11 month old baby waking ridiculously early

[Twinklestar2]

Help! My son used to start shuffling around in his cot around 5ish and I'd always be able to pick him up and resettle him. Now there is no shuffling, just straight from lying down to sitting up so he's awake at 5am! How can I get him back to sleeping to 7am?!

[Wonkyparsnip]

Tbh I'd say you were really lucky to have a bAby sleeping until 7am.theres not much you can do. It will either be a phase or this is now his wake up time and you'll need to adapt your bedtime. My baby's 21 months and still in the 5am phase.

[Mamab33]

Hopeful bump

[notquitegrownup2]

Ds2 was an early waker too. I had to adapt and get a lot of early nights.

Have you got blackout blinds for his room? They helped. Lots of outdoor activities, especially swimming, to tire him out, and you can try cutting down on daytime naps, or moving bedtime back 30 mins . . . .

HTH

[Twinklestar2]

Will try and get yo bed earlier whilst praying it's just a phase! Thanks all

[karbonfootprint]

I agree, this isn't early, this is normal.

[nottheOP]

There seems to be a correlation between daytime naps and waking time, so if he's then tired by 9am you're rewarding the early waking and getting into a cycle.

At about this age we moved to a by the clock routine of 11 am lunch, 11.30 nap, 1 pm wake up, 4-5.30 nap and 8 30 bed. He'd tend to wake up at 7.30/8 am.

As with any changes, the first couple of days would be a bit moany but do persevere.

Also with bedtime, don't expect too much. If he's down at 7 pm he may only need 10 hours sleep.

I can recommend the gro anywhere blackout blind, nice looking curtains don't come close.

[LemonYellowSun]

Mine DS2 woke at 5.30 for about a year. It was hard as also back at work. Nothing worked except one day he just woke at 7 and stayed like that. I hope it won't be that long for you, but shows it is a phase and they just change by themselves

[Twinklestar2]

Nottheop - he naps 2 hours after waking up.

[Twinklestar2]

Will look at gro blind too - ta!

[nottheOP]

Twinkle - that could be the problem. I followed easy until the same sort of age. It might just be that he needs a longer awake time period.

[Twinklestar2]

He is grizzly and really wants that nap though....

[nottheOP]

But you're in a cycle which if broken could give you more sleep. Worth a go, surely?

[nottheOP]

You have to go for the nap time that fits in with the routine you want. So if you want him to sleep to 7 & his awake time is 2 hours try a 9.30 nap. Chances are if he sleeps later he won't need such an early nap iyswim

[Needsweetstosurvive]

I agree with PP to try and keep him going until 9.30 for a nap. It won't be pretty but after a few days should hopefully result in slightly later morning wake ups.

[Twinklestar2]

Thanks will try till 9.30am if it happens again!

Today he woke at 5.20, napped 8ish till 10 and is napping again now. He went down at 12.50.

[Twinklestar2]

He just woke up so that was an hours nap...

[teacherwith2kids]

DS did that ... until the age of 13. Slept till 7 am for the first time in his life on his 13th birthday.

He didn't sleep during the day at all from the age of 2, and before that would only go for a single after lunch nap.

He did learn his numbers VERY early as he needed to know that if the first number on his digital clock wasn't 7, he couldn't get up!

He's still (14 now) early to bed and early to rise. DD is the opposite !

[teacherwith2kids]

(Oh, and he taught himself to read in those early morning waking hours when he wasn't allowed out of bed. Had its fringe benefits)

[LHReturns]

I entirely agree with the napping advice....allowing him to sleep again at 8am is rewarding his early waking. Don't let him go to sleep until 9am at the absolute earliest, and ideally 9.30am. Let him have just one hour then (work towards 45 minutes). Then let him have two hours for his lunchtime nap.

We had to do the same change, and it worked very well, and actually very quickly.

Try it for four days and let us what happens!

[LHReturns]

Keeping our baby up later at night never made any difference to early waking at all...for us it was all about the timing of daytime naps...

[Twinklestar2]

Thanks so much for the tips! Will start from tomorrow and keep you posted.

[nottheOP]

Good luck op. Hope he's not too grumpy

[Twinklestar2]

Ok up at 6.20 and nap started at 9.30. Going ok so far...

[Twinklestar2]

Spoke to soon... He has been a bloody nightmare this afternoon. Been trying to put him down for a nap for the past 40 mins on and off. When I bring him downstairs he is all clumsy and falling over and banging his head yet refuses to sleep. OH had taken over...