17mth old waking between 5-6am - too early?

[Truffy18]

My 17 month old son has always been a great sleeper. Very lucky that he slept through from 10 weeks and very rarely wakes now.

He goes to sleep at 7pm without a peep and used to sleep until about 6.30-7am but has now begun waking earlier and earlier (now about 5.30am on average). He's not crying as such but sort of wailing. When I go in he's still lying down in sleep position. I've tried stroking his head gently and saying "Go to sleep" which usually quietens him for 10 minutes until he starts again. Leaving him doesn't work either cause he just gets louder and has continued for over an hour!

He has one daytime nap in the afternoon of between 1-2.5 hours but this doesn't affect his waking in anyway - always early!

It is unrealistic to expect him to sleep longer? I'm just concerned as I have another due in 11 weeks and am desperate for as much sleep as possible!

My god I could have written your post word for word except i have a 20 month old DS and my no 2 will arrive in 12 weeks! Like yours mine used to sleep til 6.30am with not a peep all night, now it is 5.30am on the dot. And he is so bright eyed and bushy tailed with it. We are utterly knackered. Will watch with interest as we have tried EVERYTHING I think!!

How bizarre! ALways helps to know someone else is having similar issues! Shame you didn't find some easy, quick "cure" I could copy!!

Do you know the sex of no.2?

of course it's too early - for you but not for him unfortunatly.

We had this problem with DS1 and I turned to Toddler Taming by Christopher Green who had been great at every other aspect of parenting. The section in sleep said "some children just like waking up early and there doesn't seem to be anything you can do about it"

He's not so bad now but he is 6

I know, I am hoping someone will be along shortly to suggest a brainwave. But I honestly think we have been through every possible solution - putting him to bed later, ignoring him, shush/pat thingy, putting books/toys in bed in the hope he will quietly amuse himself, switching heating on later in case that was waking him, bringing him into bed with us..........must be more I am sure!!

No 2 is a boy - how about yours?

I'm afraid I can only second Tommy - I wish I had a brainwave for you but we never cracked this issue with ds.

He woke at about 5am - 5.45am for YEARS, now he's rising six and he wakes at about 6am.

Gulp. sorry guys.

All I can say is that we put him to bed at 6pm at this age, because it made no difference to his waking time; we tried later, as you have, but no matter what time he went to bed he was awake that early, so going to bed at 6pm meant we got an evening at least - and TRIED to get to bed early ourselves so that we didn't feel so bad with the early starts. I didn't always manage it but felt far better for it when I did.

I'm afraid my ds started this at about 17 months, and it carried on until he was about 3...sorry

He's 14 now, and surfaces at about 11.30am

He could be hungry. Try feeding him a bit more shortly before bedtime and see if that changes anything.

Make sure no light enters his room in the early hours of the morning.

Other than that, treat all wakings before 7 AM as night wakings. Do you give him his bottle when he wakes up at 5:30? If you want him to wake up at 7, you should probably delay the feeding until then.

He has a black out blind so the room is always pretty dark.
At the moment, we delay him getting out of his cot until 6.30am and then he has a few beakers of milk once up. He then has breakfast about 8am. He doesn't seem hungry but then maybe the milk fills him up as he has it pretty much as soon as he's up. Might try that.

JolieGirl - We've been told its a girl but I won't believe anything until he/she is born and I see for myself! We've tried everything you suggested too! I've even contemplated changing my boiler incase it's too noisy when it switches on!!

My ds2 (18months) woke up at about 4:30 for about 3 months He does seem to be out of that routine now, but often wakes in the night about 3am, then I get him back to sleep and he wakes later.

He started waking early when the clocks went back. Maybe the clocks going forward will solve your problem?

Thanks Wallace. Will eagerly await the day they change - good idea!

Am also going to try CoteDAzur's idea of giving him something to eat just before bed to see if it's hunger waking him.

Fingers crossed!

You have probably thought of this anyway but following the food idea, what time does he have dinner and is it a full cooked meal or does he have that at lunch time?

With DD, we found that giving her her main cooked meal about 1 to 1.5 hours before bed time followed by a small bowl of cereal (slow release stuff like meusli +/- some fruit like apple - def not sugary cereal or they get a sugar high and then crash afterwards) just before bed time while we were warming her milk sorted her out.

Also - may be worth offering one beaker of milk once he's up rather than a few.

Early riser here, nothing to suggest other than early bed for yourself. I blame myself as I got up at 5.30 every day of my pregnancy so obviously instilled it in the womb. I think it's very very common. Get's me that I can be laying in a pitch black room and she still knows it's time to get up (well for her anyway)

this happened with our DS, I put bedtime back to 8 pm and cut lunchtime nap to no more than 1 and a half hours, and now he sleeps till 7-8... good luck!

Ah now that didn't work with DD!

or trying to make sure they have a lot of physical play in the afternoon and a long bath?

Mine (18 months) went through a phase like that a few weeks back, I'm 26 weeks pg and it was a killer! He's normally 6.30am but suddenly started waking consistently at 5.30 or before.

Think there were several factors which caused it in the first place. He always has a 'stirring' around 5 am then goes back to sleep. He had had a few late nights (after 8 - usually in bed between 7 and 7.30) and I think that put his usual early morning stirring half an hour or so later, and because that was actually later he woke up rather than going to sleep. Also he didn't seem distressed but he had had an ear infection (which he has very regularly) and I think he was slightly uncomfortable with it so couldn't get back to sleep as easily as usual.

What we did to sort it out was a combination of make sure he had food last thing; get him to bed earlier rather than later; make sure his daytime nap wasn't too late; and when he did wake at 5.30 I went in and told him it was still night time and he had to go back to sleep. Absolutely refused to do anything else with him till 6.30. I put soft books in his cot and toys so he had something to look at, and put him in a sleeping bag with animals on which he likes to point at and 'name'.

He now normally wakes between 6 and 6.30 but has got used to being left in his cot and we hear him chuntering away to his animals and books until I go and get him. The nice thing is that I can now have a shower before getting him up, which makes the morning easier, rather than him expecting attention and milk straight away. Took a few unhappy mornings for him to get used to the new system though! I don't know if it was anything we did that helped or if it was just a phase that would have passed anyway.

Also when I was knackered I went back to sleeping during his nap and when necessary I go to bed at the same time as him to catch up on sleep. With enough sleep, all else is possible

Good luck, both with sleep and with new baby!

My 17 month old does this, waking between 0430 and 0600 some mornings. She is hungry so I give her a bottle and leave her to it and she goes back to sleep until about 0730-0800.

I treat waking before 0630 as a night waking!

Thanks everyone for the great ideas. Have tried tonight giving him a beaker of milk just before bed as well as his dinner a bit later (5.45pm). I'll wait and see!

How did you get on?

Beaker of milk just before bed and he woke at 5.45am! Arghh!

Yesterday I tried giving him some toast about 20 minutes before bed (and he'd had less sleep - 1 hour, becuase he'd been at nursery in the day.) Didn't hear a peek until 6.30 which I can manage! He also woke up much happier and didn't need as much milk once awake. Making me think he might be waking cause hungry. GOing to try a snack just before bed again.

Anyone got any good ideas for just before bed snacks that will keep him full during the night and that are healthy?

You could try porrige but I have ltd success getting DD to eat too much close to bed time, she just gets too tired. My DD woke this morning at 5.15 and was ready for up but we just cuddled and snuggled until 5.45 when I felt there was no was she was going back to sleep and I felt sane enough to get up. Before DD I was an early riser and there are nights where I'm wide awake for hours during the night for no good reason. Stands to reason that children may experience the same thing. It sounds like lots of children get up early. I think it makes it much harder if you battle with it.

im with gingerninja yet again on this one...
yep, its early, but im not sure theres anything you can do about it. i periodically get so irritated by it i try new things. currently we are cutting our boys midday nap to 1.5hrs when he prefers 2. this means he is a nightmare every day and throwing tantrums cos he's miserable and tired, but doesn't seem to make any difference to his sleep. we will give up experimenting in a few days when my curious diary marks reveal no difference again! and hopefully we will all be happier.
about 50% of time he wakes about 6.10, which is tolerable. the other 50% its before 6, about 5.40ish. he's not allowed out of his cot before 6, and we have been doing this for about 6mths, and it doesn't teach him to sleep later.
we have blackout blinds.
we also tried making his bedtime later but this seemed to make our evenings shorter but not his mornings longer. we are back to him going to sleep at 7.
we hoped when he dropped his morning nap it might make a difference. did it heck!
i go to bed around 9.30 most nights. about once a week i go out til 1 or 2 though and just make do with the lousy sleep.
when i shrug my shoulders and go with the flow im a lot happier than when i struggle against it and curse him for waking early.

id try bannana with porrage just before bed.its healthy and stogy so could well make him sleepy

i meant stodgy lol