Ridiculously early bedtime!

[TS123]

My 6mo old DS is a terrible napper. Until recently took only three 30 minute naps per day and was obviously cranky and tired. I would have to put him to bed by 6:00-6:30 (he's always slept fairly well at night - until 5:30-6:00 with one wake-up). Recently he has extended second nap to 1 hour (1-2pm) but dropped the third nap. I thought GREAT!! Except that he's totally zonked by 5:30-6pm and will go down for the night if I put him down then. These days he likes to wake up between 5 and 5:30am (naturally). I feel as though his whole day is shifting too early! Any ideas as to how to "fix" this? Or shall I go with the flow and let him sleep from 5:30 to 5:30 for now?

[crunchie]

I would try to push him by 10 mins a day, also by trying to do the 2nd nap slightly later. ALthough tbh 1.5 hr naps is not enough at this age. Hence the tiredness early eve

[SnowBoo]

My ds is now 3.5 and he has always gone down at 5:30/6pm but he will sleep til 6:30am. I find letting him get in for a cuddle for an hour in morn has helped lengthen his sleep pattern.

He did sleep for about 2hours up until he was about 2.5 so i had a break in the day!

[jambot]

DD has been in bed by 6:00 since she was 2 months, and now at 15 months, still does. Although she sleeps till 7:30!(Sorry).
Lasting from 2 till bedtime is just too much for a 6 month old. I would try and push his remaining two naps a bit later. But don't push to the extent that he gets overtired - it will only make matters worse.
Good Luck.

[alex8]

My sons sleep pattern changed completely at 6 months, don't know if it was weaning or starting crawling. So nothing is set in stone. From 3 months to 6 months he too had 3 x 30mins, then he started sleeping from about 9-11 and then another smaller one mid-late afternoon sometimess. He did manage to stay up till 7ish though. But woke at about 6 ish. He carried on like this for 2 years with the naps just getting a bit later and a bit later but still pre-lunch and not much in the pm. Now at 3 he will fall asleep after lunch but only accidentally (in car/pushchair/watching tv).

I was the only mum I knew whose child didn't sleep after lunch and there was sometimes sod all to do in the afternoons.

Hes still an early waker now but I would rather have that the waking in the night (which he also stopped at 6 months).

Sorry this is not much help but I just wanted to say some kids do not conform to normal sleep patterns and things can change a lot especially with new foods. I'd try and keep him awake a bit later if poss. Easier said then done!

[TS123]

What I'm having the most difficulty doing is pushing that morning nap beyond 8:45. He frankly looks tired by 7:15!! Obviously this is because he wakes up too early, but nothing I've tried will get him back to bed at 5:30am. I'm afraid that he is so overtired throughout the day that this is why his naps are relatively too short and why he may have stopped taking the third nap (he would cry for 30 min instead of sleeping). Pushing his naps later may only exacerbate this overtired state. Also, the last 2 nights, he has awoken 3 times I think his night sleep is started to become disrupted because he is overtired. It's very frustrating to see him yawning all day long please HELP!

[lazycow]

Ds did exactly this (bedtime for whatever reason was between 5.30pm and 6.30pm) from the age of about 4 months old until he was about 14 months old. I had no idea how to change it. Later bedtimes were awful as he cried so much with tiredness and woke up at 5.30am anyway. All I can say is it just suddenly changed one week when he was about 15 months old. Then he started refusing to go to bed before about 8/9pm and still woke up at 5.30am. He still regularly wakes at this time.

I know others have had luck making morning wake-up times later but I'm afraid I never did. I would enjoy the peaceful evenings - I really miss them now . It was a bit of a pin though as ds needed tea and bed so early (else he went into meltdown) that the afternoons were often very rushed.

Nb - Ds din't drop his third nap until about 9 months old and still sometimes has a morning nap at 18 months.

[lazycow]

God this sounds so much like ds.

I wish I could help - really I do but ds didn't settle into proper daytime naps until he was about 7/8 months old when I made a real effort to change them by ignoring him if he woke up after 30 mins etc. His naps did get longer and he slept better at night as a result but he still always went to bed really early and woke early - He was just happier during the day.

My advice would be to go with the flow for a while. As he gets older he will be able to do without the afternoon nap more easily and to bed a bit later. Don't bank on a later wake up though - ds just had a longer lunchtime nap instead.

[tassis]

At 6 months my wee one would have his 2nd nap of between 45 mins and 2 hours between 12 and 2pm (so often waking about the same time as your ds). But he'd still have a wee top-up sleep between 4 and 5pm. Sometimes he's conk about 4.40pm and i'd wake him at 5pm to be sure he'd still go to bed at 7pm.

Worked well for us and it wasn't long before he could get through the afternoon without a 3rd nap.

HTH

[TS123]

Lazycow - I know what you mean about rushed afternoons! DS has his dinner now at 4pm! I'm wondering if this is why he is up with a poo at 5am? My gut feeling, however, is that just like your little one, I'll be facing an early wake-up no matter what time he eats or goes down. So --- for now I'll try to get a third nap any way I can (pram etc) so that at least he isn't asleep before 6pm. Today his AM nap was at 9AM (really pushed him) and it lasted 1 hour! Maybe I'm onto something!