4 year old keeps waking up at 5:30 am, what we can do to get her to sleep in?

Great Question:
My 4 year old daughter keeps waking up at 5:30 am no matter what we do... with a daytime nap, no nap.... (which is unbearable) she still wakes up too early.
We have black out curtains, noise machine.... and she still wakes up like clockwork. Oh and to add her bedtime is at 8 pm.... any tips on what we can do to get her to sleep in??

Answer:
She has sleep skills.  We helped her with sleep skills when she was 7 months old. So this is a typical age thing.  Talk about it with her a lot. If she seems tired from not getting a long enough night, point out her cranky and frustrated feelings when you see them. Point out to her that those feelings are from loosing sleep and sleeping later will help.  

I had to do this when my 5 year old was having temper-tantrums and meltdowns after school when he had to do a little kindergarten homework.  Writing a sentence was too stressful. He learned to recognize those feelings of frustration only happened on days he didn't get enough sleep.

An easy support tool is clear signal light. You can put an appliance timer on a lamp and set it to come on a specific time. Like a wake up light. Ask her to stay in her bed until the light comes on.  Start with it set for 5:45. Then increase it as she is successful. 

When she wakes, if she gets out of bed, bring her back to bad and sit with her quietly until the light comes on and then make a big deal about it. (Do a very Dramatic wake up).
I hope this helps. 

Tracy Spackman

Learn more about Tracy Spackman's child supportive sleep consulting at GetQuietNights.com.
Call her for a free sleep assessment.

2 Months and Bad Habits already?

Dear Tracy Spackman,

I have every intention of hiring you as soon as my 2 month old is old enough to benefit from sleep training bc my world crumbles when I don't get good sleep BUT I want to make sure I am on the right track now so I don't have to undo any bad habits or play catch up when it's time to sleep train! He is in a rock n play by our bed and wakes up once a night to eat. He does well with this for now but of course the goal is sleeping thru the night in his crib...we try to nap in the crib during the day swaddled but the longest he's gone in there for me is 30 mins. Am I doing or not doing anything that will mess me up come sleep training time?? I want to be your best/easiest client when the time comes ;)

Thanks so much!!

Dear 2 month old Mom, 

You should do what helps you respond quickly and get the best sleep yourself. Keeping the baby in your room usually  helps you respond faster which usually gets you both back to sleep faster. 

Napping in the crib is great unless holding or rocking naps gets you bigger naps. If 30 min is all you get regardless of where he naps, then the crib is fine. Try 60-90 minutes of wake time between naps and 45+ minute naps are great but if that just doesn't happen, done worry about it. You just need more naps. 

Everything changes in the 4th months so even if he was a good sleeper before that time, it actually has absolutely no bearing on whether he will be a good sleeper after 4 months. So don't worry about bad habits. It's fine to try putting your baby to bed drowsy but awake, and in the crib, but if those things are a battle, he is telling you he needs more help. More co-regulation to help him cope with out big world. 

I'm looking forward to working with you.

Tracy Spackman

www.GetQuietNights.com