Monday, June 14, 2010

You Know You're Doing Something Wrong When Your Kids are Banging Around at 5 a.m.

What the hell, people? I mean, WHAT THE HELL? Today at 5 a.m. I heard Becca's light turn on (it makes a dinging noise, thank you cheap bedside lamp.) I ran into her room and saw her, standing on a stool in her closet, dressed in a Colonial Williamsburg looking dress-up dress, surrounded by the contents of her closet on the floor.

"Well," I thought. "She did take a long nap yesterday. I know I need to cut out the naps." And off I trudged back to bed, after telling her, "IT IS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!! It isn't time to get up. Go back to bed until your light turns green!" (Which happens at 6:15 a.m.)

("But I'm not TIRED!")

On my way back to bed, I heard Andrew awake, and playing, in his crib.

No. He is ONE YEAR OLD. One year olds do not get up at 5 a.m., especially when they went to bed after 8 p.m. last night. That is just NOT enough sleep. Or maybe that explains why he takes such long daytime naps. Either way, this is JACKED UP.

Clearly, I am doing something wrong. I just can't quite figure it out or get it tweaked to get these little rugrats to sleep in til 7! Or even 6:30!

Do I have to just cut out naps for BOTH of them? Becca is four and a half. It is probably past time to cut them out for her, but Andrew? He still needs naps. I have tried to make sure everyone is awake by 3 p.m. thinking maybe they were just sleeping too much during the day. But, that doesn't seem to have an effect. Granted, they both seem to be okay playing in their rooms/cribs for a while in the morning, which is great. But I just don't think that is enough sleep for Andrew....or me.

Send ideas, I'm begging you.

6 comments:

Angie said...

Katie, I don't know. Is Becca waking Andrew up in the morning? Maybe if you stopped having her nap, she would sleep later and keep from waking him up? Ashlyn stopped napping regularly nearly 2 years ago. I mourned.

joanna said...

Ugh. Mine all quit napping altogether about age 2. Made the early evening hours kind of rough sometimes. Alan lasted the longest with the afternoon nap. I don't have much for you I guess. But I give you my sympathy!

Jen said...

Kate cut out her own naps probably around a year ago, and I had to seriously cut down on Claire's naps so that she doesn't sleep more than 45 minutes during the day, or else she will be up until 10pm, sometimes later. It's frustrating, but I would rather have them sleep earlier at night than during the day. So now Claire will nap maybe 3-4 days a week.

As far as sleeping in, though, I swear that is something they are born with. Kate is almost always up between 6:30-7am, whereas Claire likes to sleep until 8 or so. At least they are being quiet?

Anonymous said...

Unless you are feeding them caffeinated drinks, kids will sleep if they need sleep. (Not, mind you, when you need sleep.) As long as they will play quietly in their rooms (big if!),I wouldn't worry about whether they are getting enough sleep. Young children seem to be hard-wired to be "larks". Then as teenagers, they become "night owls". In either case, the children will get the sleep they need. The problems are (1)how to keep them from disturbing others in the household and (2)how to meet their other schedule commitments. That's plenty to worry about. At the moment, you don't have to worry about getting them to jobs or school on time. Day care, perhaps....
Love,
(Great)Aunt Linda

Jen said...

Where the HELL is Katie?

Jen said...

Please come back to blogging land, Katie! It just isn't the same without you. =)