Early Riser, 11 months

[Anon120055509]

I need advice on how to sort my LO’s sleeping out, me and my partner are knackered 😴

Ever since the 6 month sleep regression my LO has started waking at night and very early of a morning. He’s never been a good napper. He only ever has 1hr when he’s down for one.
He’s 11 months now and his routine still consists of 3 naps because he’s tired and cranky. Once he is awake, he’s awake there is no getting him back down!
His routine at the minute is,
Anywhere between 5-6 (he wakes himself up 😭)
Bottle at 7am
Nap at 8am (he’s shattered by this time)
9am he’ll wake himself up for breakfast
12pm nap
1pm lunch
3pm nap until 4pm (sometimes he’ll rsfuse to go asleep at 3 and will go at 4-5 instead)
5pm dinner
6:30pm bath, story
7pm bottle
7:10pm put in bed
And he’s usually asleep by 7:20-7:30.

Do I need to be stricter with the routine? We do this pretty much every day. But once he’s down he won’t wake up until anywhere between 1am-3am and he’ll scream for a bottle. I’ve tried offering him water and hell breaks loose. But after the bottle he’ll go asleep until 5. So we bring him into our room and manage to get him asleep for another hour sometimes.

He has slept through the night but you can never predict how his night is going to go. They’re always different. The other week I managed to get him back asleep when he woke at 5 and he didn’t wake until 7:30? He just seems to hate sleep especially naps. He would happily go all day without one
Anyone have any advice?

It sounds a fairly typical night routine, but you may find if you can get down to one nap a day he'll then sleep for longer for that nap. Try keeping him up for longer at the start of the day. I would find they'd be cranky for a bit, but then get used to it.

Another vote for less naps. Usually by 12 months they go to one nap a day so I’d definitely look at cutting one out now, either the early or the late one with a view to dropping the other one in a month and just keeping the after lunch nap.

Could you try something like this.

Bottle when wakes.
Breakfast at 7 am
Snack and a cup of milk at 9am
Lunch at 11.30 ish
12 nap
1pm or when wakes, snack and a cup of milk
3pm bottle or snack
5pm tea
Then usual bedtime routine.

It’s perfectly normal for them to wake for at least one milk feed in the night at this age, however you feed your baby. If you are thinking of sleep training, I don’t think it’s really advised until 12 months.

Like witch says, he will be cranky when he drops a nap but you just have to try things that will make him less cranky for a bit until he gets used to it. I found taking them out in the morning helped when I was getting them to drop that nap

He sounds very normal to me. One night waking for a feed is totally within the range of normal. And 5-6 am really isn't that early for a baby that age.

However, if he's shattered by 8am that does sound like he's not getting enough nighttime sleep and is using the first nap for 'catch up'. I'd try pushing the first nap back to 9- if you're lucky he'll compensate by sleeping a bit longer in the morning. Then second nap after lunch.

I wouldn't be remotely thinking of trying to drop down to one nap though. Lots of babies are still on 2 at 12 months. My two were more like 16-17 months when they went down to one nap and they were fairly typical among their peers. It all depends on the baby and if he's having 3 naps now I can't imagine he'll be ready for one any time soon. The absolute last thing you want to do is push him to drop to one and be left with a overtired grumpy mess! Overtiredness plays havoc with nighttime sleep in my experience.

My son went through a phase of waking up between 5-6 at about 12-13 months
I would feed him in the same way I did if he woke up for milk in the night and then leave the room so he associated it with another night feed rather than time to get up.
He would chat away to himself for 20-30 mins and then would drop back off
Now he wakes up between 8-9 and is having one nap a day about 11/11.30 for about two hours
Hopefully he will start sleeping in later for you
I've heard blackout blinds can help with early risers aswell

My little one was an early riser too. I now give her a feed as if night one (I prop the bottle in there with her - know some mum's won't agree with this!) And she has that then sleeps until 6.30-7am. She used to want to sleep at 8.30 but now I try to keep her awake until 9am if I can and is she wakes at 7am she is able to stay awake until almost 10am some days. X

I’ve cut his naps down recently so fingers crossed.
He now wakes at 5 but manage to get him to go until 6:30-7 and is currently having his first nap now which was at 10:30. 👏🏼
He will most probably wake up an hour later he’s never slept longer than an hour for naps 😭 so he will have lunch at 12 and any ideas for when I should give him his second nap? I’m thinking around 3? Until 4?

Thanks for the tips guys! Hoping it helps! Much appreciated.