My almost 4 year old is waking up at 5 am, no one should have to get up this early in the morning. Last night we closed his door, there is a round knob thing on the other side so he can't get out, we need more sleep!

He's having a hard time falling asleep at nap time, it takes him an hour just to fall asleep and if I let him go he'll sleep until dinner time. I usually wake him up at 3:30 but he's reluctant at this point to get up and it's a huge effort and I'm stuck with a cranky kid.

His bedtime is between 7:30 and 8:00 pm but he's rarely asleep before 9:00 pm and yet he's still waking up at 5-5:30 am.

I'm so tired at this point I don't know what to do. I'm thinking the afternoon nap is disturbing his night-time sleep.

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 10:11 am:

Both my kids were pretty much done with naps by 4. Try dropping the nap to see how he does. He may be in a trasition period when some days he needs a nap and other days he doesn't. It's hard for mom to give up that nap at first, but then it's nice not to be tied down to a nap schedule. An early bed time, sleeping through the night, and a decent wake up hour are nice, too!

By Debbie on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 10:21 am:

I would stop the naps. It may take a week or so for him to adjust. At this age, my dks were waking up around 7-7:30, and going to bed at 7:30 with no nap.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 11:21 am:

I'm sure my kids weren't napping anymore, by the age of 4. Once in a great while, one or the other would just crash, but most of the time they were fine. If he's taking an hour to fall asleep, I'd say he's not too tired.

By Imamommyx4 on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 11:30 am:

My dd quit afternoon naps by 2 1/2. But I did require a quiet time in the afternoon for about an hour laying on the couch and watching tv or reading a book or coloring or something else quiet. It was more for me than her but it refreshed us both.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 11:33 am:

I stopped putting my kids down for naps when they were around 3. If they were tired they would lay down on their own of course but I would only let them sleep for about a half hour. Mine were the up at 7:30 and back in bed by 7:30 kids too. And it will take some adjustment for you both, but it won't take long. I loved it when they were in bed by 7:30 by the way, it gave me some much needed down time before I headed to bed. It made the loss of the afternoon break/nap so worth it.

By Karen~admin on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 03:37 pm:

Ditch the nap!

By Chai~latte on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 03:39 pm:

Well I have one tired little boy on my hands. It's 3:30 in the afternoon and he whipped out chasing the cat and hit his head on the floor. He's laying on the sofa with a nice blanket and strict orders from me NOT to fall asleep.

It's going to be a long week. It was nice to have him all to myself this afternoon, but we'll see if I'm still feeling the same a week from now.

Thanks for all the advice, we'll see how things go.

By Reds9298 on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 03:56 pm:

Dump the nap! Nat stopped completely not long after she turned 3. Prior to that it took her an hour to even THINK of falling asleep, and most of the time she didn't. When she did, she wasn't an early riser but went to sleep SO LATE - like not before 11pm each night even though she was in bed at her normal 8pm time.

When we seemed to be in-between, really grouchy in the afternoon but sleeping caused going to bed late, I just did an EARLY quiet time. Like immediately after lunch or something like that. Quiet in room with books and dim lights, for an hour maybe. That really helped her and she never fell asleep. Eventually we just dropped that also. Nothing really totally cured the tiredness during that transition time, it just stopped after a few weeks.

Good luck! The transitions are always so hard.

By Vicki on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 04:41 pm:

Just to let you know, he might be grumpy for about a week as he adjust to no nap. But he should start falling asleep earlier at night and likely sleeping in longer in the morning. I would try putting him to bed about 8:30 pm if it were me.

By Chai~latte on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 - 08:51 pm:

Vicki, do you mean 8:30 every night or just until he adjusts?

By Reds9298 on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 09:57 am:

We started going to bed earlier when we dropped the nap. Slept longer and later, and went to sleep more quickly. It was a good thing for everyone. Once she adjusted, we were able to go back to regular bedtime, but I still gage it on when she woke that morning. If she wakes at 7am (which is early now) She goes to bed right at 8pm. If it's later, she can stay up until 8:30pm, but never later than that.

By Vicki on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 10:55 am:

I would start with 8:30 and see how he falls asleep and what time he wakes up and adjust it if needed. If he is consistantly getting up early, try a little later. If he is sleeping in too late, get him to bed earlier. It is just my experience that 8:30 was a good time. LOL That is the only reason I suggested it as a starting point.

By Mrsheidi on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 02:52 pm:

I always found that, the later I put Connor to bed, the earlier he woke up...which doesn't make sense, but it happens for most kids.

I would try between 7:30-8pm to begin with because he's transitioning and go from there...

BTDT and it's hard at 3pm when child AND mommy are tired!!!

By Jackie on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 03:20 pm:

Naps are a funny thing. Faith is 3 1/2. We still do naps. Though the day she misses one, she does go to sleep earlier and easier which is a plus
The days she doesn't have a nap, she is whiney and clingy and nothing gets done LOL.. Right now her naps are short 1 to 1 1/2 hrs, and that seems the key. If she sleeps over 2 hrs then she is wide awake at 10pm. So I dont let her sleep over 90 minutes and she is good to go.

By Tonya on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 11:20 pm:

Jade still does naps most days but still sleeps in late in the morning. Bed time in our house is 8pm-9pm depending o nwhat is going on. Without a nap it is quick to sleep with a nap it is 9pm before sleep happens. Jade will be 4 in a few weeks. So far so good. But Timmy was a napper until it just wasn't possible anymre cause of all day school (he was just past 6 when we had to stop naps).

Good luck.

By Chai~latte on Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 02:35 pm:

Arrrggghh! I think I figured out why the kids are waking up at 5:30! DH had the heat set to go from 68 degrees to 75 degrees at 5:30. One child slept with me last night and he woke up a few minutes after the furnace kicked in, the other child woke up about the same time.

DH doesn't even get out of bed until 6:45 and there is never any reason to have the heat at 75 degrees so I asked him to change it this morning. So he changes it to 6:00 am instead of 5:30 and it's still set at 75. I am going to figure out how to reprogram that thing myself and set it to 72 degrees at 6:45!

Funny thing is as soon as DH leaves the house the heat is set to return to 72 degrees, I guess it's okay if we are cold just not him! MEN!

My poor little one has gone 4 days without a nap because DH can't put a house coat on in the morning.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 06:05 pm:

Our furnace goes down to 60 degrees, at 11:30pm and is back to 68 by 6 am or so. I need to check and see if that's 6:30am, since I don't get up until 6:30. I have to say I usually end up waking up at 5:30 am, myself, and I swear it's because of the furnace kicking in, and warming us up. It actually warms us up, over a couple of hours, so I don't think it's right away, that the furnace wakes me up.

Yeap, it was still set for 6am. I changed it 7am. I'll see if it makes a difference for me!

By Reds9298 on Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 10:52 pm:

Dawn- I would be FROZEN at 68, let alone 60!! LOL I'm freezing all the time and have very low blood pressure. We don't change our temp at all at night - it's the same all day and all night. We have flannel sheets year 'round, an extra blanket on my side, and I wear flannel jammies and sometimes socks!! How nice would our heat bill be if we turned it down that low at night?! Of course I would be thawing out most of the day so it wouldn't pay off.

Glad you solved some things about waking up so early. Being too hot rarely happens to me, but it's definitely something that will wake you up!

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, February 10, 2008 - 07:38 am:

Down to 60 at night and 68 during the day. I'm too hot at much warmer than 68! If we are cold, we just wrap up in blankets.

By Kaye on Sunday, February 10, 2008 - 10:18 am:

LOL we don't turn our heat on unless it gets below 65 in the house.

But our ac kicks on if it gets to 75, pretty small window there!

By Chai~latte on Sunday, February 10, 2008 - 12:27 pm:

It was the heat or the noise of the furnace, today they woke up just before 7 am and I had reset the furnace to go on at 6:45. I haven't told DH and he hasn't noticed yet, but I'm sure come Monday morning he'll be wondering why it's so cold.

My big guy back to having naps again, I feel so bad for messing around with his sleep times he's a tired little boy. We'll see how next week goes.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, February 11, 2008 - 08:08 am:

With my target heat time, set to 7am, I slept until 6:08am today. It was already pretty comfy in the house, at that time, anyway.

By Karen~admin on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 09:47 am:

Kaye, my window is even smaller! LOL 67-74! My AC goes on when it's 74 in the house - I actually like it to be between 70 and 72 in the house when using the AC. We don't normally have a lot of *cold* weather here, but this year, we've had more than normal, though NOTHING like what you guys in the north have. I used to tolerate cold well, and almost never used the heat. Now, I keep it @ 67 or 68. Once it gets above that though, I feel as though I am suffocating! Some days, recently, I am using heat in the morning, and the AC in late afternoon. Makes sense, huh? NOT!