10 month old waking up at 5-6

[Broucek]

any ideas - my DS who is 10 mths old has been waking up any time between 5 and 6 for the last few weeks. He falls asleep at 7 PM(without any hassle) and now sleeps straight through but these early starts are killing me! the worst part is that he is still tired when he wakes up and yawns, rubs his eyes etc but just will not go back to sleep. I tried feeding him and putting him down and not feeding him and putting him down but no joy. He then wants to nap just after 8 (and is fairly miserable until then) which worries me as he is due to start nursery soon and I have to drop him off at 9 which would be in the middle of his nap. If I try to keep him awake until he gets there, he will be grumpy and it just seems wrong to drop him off when he's like that - especially during the first few weeks. Any ideas on how to keep him asleep a bit longer - another hour would do it I think! Or am I making too much out of nothing? Thanks!!!

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

You could try one thing - you could try rousing him at 4am - just enough so that he's awake but not fully (no food but to break the sleep cycle). He will either go straight back to sleep or spend up to an hour awake before dropping off again but should then wake up in much better form between 6 and 7 (at a guess) and then be ready for a morning nap by 10am ish. Do this for a couple of nights and then not the 3rd night and see what he does.

When does he start nursery? Don't forget that things change all the time with them, so what he's doing now, he may not be doing in 2 weeks time anyway.

[starkadder]

This is what our baby (11 mths) has been doing for the last few weeks as well. Is exhausting. I think it is because his daytime naps have gone weird - he doesn't really want two naps any more, but can't really cope with just one. The days he naps well and isn't too overtired when he goes to bed, he sleeps much longer in the morning. No idea why. How are naps for your baby? Maybe he needs more/less daytime sleep??

[Broucek]

Thankyouandgoodnight - this is very interesting! I may well try that - though I am a bit worried about waking him up at 4 and him not going back to sleep at all! But it's worth a shot. He starts nursery in almost 4 wks time so still time for things to change - fingers crossed!!!
starkaddar - he has two naps but of various length but it can be a total of 1 hr to 3 hrs per day.

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

He will definitely go back to sleep.

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

as long as you don't play with him or engage in any way or pick him up etc......!

[strictmumof3]

My 10 month old has also started waking up but he doesn't cry so we just ignore him. Does yours cry? My DS puts his music on, chats to his teddies and then goes back to sleep on his own. We get him up at 7:30am.

Is there anyway you can just leave yours?

[Broucek]

strictmumof3 - ahhh! I wish. He screams blue murder. We have set up a rule of not getting him out of the cot before 6 but it does mean that he cries on and off until we pick him up. He drops off but the next moment is awake and screams, then drops off again for a few moments etc... and the scream gets louder each time. I thought he was hungry but that's def. not it.
Thankyouandgoodnight - I was going to try what you said but he actually woke up just after 4 himself for a bit. I didn't go in but he fell asleep and slept until just before 6 at which point he started doing the above. It's just that i find myself almost awake from 5 onwards waiting for the screaming to begin and am exhausted!

[firststeps]

Sounds like he needs to cut down on his daytime sleep. I would try moving him to one nap a day say 12-2/2.30, he will prob be very tired for the first few days then his body clock should adjust and he should start sleeping later in the morning. I have always found that my 2 DS's wake earlier when they are ready to cut down on sleep or cut out a nap, it always works although can take 3-4 days for them to adjust. HTH early mornings are a killer aren't they

[JFly]

Sounds like it could be the 9-month sleep regression. It can last a few weeks or even months, apparently. See Ask Moxie for more on the subject. I found it was useful during this stage just to know WTF was going on. I also like Moxie for no-nonsense parenting advice.

[Broucek]

Ahhh! it was 4.45 this morning!!! fisrtsteps - I did wonder about that. Might give it a go. The trouble is he also has that lovely habit of often waking up after 30 minutes though I am working on this. You suggest 1 nap of 2-2.5 hours, although he tends to have two naps in total they are usually between 1.5 and 2 hrs but do you think it's the morning nap that spoils his night time sleep/ causes him to wake up early?
JFly - thanks, will check this out

[scarlotti]

Broucek - this happened with my ds when he was about the same age - and just at the point when I went back to work making it a very long day for me
It was the morning nap that was doing it - he was no longer needing two naps. The morning nap then starts to turn into the rest of the night's sleep iyswim.
Try bringing forward the lunchtime/afternoon nap or delaying the morning nap and then cutting out the later nap. You just need to make sure that he's still getting the same amount of sleep during the day so if it's just 1.5 - 2 hours that he needs then keep it at that.
Some books suggest moving the nap by 15 mins per day until you get to the time you want. If he can hang on longer then leave it longer.
It worked a treat for us and stopped my days starting at 5am!

[firststeps]

hi Broucek - I think the reasoning is that the morning nap becomes an extension of the night time sleep, so by cutting it out and only having one nap at lunchtime it separates the nap from the night time sleep. I started off by giving my lo 2 hours at lunchtime, 12 - 2 or 12.30 - 2.30 depending on how tired he was and he started waking up after 6 almost immediately. Then I tweaked it a bit more and if he has about 1.5 hours he will sleep 12 hours at night - heaven

[Broucek]

well, he woke up just before 6 this morning and I didn't let him have his morning nap (it was a long morning!) and to my surprise he went down really well after lunch but only for 1.5 hrs. He was exhausted by tea time and fell asleep at 7. I know there won't be any progress immediately but I shall persevere!! Will keep you posted

[firststeps]

Hi Broucek - sounds promising - I think it only took about 3 days for my lo's body clocks to readjust. Hope it works for you - def keep me posted

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

Oooh how did you get on last night?

[starkadder]

hello again

Don't have much helpful to add but since we are experiencing the same thing (11 mth old baby, just moving from 2naps to 1, started waking up v v v early) I thought I would share some findings so far:

1 - he often only wants 1 nap but he actually sleeps longer in the morning if he has had 2. The more daytime sleep he has, the longer he sleeps at night. I know this is the opposite of what others had said so maybe my baby is just a bit strange...

2 - he has just grown a new tooth. it-s mostly through now and this AM he slept till 8, hurrah

Not sure if either of these facts are relevant to you...

[lisalollipop]

Oh you lucky lucky people!

My 10 mth old wakes at least every 2 hours, sometimes every 30 mins for the first couple of hours of bedtime! I know everyone tells me you feel worse when you start to get more sleep at night but I'm willing to find out!

Starting controlled crying tomorrow so am going to remember all the things you are posting now, in the hope that things get better from what they are at the moment for us, and I will follow your advice then too. Good luck and here's to a proper night (and early morning) sleep for us all

[purplepetal]

Hi,
I am having exactly the same problem with my 10 month old. She is waking from 5-6 (peviously until 7am), its a shock to the system hey! I am returning to work next week so would love to get her sleeping a little longer. I am going to cut her morning nap out and see how she goes, I bet she struggles through the morning??!?? she already has 2hrs over lunch time so will keep that up.
How have things been for you? keep us updated would love to know how you get on.
xx

[Broucek]

Hi, sorry I haven't been back - had hard few days!!! For three days I kept my DS from sleeping in the morning (he was begging me - at one point actually fell asleep with a rice cake in his mouth - hilarious!) and up until today it meant that he started to wake up about 30-35 minutes later in the morning. This morning it was 5.30 again and I simply could not keep him awake until 12 (his afternoon sleep). I guess this means we are back to square one. I sort of feel that he's not ready to drop his morning nap- not while he is waking up so early but it's chicken & egg - I guess he needs to miss his morning nap in order to wake up later in the morning but right now I am not sure if his morning mega grumpiness is worth the extra 45 minutes sleep in the morning! I tend to walk everywhere and this means that I can't go out in the morning as he will fall asleep as soon as the pram starts to move (that's what happened this morning).
Also - does anyone think that his breakfast/ morning milk feed has anything to do with this? He has b/fast at 7 and I wonder if he's waking up early in anticipation of it? I am now BF him after his breakfast rather than before. I don't know what to do. Shall I persevere?

[jojo2008]

Hi, my dd used to do this too, I put it down to the room being cold as our heating used to come on at about 6.30am. Try either adjusting the timer on your heating to cover these waking hours or put extra clothing on. This worked a treat for us and now she is back to sleeping through from 7pm-8am

[sparkydad]

We have the same problem, did you find a solution? Its getting very stressfull, i goto work at 6am and my wife is about to start work again, if he slept until 6 that would be perfect.