11 mo DS early waking and exhausted mother- please help!

[ksmshoelover]

Hi everyone, This is the point at which having read everything I can I'm now turning to MN to find the ever illusive 'answer' for why my DS is suddenly waking in the night and earlier and earlier in the mornings... (usually 6, but last couple mornings 5am)
As some background, DS was a GF baby from the start and happily went into the routines (although I really just used the feeding and sleep structure, not the rest of GF like never letting nap in the pram etc... clearly not practical) He slept through the night from around 7 weeks, and until 8 months he slept from 7-7/8 with no problems (I did the 10pm feed initially but dropped this months ago now, can't really remember when...). Anyway, we seem to have established a longer morning nap,(anywhere from 45 mins-1.5 hours) with lunch time nap no longer than 45, but when he wakes up from this he's clearly still tired but I just CAN NOT get him back to sleep)
I know alot of people have babies waking earlier than this, so sorry if I sound unrealistic, but I know he needs more sleep than this,If he was waking at 5/6am and was happy and chatty I could accept he's just an early riser, but he's rubbing his eyes, yawning and still clearly exhausted. I've read I need to cut down his morning nap so the lunchtime one becomes longer which some say should solve the early waking (incl GF) but I tried this a couple of months ago and all that happened was that he still only slept 45 mins at lunch and so had even less sleep, and still woke up early in the morning... As for the night waking,for the last week he's starting waking at 11/12 (annoyingly just as I've gone to bed) and it takes nearly 2 hours to get him back to sleep- he doesn't seem to want anything (teething medecine/water/milk) so Im really at a loss.
He's just started walking (6 steps today!) and in the last few weeks has been very clingy- separation anxiety I think, could this be affecting his sleep? It's almost like he's just lost the ability to go back to sleep when he stirs, instead he just gets really upset immediately.
Anyway, I'm kind of at the end of my patience here, I'm exhausted constantly and am supposed to be starting to work freelance soon, but I'm just a walking zombie. Has anyone got any genius ideas, or has tried the restructuring daytime sleep with success? and please, I'm begging you, don't tell me I'll just have to wait for him to grow out of it. I'm too tired to wait!

My son at 11 months napped at 10.30am and then a short one at 3pm and went to bed at 6.30pm - 7pm.

If he waked in the night I always lathered his gums with bonjela (much to his digust) and then left the room again and he usually fell asleep again after a quick shout. He was teething terribly at this stage.

If he was going down with a cold he'd often wake and seem unsettled, so I always had to roll with it really until he recovered.

As for early wakings, with my first child I would give her some warm milk if 5am, tell her it wasn't time to get up "sleepy time" and she often went back to sleep again. She only did this for a short while. Or sometimes when going to bed I'd sneak some toys into the cot near the bottom, so she'd play with those on waking on give me a little longer in bed

The other thing I was thinking is at developmental milestones such as walking it can affect their sleep for a while, as they get used to it all. I'm sure this is just a blip. If the 5am wake up carries on though, wake to sleep can be effective?

This is a very rambley post but I am trying to say in a roundabout way that this is temporary I am sure, if they were a good sleeper before and things will improve again

At 11 months, my LO went down at about 9:30 and I let him sleep as long as he wanted. Then he had a short sleep in the afternoon. I have been following this sleep routine which is quite flexible and has really worked.

Also, you might and this article on waking early useful.

Thanks bippyhippy and teaandcakeplease, I'm hoping it is temporary so fingers crossed! So nice to have advice from other Mums though- invaluable infact!

My DD (18 months) has been an early riser for the past 6 months. At one point she was waking at 4.30am (!!) but then settled into a routine of waking between 5 and 5.30am. However, for the past week she has been waking at 6am which is just fantastic and feels like such a lie in! I think that this is happening because she has recently started walking and is just physically exhausted by the end of the day. The key things for me are - if he is waking early and is still tired then I would try an earlier bedtime which means he has had more sleep overall so is less likely to be tired in the morning. I know this sounds counter productive but it can also result in later waking and less night waking. We tried to put our DD to bed later (6.45pm) and this just meant she was overtired at bedtime, started waking in the night and then still waking at 5am so we went back to 6pm bedtimes. I would also persevere with trying to get the longer sleep after lunch and go to bed early yourself! Me and OH have only coped with early mornings because we go to bed at 9pm each night!!

Thanks teleaddict- I actually just said to my DH, "its 8:37, nearly our bedtime". Oh the glamour!! I'll try the earlier bed time for sure, can't hurt. Like you say, even if he still wakes at the same time but is less tired then surely it will make the day slightly easier?!

Fingers crossed an earlier bedtime helps. Because our DD is in bed at 6pm it means that at least we get a bit of an evening before we go up at 9pm!

Hi everyone, I just had to come report back on the amazing transformation in my DS! After 2 days of cutting back his morning nap to just half an hour, he's finally having a longer lunch time nap.(which has been a revelation- 2 hours! I hardly knew what to do with all that freedom in the middle of the day...!) Then I've been putting him to bed 20 mins earlier (6:40) and to my complete surprise he slept until 6:47 (precisely...!) yesterday, and 7am today! Im reluctant to be too excited but it definitely seems to be working so far.
Incidentally I've also really cut down on his 2:30 bottle so he's only having 4 oz (was having 8) which means he's definitely eating alot more at tea time, maybe this is helping?
Anyway, if anyone is reading this thread and is in a similar situation, I really urge you to try this! It may seem a bit mad to wake them up to shorten a nap and put them to bed earlier, but it works!

Oh that's really good Bet you feel a million times better for that extra time in bed x

That's great news and I am v jealous of those wake up times!!

I do feel like a different person- it's still quite hit and miss but getting better all the time. phew!