I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! This was the first year my children stayed up for the fireworks. It was probably an ill-advised plan as they missed their regular bedtime by over two hours and my 2 year old still managed to make his first peeps in the morning at 5:30am (which incidentally has become his regular wake up time)! I KNOW he didn’t get enough sleep last night. I somehow managed to coax him back to sleep without waking up his sister. Now I’m up way too early for a holiday weekend!
So how do I get my child to sleep later? Later bedtime, earlier bedtime, blackout curtains, sleep clock? These are some “tricks” I am going to try:
1. I know he needs 10-11 hours of sleep at night (plus his nap) so I’m thinking I should push his 7:30pm bedtime back to 8 or 8:30pm.
2. We have blackout curtains but the light under the door might be waking him up so I’m going to use a towel or one of those door stoppers to block it.
3. The fancy toddler clock we got never worked for my older daughter but here is a simpler version that I am going to try: get a night-light on a timer, set it for a reasonable hour, and the good morning light will let your child know it is time to get up for the day.
4. He drinks water right up to his bedtime so I am going to limit the water that last hour before sleep to make sure it isn’t a big diaper that is waking him up.
5. We have always used a sound machine set on white noise. I will continue to use this at full volume!
Here’s hoping we can get closer to a 7am wakeup call! Let me know what has worked for you!