My 10 month old son has been waking up earlier than normal recently. I know that there is no real normal with a baby, but it is frustrating. His normal sleep schedule that he has followed for a few months is this: wake up around 7:30, nap 10-11:30 or 12, nap 3-4:30 or 5, bedtime nurse at 9:30 and asleep in bed by 10. He has started waking up at 6 in the morning and will not go back to sleep. I am not sure if he is napping too much or if something else is the problem. A few months ago I darkened the curtains in his bedroom to help keep it darker longer in the morning because he was waking up with the sun and that helped him to sleep longer then but now he is getting up at 6 am and not going back to sleep. I don't quite know what to do. Should I nurse him at 6 and let him fall back asleep for a little while or make him wait until 7:30? He seems tired in the morning but he won't stay in his crib or lay down in bed with us. Any suggestions on how to get him to sleep longer.
Thanks so much for all the advice. It has been a good couple of days. I have started putting him to bed earlier. We moved his bed time up a little each night. Last night he nursed at 9 and was down by 9:20 and he slept until 7:40 this morning. So yes putting him to bed earlier worked. I think we might have it figured out. I never would have thought to put him down earlier. I have noticed he is tired around 9 so it works great for now. We are gone 3 nights a week until at least 9 so hopefully we can keep in this schedule. He is still napping the same and he is sleeping great. I love my sleep and getting to sleep in until 7:30 is wonderful. I did order the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" from my library and am waiting for it to come in. I am looking forward to reading it. Thanks so much for the helpful advice.
Sleep experts all agree that kids should be in bed between 6:30 and 8:00 until they are 5-years-old. Try bumping bedtime up 10 minutes each night until you are closer to that and see if it helps. Whenever my son stays up too late, he's up early the next morning.
Hi K.
I'm not going to be much help but I had to write to you. It seems pretty ironic when I was reading your entry. We are going through the exact same thing not only that our children are almost exactly the same age but his schedule is exactly like my son. My daughter will be 3 in December (12/05) and my son will be 9 months here next week (1/08). We never had this issue with our daughter, she was and still is a good sleeper. But our son wakes up between 6 - 7:30 am every day. When he wakes initially, I will let him "talk" and play in his crib until he starts to fuss b/c I don't want him to wake up his sister. Sometimes, especially when he wakes up at 6 am he may sometimes go back to sleep but sometimes not. His schedule is exactly what you son's schedule is, early riser, naps and bed time. If you get any advice with sharing could you please share with me, I just keep thinking this is what he is going to do and we are just always going to be tired parents. But then when I think of the time change coming soon, I just cring! Thank you! ____@____.com
"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" is a great bk my Mark Weissbluth, there are sure to be some great suggestions for you. IMO, 0600 is a fairly reasonable time for a kid to get up. My oldest (23 months) sometimes gets up around then, and makes up the sleep during nap. There was a time when he tried to wake even earlier, and we started putting him to bed EARLIER and he slept LONGER!!! Yep, sleep begets sleep. He now (and has since around 10-11 months) goes to bed a 6:30pm and gets up around 7:30am. That may seem early for bed, but it works, and my husband and I have a really nice evening time together. Or at least, we did...we now have a 4 month old! 10pm is a pretty late bedtime for a 10 month old. I would definitely try gradually moving bedtime earlier, say by 20min- half an hour for 3-4 nights, and then move it earlier again, until your wake up time is where you want it. The book explains it really well. The nap schedule sounds perfect, wouldn't change anything there. 10months is way too early to go to one nap. Less sleep is NOT the answer! Good luck....try early bedtime, I swear it works wonders and consolidated (long) sleep is so important for growing babes!!
When my son, who is now one, when through this I was very frustrated because we do not need to be awake that early. A couple of things might work: try to shorten or eliminate the pm nap or try putting him down at night earlier, this last one worked for my son even thought it sounds backwards. Keep in mind if you do feed them that early and want them to go back to bed...they will expect food that early, maybe not such a great habit to get them into, but find what works best for you.
I would try shortening the morning and afternoon naps by 45 minutes each if you really think he needs to have two of them and see if that helps. Maybe it is time to give up the a.m. nap. Just because he is awake doesn't mean he has to be up, really it doesn't. I always got him up to put him on the potty when he first woke up and get him dry then give him a drink and put him back in the crib or the play pen for another hour or so before breakfast.
My 1st, DD, was a night owl and didn't want to go to bed for the night before midnight or 1 and would happily sleep until 9 or 10 which didn't work well because I owned a beauty shop and had to get to work. My DS, 23 months younger, was the 1 who got up at 5:30 in the morning! He also went down by 8:30 for the night. It was a lot of fun because my husband worked 28 day swings for the 1st yr after DS was born!
I would shorten the naps, give him a drink in the early a.m. and put him down to play by himself for a little while.
Good Luck!
I've read a couple different books about baby sleeping patterns and the advice I would pass on to you from what I learned is to try putting him to bed earlier. I know it sounds counter productive, but for some reason it works. Just because they go to bed earlier, it doesn't mean they'll get up earlier too. It has something to do with getting in the correct number or REM sleep cycles I believe. I have a ten month old boy as well and this is his schedule: wakes up 8am, nap 9:30-11am, nap 2-3:30pm, bed 8pm. He gets up to nurse around 6am, but goes back to sleep. I know every baby is different, but I thought I'd share my schedule just in case it helps seeing a different example.
Good luck! Hopefully you can find a routine that works best for you guys!
You probably need to knock out the earlier nap and keep the afternoon nap to 2 hrs or less.
If I remember correctly, my daughter changed her sleeping schedule around the same age. Her naps were also the same as your son and she would wake up around 6:30-7am. I think that it is a normal routine that we just have to adjust to. Now at 18 months, my daughter wakes at 8am, naps around 1pm-2 or 3, and she goes to sleep at 8:30pm. Her nap is usually not more than 1 hour now. She stopped taking two naps shortly after she started waking up earlier. I think that you should just do what you have always done before. My daughter was ready for her bottle as soon as she woke up in the morning and to this day she always wants her breakfast first thing. So if that is how your son is too I don't see the harm in feeding him breakfast a little earlier in the morning or if he waited to be nursed or eat his breakfast than do the same.
I would suggest start nap at 12 he should be tired and sleep until 3ish the bed at 9. This might help
Could it be the increase in activity in your household with you watching your 2 nephews? The new baby probably requires more attention etc. My kids would react to such changes and get over tired and then not sleep as well untill they got used to new things.
I think there are a few things that could be causing his sleep change. A. he could be having a growth spurt and needing more to eat. B. he could be napping too much during the day, but it seems to me two naps is normal. However, you could try to combine the naps into one long nap and wake him up from his nap earlier in the evening. C. my girls' sleep schudle always got messed up with weather changes; they either needed more sleep or less sleep. Also, if he is hungry when he wakes up at 6am, I would feed him; but I always bed my babies when they appeared to be hungry and they were always big babies :) Best of luck!
