Tips for early risers?

[snufkinsfloozy]

DS is nearly ten months old. Since about 8 months, he has self settled at 7pm, had a dream feed at 10:30, then fed at 4.30/5am and slept again until 6ish.

Over the last few weeks he has dropped the night feed of his own accord (he latches on but doesn't suck and falls off again a few minutes later) but has now started waking for the day at 4.30/5am.

I'm really happy that he's now 'sleeping through' as we've had many months of sleep deprivation (he used to wake hourly) but 4.30/5am seems ridiculously early to me - it means DH is knackered for work, and DS is getting grouchy and overtired during the day, which is unusual for him.

Does anyone have any tips on getting him to sleep a bit later? Or is this a normal thing he'll grow out of in a few weeks?

At the moment I've been feeding him in his room when he wakes up and trying to put him back in his cot as he seems to be asleep in my arms, but he wakes up and cries when I put him down. I've tried leaving him but it soon escalates to screaming, and when I bring him into bed with us he wakes up and wants to play.

He's just got his first tooth, and has a bit of nappy rash, so might this be the issue? I would have thought he would be more disturbed during the night if that was the case...

Theres a few developmental things going on at 10 months, namely pulling up, cruising, walking and speech. This in addition to teething and illness can all do odd things to sleep.

I would try the following;

black out blinds AND curtains to make his sleeping environment as dark as possible - it is the summer after all and this can mess with the body clock (theirs and ours!)

pushing the bedtime back - try this for a week

Bringing the bedtime forward - counterintuitive but overtiredness can cause early waking. Again, try for a week and see how you get on.

Pushing the first nap back. I quite like the by the clock routine from around this age of 11.00 lunch then nap at 11.30 for 90 minutes and again at 4.00 for an hour to 90 minutes, dinner, bedtime routine, milk, teeth, book and then bed.

Gradually, the second nap will reduce and get dropped and the lunch time nap will push back later and become a little longer.

Hope this helps

Is baby hungry? Try a snack before bed?