Toddler sleep
 

Just recently my ds has been waking up at 4:30 every morning. This morning, he woke up at 4:15 and he refuses to go back to sleep, even after putting him down 15 min later at night. He has been on one nap a day for several months now, sleeping from around 12-3pm. He goes to bed consistently at 7pm.

Suggestions?

Re: Toddler sleep
 

How old, is the room baby proofed, could he play on his own till you are ready to get up, bed time at 8 pm?

Oh, he will be 2 in about a month. His room is babyproofed. When he wakes up he leaves his room to come to ours. He can open the door himself. When he can't open the door, he stands by it crying.

Maybe try shortening his nap? My son sleeps from 730 to 630 but only takes a 1.5 hour nap. Maybe he is teething or something and will go back to normal soon.

Re: Toddler sleep
 

So he is still young. Have you tried putting him back in his bed and telling him it is still sleepy time? I had to do this several years with my younger two. THey could get in my roon and would crawl in bed with me and sleep some more. Maybe try that?

I've tried putting him back in bed, telling him its time to sleep more. He gets up a few minutes later. Sometimes telling him he needs to sleep makes him cry harder. I don't want to get in the habit of him sleeping in our bed, although we have done it a few times.

Re: Toddler sleep
 

I would just keep putting him back in his bed then, even if crying, to let him know it is not okay. I coslept for quite sometime, even after they went to their own bed they came in in the AM. Maybe set him up with some fun quiet things to do in his room then till he wants to lay back down.

Re: Toddler sleep
 

My DS did that at that age too and I wish I had a solution for you. He woke up at 5am every day for a month, then went back to his usual 7:30 wake up. I have no idea what caused it or what fixed it, but it may just be a phase that will pass.

DD did this at the same age. We got her a toddler clock and she eventually understood that she would need to be in bed the clock told her otherwise.

Took us awhile to get the clock and to train her (2 weeks of training at 24/25 months). And between that she usually just got put back in bed repeatedly or made to lay in bed with us.

Another 4:30 morning. Keeping him up past 7:00 won't really work. Tried last night, and he was so tired by 7:05 he was acting over tired. I put him back in bed 4 times this morning and he'd get up minutes later, sometimes 15 min later.

Today we are going to try cutting his noon-3:00 nap down by about an hour. We will open his bedroom door and let him wake himself. He gets super crabby if we wake him up. We will see if t helps.