and i'm not entirely sure she understands what I mean when i ask her about the cow) but it's an exhausting process in the meantime!

Good luck.. I think you just need to keep plugging away. I know it sounds tough, but as long as you know your child is ok in their bedroom, you might be wise to ignore them crying..my little one learnt to settle herself when she was in her cot and its only now she's got the power to saunter about that we are both learning new ways of getting our points across.

pigpen

Could you not just shift her bedtime to half an hour or an hour later? If she NEEDS 11 hours sleep she will still get it but wake later.. it may mean she needs a slice of toast or something before bed but I'm sure that'll be fine.

*Louise*

daveyjp wrote: »

Never lock a child in a room with a safety gate, they aren't wild animals.

Nobody has said they are, that's why they are called safety gates and not cages.

Having a safety gate on a toddlers door isn't 'locking them in', it's merely holding them back for their own good. They can still open the door and shout out, they just can't get through to the bathroom (for example) and start fiddling with taps or shoving loo roll down the toilet. I'm partially deaf and don't hear the kids waking up unless they make a noise, shout on me etc..and kids can be really quiet if they are getting up to something they shouldn't be!

OP - I think the big bed and the gate is a good idea. If your daughter gets up and plays quietly, great. If not, then sorry you have to accept you're got yourself an early bird

hayleyc_2

Not sure if it's an option for you, but we have a stair gate at the top of our stairs and then leave our bedroom doors open at night. Our son is almost 2.5yrs old and has had his own bed for a while. If he wakes up early, or during the night then he can get out of bed and come to find us, or sometimes he'll shout 'Mummy' and i'll go and get him. Before he had his own bed we co-slept, and still do sometimes. I've found that often he'll wake up at 6.30 or something but because he can come and snuggle in with us, he will often go back to sleep or doze for an hour or so, or will play in our room until one of us goes downstairs. I think the fact that he's not trapped probably helps.

Have to agree with the others who've said that children this age wake up early and there's not a lot you can do about it. It's unreasonable to expect the child to understand they have to wait 30mins or something because their brains can't process this. You can try changing bedtimes, but lots of children will still wake up early despite having a later bedtime and then will be grouchy all day.

go_cat

My son has been in a toddler bed since 2. I was very worried that having the freedom of being able to wander would cause problems ( he has always been an early riser )
The first night he went in it about 4.30am he decided to go exploring and I woke suddenly to a little face peering at me !
The second night I spoke to him told him how grown up he was etc and said if he stayed in bed all night until mummy or daddy came to get him he would get a sticker on his reward chart - it worked for whatever reason and from that day he has never gone wondering since - no stairgate on is door just at the top of the stairs.
Not saying it this easy with every child but it worked for us he now shouts us about 6.30ish.
Hope this helps ...

Triggles

I have to disagree with those that say you shouldn't put a safety gate on a toddler's doorway. Our 3yo has had a safety gate on his bedroom door for quite some time, and it works great for us. He has a disturbing tendency to wake up briefly in the middle of the night, amuse himself by chatting to himself or playing with a few toys, then going back to sleep. And sometimes wakes up at 4:30 or 5 am! And while I usually get up when he wakes up (as I am rather uncomfortable going back to sleep when he is awake), he is quite happy to look at books, play with his toys, and chatter to himself until it's "time to get up and get dressed to go downstairs." This is usually around 6 or 6:30 (depending on when I finish our 7month old's morning feed). Our 3yo is one of those "into everything" boys and has a special fascination for the taps in the bathroom (sink and tub). I am not willing to risk him either falling down the stairs or scalding himself with hot water or anything else dangerous, so the gate is on his bedroom door. The door itself is never closed - he does not like it closed, so we keep it open. If he needs to use the toilet, he just says so, and I open up the gate and take him in there, as we are still doing the potty training.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting a safety gate on his bedroom door and encouraging him to play in his room for a bit in the morning. Our DS loves it - and while I'm getting things organised for the day in the morning, I can hear all his imaginative play and singing and such while he is amusing himself until it's time to get up.