He Sleeps Like a Teenager
This morning for the second time this week we had to wake Archer up. I figured eventually he would make his little stretchy-sounds and rise to his feet but uh… not so much. 9:00am this morning he was still Audi5000. I pulled the blankets off of him like I did yesterday (and the day before)…Like I have done on and off for the past couple of months when Archer’s sleeping habits somehow went from early-bird gets the worm to, uh… late-bird gets the… perm? His hair does look a bit curltastic in the mornings, or shall I say… afternoons, when he finally wakes up.
wake up and smell my coffee!
This morning was supposed to be Archer’s first day back to preschool since the Ear-Infection-of-Doom (EID) but of course, getting up at 7:00am was out of the question (can I really blame him? 7:00′s still pretty early) and then come 8:00 = still out of the question. I gave him until 9:00 (which was way ultra-generous, I say) and finally picked him up and pulled him out of bed. He was NOT happy. So unhappy in fact that he cried all the way to school and then on the field trip which we had to leave early from because we were upsetting the local celebrities at our undisclosed location (Gotta love Los Angeles) not to mention the other children in the class who kept asking “why is Archer so sad?” (note: agreeing to chaperone a field-trip on child’s third day of school is not a good idea. You will be clung to and cried at… for hours. Or maybe that was just me. Sigh...)
Pajamas at noon…again.
I guess my conflict lies in trying to adjust to this new sleep-schedule. It used to be so that Hal and I let Archer wake us up. He was our alarm-clock every morning. But now? We’re back to setting our alarms and then sleeping through them, waking Archer up when we have to and/or letting him sleep in ’till 10:00 because we don’t have any idea what to do with this new sleeping-in version of Archer. Who are you, strange boy? The thing is? Archer doesn’t go to bed late at all… 9:00pm at the absolute latest! And we can’t really put him down earlier because he gets up from his nap around 6:00. (3-6 naptime, typically. I know! The kid can SLEEEEP, man. Hardcore.) So what to do? Wake him and deal with his attitude or let him sleep in and lose half the day?
Does anyone have any answers? Because there are no worms being had ’round here. Just teenage-angst to the max. Thirteen years early.
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Not to be alarmist, but you might want to check in with your pediatrician… a friend of mine’s son was sleeping all the time for awhile, and she found out from the doctor that his tonsils and adenoids were so swollen that he wasn’t getting enough oxygen while he was sleeping, which made him drowsy, which made him sleep more… you get the picture.
Shift the day earlier? We get up around 6, breakfast at 7, naptime at 1. Up at 3, bath at 6:30, bed at 7. Still 12ish hours of sleep for most of the children (i have 3).
It could also be that he is going through a growth spurt and needs the extra rest.
i would agree about the shifting hours. my boy (21 months) gets up at 7, naps 12-3 and goes to bed at 7:30. he’s a sleep monster and i love it.
Ezra has the EXACT same sleeping schedule as Archer does. LOOONG naps and 12 hour nights. When I can, I let the boy sleep. Because all of us are generally happier when that happens, and he really does seem to need it. If you know he’s going to have to get up early, just cut his nap short (and prepare for the grumps) and then put him down earlier for bed.
That’s what works for us!
I agree with shifting the day earlier. My 3-year old (next week-sob, sob) still goes to sleep at 7, wakes up around 7:30 and naps from 1-3. If you shift everything earlier, maybe you won’t have to wake him.
My son also went through the late waking stage for awhile after he turned two. He woke up one day at 10:45 after going to bed at 7:30 the night before! I was so freaked out, but eventually he went back to his regular schedule on his own.
glad to see I’m not the only one still saying audi5000
Our two-year old just got over that cold and needed extra sleep for a while. I would keep waking your Archer early, then let him sleep when he needs to. Agree with other moms shifting the day early is good for all!
I really agree with shifting the day a little earlier. Wake up when you want to, figure out a time that allows everyone to get ready for the day without rushing, and then move his nap up a bit. Sometimes moving it up 30 minutes a day until you figure out a good time for him to take it works nicely. Also, if his nap is earlier, he can get to bed earlier, which means more “grown-up” time (snoozing in front of the TV anyone?)
I would also shift the day earlier. You might try moving his nap and bedtime by 15 or 20 minutes each day until he is napping at 1 or 1:30 and going to bed at around 7:30. If he didn’t have preschool, I guess you could just go with it and enjoy sleeping in. I wish my kids slept half as much!
Broken record here, but get him to nap around noon time after lunch or 2pm at the latest. That gives him several hours of wake time to go to bed around 8 or 8:30.
I hope you can get him back on track.
A nap at noon doesn’t work, sadly. Kid’s got preschool until 2:00, which means the earliest he can go down is 3:00. Yesterday I experimented with no nap at all and he still slept in until 9am this morning (I let him and once again he was late to school)…. Ah, me.
How about cutting the nap down till 5 ish and then bed by 7:30 or 8 at the latest???
I had great sleepers too, till about 6 months ago and all hell broke loose. Now they believe 5 am is a great time to get up……urgh!!!!