Please can you help me with a routine for my 8mo?

[berri]

My DS has started waking up at 5am every morning after previously going 7pm-7am.

I think perhaps he is sleeping for too long in the day? Could this be the reason? He's only usually awake for about 2hrs before he goes for a nap.

He got himself into a pretty standard routine of 3 naps (2 long in the morning and lunch and one short in the afternoon) and I have been bfing him immediately before his 3 solids meals a day (7am, 11am & 3pm - then a bottle of formula at 7pm).

My other friends don't give milk and solids at the same time, and also give their babies their last solid meal much later than my 3pm.

Please can you tell me what you do, if you do have a routine?

Just trying to think what mine did at this age.

Both had quick 30-40 min nap about 10am then couple of hours around 12 till 2 then that was it until bed at 7.

They had breakfast 7.30-8 am, lunch between 12 and 12:30, tea at 5pm sometimes mid morning and afternoon snacks.

They had milk on waking ,a bottle after getting up at 1030, one after afternoon nap then 1 at bed time.

Mine only has two naps. So its:

6.30 - awake she usually just gurgles for half an hour
7.00 - up/change/bf then let her play for bit
7.30/8- breakfast - sometimes followed by another bf if she seems hungry
9 - sleep
10- up/ bf if she wants it
Somewhere between 11.45 and 1 - lunch
12ish- sleep
1.30/2ish - depending on her - up
3ish - bf/possibly snack if needed
5ish - tea
7 - bf then bed

I'm much more flexible that this sounds but this is the framework I find is best for her (she fell into it really). If she has more than 3.30 hours sleep during the day she wakes at night, if she has less that two hours the same happens. But sometimes no matter what I do she will go through a waking faze then sort herself out again.

HTH

Have you tried giving his last meal later?

I think you' should try giving him his last solid meal later, 3pm seems too early to me.

My 8 month old id in a very loose 'routine', I just take it as it comes. But he does go to bed by 7pm, and if I'm lucky will 'only' wake twice in the night (at midnight and 4am - sounds awful but is a vast improvement on what he was doing a couple of months ago!)

He is awake at about 6.30am

breakfast about 30 minutes after getting up
bottle of formula at about 8.30, back down for a nap by about 9am

up again after about an hour/90 minutes

perhaps a wee snack before lunch at around 12pm

back down for a snooze about 1/2pm (depends how long he slept in the morning and what time he got up) for another hour/ 90 minutes

I usually try to make sure hes awake by 3.30pm at the latest

I usually give him another bottle at some point in the afternoon.

dinner at 5pm-ish
bath 6pm-ish
formula then bed by about 7pm-ish

I have a very '-ish' kind of day!

If we're out and about in the car/pushchair then he just sleeps whenever. I don't fret about it at all, and I find that he usually has no more than 2 1/2 or 3 hours total naptime a day.

I'm working on getting him through the night! He gets another feed at midnight when he wakes at the moment but I'm hoping to drop that soon.

lol at kitkat9's ish day - mine is exactly the same!

berri I forgot to say that my dd suddenly started waking again at 7m. It lasted about two weeks then stopped. Now she's going through a waking faze linked to naps. As far as i can see as soon as you think 'ah that's sorted' they change again!

Personally I agree with the others though in that I would try to give the last solid feed later than 3pm.

Our routine is (and has been) like this since DS was about 4mo:

5:00am wakes up and has a bottle
6:00am has breakfast and then is up and playing until about 8:30-9:00 when he has a fruit snack (obv didn't have this at 4mo!).
9:30 naps for about an hour.
10:30ish up and playing again until lunch which can be anytime between 12 and 1.
After lunch, he is put down for afternoon sleep time in his cot where he can go anything between 1 and 2 hours. When he is with the CM, his sleep is restricted to an hour because when they go out to do school run, he falls asleep in the car again.
He has another snack when he wakes up and then is playing again until 4ish when he will have another bottle. Dinner is around 5-5:30. He then goes in the bath and is out again by 6:30. He has another bottle and then goes to bed between 7-7:30.

DS has always been pretty good at self settling so 7-7:30 is a good time for him to be in bed. He's usually had enough by then anyway.

WRT the waking early thing, I've tried absoultely everything to get him to sleep in longer but have now come to accept that that is his time for getting up and now just roll with it. Most mornings though, I can grab an hour at the same time as him when he has his morning nap.

The other thing I found was helpful, was to only put him down in his cot for afternoon sleep time and bedtime. Other naps, he has in his chair as he doesn't tend to sleep that long in there.

So you think it's not necessarily the naps that are too long - perhaps I should just give him a snack at 3pm and then his solids at 5.30ish?

Does it matter that he has his solids and milk feed at the same time? I think I'm the only person that does this but I'm not sure why!

I'd try the snack then solids thing you suggest.

The only reason that a milk feed would interfere with solid feed is that it may fill him up so he takes less solids or vice versa. I used to do both at the same time (do still at breakfast actually) but now space it out a bit for the rest of the day as I found they were impacting on each other and that dd would take more of each if I kept them separate - just giving water at meals which is less filling. I didn't really plan it that way I just fell into it as it seemed pointless to start bfing for just a couple of minutes after a solid feed which is what was happening.

Hope he gives you a lie in

Well yesterday he had a big snack at 3pm, his normal solids at 5pm and then he had 4oz of a bottle at 7pm.

He didn't have a nap in the afternoon like he usually does, just because we had people round.....

and he still woke up at 5.15am.

I tried bfing him and resettling but he was wide awake.

Ugh. I'm thinking about going back to work soon but there's no way I'm going to be able to if he keeps waking up this early!!!

Not sure what else to try.....?!

My dd was the same a this age and I had been at work for 2 months. It was really tiring. It got much better when she started crawling as she wore herself out. She also started early waking just before walking, then slept better once she got going with that. Is your little boy crawling yet?

Nope not yet - he's not even sitting up. He was 2 months prem though so is probably still a little behind his 'real' age.

How annoying of him this might help - I posted a similar thing about a month ago. She sorted herself out in the mornings (and now sleeps 12-14 hours a day) but has now started waking at night again so I'm trying to crack that You're not alone!

Thanks, I'll have a look.

Guess I shouldn't really complain - it's just hard when you've been sleeping through for a couple of weeks then it seems like he's regressing!

Bring on the crawling....