I have tried various bedtimes with my two sons in the past, never having been able to get them to wake up much later than 8am. That was nice, but it only happens on some rare occasion. Regardless of what time my sons go to bed, you can count on them rolling out of bed between 4am and 6am every day, seven days a week.
Now I don’t know about you but when the weekend comes I want to stay up a bit later, watching a movie, hanging out or writing on my blogs but then I pay for it come morning time. K-man has been waking up a couple of hours, if not as soon as I fall asleep, for the past few nights. He then ends up in my bed to sleep for the night, waking up for the day around 5am when his brother is whining and wide awake demanding breakfast.
I have no clue what to do to deter this early morning wake up, now if you think about it the boys sometimes pass out between 7pm and 8pm, waking up at 5am puts them sleeping somewhere between 9 and 10 hours. I don’t know if that’s enough sleep for a 4 & 6 year old or not. The boys used to sleep closer to 11-12 hours per night and then they were in better moods, so I can only assume they are boys who need 11-12 hours of sleep for a steady mood through out the day.
Lately I can forget about doing much past mid day because their moods are so horrible from being over tired that I can barely tolerate them. I want so badly to enjoy my sons but lately with them not getting enough sleep, which is what Aj used to do all of his life up until about a year ago, I just can’t function as well or have as much patience. I hate watching as Aj is having troubles sleeping as much as he needs to again, after all I thought he finally had a proper mood disorder diagnosis and was on the right medication. Maybe due to weight gain and growing taller it’s time for the dosage change, but I am not sure that’s the answer quite yet. I happen to like that he is on the lowest dose of the Risperidone.
Whatever the reason, whatever the diagnosis; the fact of the matter is my two sons need to sleep more and how do I force them to sleep more? Trying to force them to stay in their bedrooms is like asking to have a tornado of screaming, crying and sometimes aggressive behavior in your home. I decided to do what I do best; reach out to my blog readers and community for help on how to get the boys to go back to sleep, stay in bed longer or even take a mid day nap??
We tired black out curtains and that helped a bit, but unfortunately my kids were just early risers. Luckily it doesn’t KILL my husband to get up early. So he used to get up with them when they were much younger. We tried a clock that told Jason that if the moon on the clock was lit up he wasn’t allowed out of bed. When the sun lit up (7 AM he could get out of bed, it didn’t totally work though). Now that they are a bit older, we get up, get their breakfast and go back to bed while they eat and watch TV. Horrible parents we are. LOL
Lee
Maybe have them go to bed later? Like 10pm? This works for us! I wish I was more help though. Good luck mama, your kids are so cute 🙂
RT @brandyellen: What's with the Early mornings? http://t.co/ZEloJnGm
Girl I wish I could tell you! I can’t get mine to sleep to early mornings are not a problem as far as them waking up too early.
I hear a lot of parents talk about this. Funny how when we’re little, we get up super early, and when we’re older, all we want to do is sleep in! What cruel fate, LOL! Good luck!