Early waking 7 month old, advice please!

[SunnyUpNorth]

I would really appreciate any tips on what to do with my early waking ds, he is almost 7 months old.

He is generally really good (and I know my complaints are minimal compared to alot of sleep problems!). He goes to sleep easily by himself. Bedtime is around 6.30.

He has been sleeping through for around a month and was sleeping until between 6.30 and 7.30, usually waking around 7.

He hasn't had a third nap for almost a month but usually has two decent naps each day of around 1-1.5 hours in the morning and anywhere between 1.5-2.5 hours after lunch.

He has recently started waking anywhere between 5 and 6, but more often closer to 5. He doesn't usually cry but chats and sings. Eventually he will start to cry a bit if I leave him too long.

The problem is I can't leave him too long as his 'chatting' is really loud, he is a bit of a shouter and he wakes my 2.5 year old dd. She usually sleeps til 7.30 and has recently dropped her nap, so if she ends up awake at 6.30 she is a NIGHTMARE all day! So I tend to leave him for a bit but he never goes back to sleep and I feel at least he can catch up with sleep with his naps unlike her.

It could be due to the warm weather as he seems very thirsty, drinking his bottle enthusiastically at first but not finishing it, so I don't think it's hunger. Plus he has embraced solids!

He is a laid back, jolly little thing and doesn't show tired signs. Dd always yawned and rubbed her eyes at predictable times but he doesn't really do that. So it's hard to know if he is over tired or getting too much sleep!

At the moment he is doing something like this:

5.30 wake and bottle
8.00-9.00 nap
12.30-2/2.30 nap
6.30 bed

When he was waking later he was napping at around 9.30-10.30 and then 1.30-3.30 which was ideal as then it was a good gap til bedtime but not too long.

He isn't crawling yet but is desperate to. He is very active and happy.

I can't decide if I need to put him down earlier eg 6pm for a while to catch up on lost sleep, or if its just thirst from the hot weather that I need to ride out, or whether to cut naps, help!!

Sorry for long, rambly post, started this at about 6am and am a bit brain dead!

Sorry I should also add that I have tried going in immediately with a bottle to see if that will resettle him, leaving him as long as I can (until he gets too noisy), bringing him in to my bed, rocking him etc. nothing has worked. He is tired but is too awake/rested to go back to sleep.

I thought on average a 7 month old should sleep 11 hours at night and have a total of 2-3 hours' naps.

Your DC sounds spot on to me. Maybe he's getting older and the 11 hours are enough for him so he wakes up refreshed?

Hi poppy, I know I kind of agree as when I realised he was having a straight 11 hours it doesn't sound too bad. But he is definitely still tired (this morning was too tired to eat his breakfast) and struggles to last from his lunchtime nap until bedtime. That was why I wondered if an earlier bedtime would help him catch up and correct things or would it just bring his whole routine earlier.

I could try gradually pushing his bedtime back until 7 but at the moment it works well for me putting him to bed at 6.30 and then having time to read dd a a story and give her a cuddle and she is then in bed for 7. I know eventually I will probably do bedtime together but it is nice for dd to have that one to one time.

Hi op. In this case I doubt bringing bedtime earlier is likely to help. I agree with pp that he is getting a decent amount of both daytime and night time sleep. Could the wakeups be teething related? Or is he started doing new things eg crawling as developmental leaps can often wreak havoc on sleep?

My ds used to wake early as a baby so I feel your pain. The one key lesson I learned was that responding to early waking by bringing naps earlier doesn't necessarily help matters in the long run. Early waking is strongly linked with the timing/length of the morning nap & an early morning nap will just keep you in the early waking cycle - as you are finding, he needs an earlier afternoon nap & bedtime.

If you can rule out teething, developmental leap/heat as cause, then iiwy I'd slowly push that morning nap later by 5-10mins every few days til it starts no earlier than 9.30am. He may be grumpy to start with but should soon adjust & a later wakeup should follow.

I echo omama, try pushing am nap back until at least 9.30 then do same with afternoon and then bedtime hoping to shift the sleep phase a little.

Thanks omama, he does normally have his nap at 9.30 but somehow over the last week he has started waking early.

I will probably be on here at about 4.30 then as I put him to bed at 6.15 tonight!!

He is trying to start crawling, but according to the Wonder Weeks book shouldn't be in a developmental leap at the moment. But he is doing lots of new tricks. That had crossed my mind as well as teething. No visible teeth but lots of drooling etc.

I think I may just need to ride this one out and hope it is a blip and that he will return to form soon. I do remember dd doing something similar at some point but can't remember how it was corrected or if she just grew out of it.

Thanks again.