W2s Questions - early wakings

[carolynq]

My daughter (and son, for that matter) routinely wake up before 6am.  My 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter share a room and if one wakes up early, they both end up awake.  I'm willing to try the wake to sleep method, but I don't really understand it.  Assuming I wake them up at 4:30am (to prevent a 5:30am wake up), how awake do they need to be?  Should I make my 4 year old go use the bathroom or is that too awake?  Should I make sure my daughter opens her eyes or does she need to be more awake?

Also, how long do I keep waking them up to delay their morning wake up?  Do I always do the w2s at the same time or do I move with the new wake up times?  I've tried getting them to sleep later since my son was 6 months old and nothing has worked.  They go to bed at 8pm and my daughter takes a 2 hour nap during the day.  I now have a 3 month old that sleeps in the morning, but doesn't nap so I would REALLY benefit from getting that extra sleep in the mornings.  I'm just not sure how to carry this through.

thanks!
Carrie

[Colin Macs Mom]

Hi Carrie,

Here is a link to wake to sleep -

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64168.0

The idea is that you don't want to actually wake them, but just make them stir and change sleep cycles. Getting your 4 YO up to the bathroom would absolutely be too much. Depending on how light or heavy a sleeper they are, you want to do something like stroke their cheek, tug the blanket, etc. And remember that it will take a minimum of three days to show results.

[mari]

Hi Carrie.  Ive never done wake to sleep, but will help if I can.  there are some members who have posted on this board who have used this method, so hopefully you should get some advice.
Presumably your 4 year old doesn't have a nap, but could you post routines.
A reward chart might work with the older one (or even his sister if she sees it working for him)

[carolynq]

My daughter's day is pretty flexible.  She's up by 6am and they are supposed to stay in the room until 7am (my son can read the clock).  This is only partially successful.  They get milk at 7am and breakfast between 7:30am and 8:00am.  We eat lunch between 11 and 12.  My daughter goes down for her nap between 12 and 12:30pm.  She sleeps for 2 hours pretty reliably, although sometimes she sleeps for 2.5 hours.  Dinner is between 5:30pm and 6pm and bath at 7pm with lights out at 8pm.  After the bath there are books and songs as the bedtime routine for both older kids.  My son is usually asleep by the time the songs are done.  My daughter falls asleep on her own after we've left the room.

Unfortunately, reward charts haven't worked well with my son (we tried it with potty training and he still isn't dry all the time and is always wet in the mornings).  I've tried wake to sleep the last two mornings and the good news is that my daughter was still in her bed asleep as of 6am, but my son was awake by 6 and woke her up shortly after 6.  Very frustrating.  She's been really tired the last two days (climbed into bed for her nap all on her own yesterday at 12:15pm) and he's been a train wreck he's so exhausted.  I'm getting thoroughly desperate as dealing with an over-tired infant by the end of the day compounded by two older children in constant tears due to frustration (and our TV broke this week, so I don't even have the option of putting them in front of the TV when I can't handle the crying anymore) has pushed my patience to its limit.  I was so furious this morning when my son woke up his sister - I had him in tears by 6:05am this morning.  Great way to start the day.

Thanks for putting up with my rant and I appreciate any words of wisdom or advice.
Carrie

[mari]

What about an earlier bedtime, say lights out 7.30pm, it might ease the overtiredness.