11 month old early waking

[Binglesplodge]

Anyone else been through this?

My 11 month old DS has started waking every morning anywhere from 5am til 5:30.

He'd been a terrible sleeper since birth but seemed to settle into it once he started crawling and had been in the habit of sleeping through 7-6. Bliss!

He usually doesn't wake crying but does cry within a few minutes if nobody goes in to get him. I'd try the tactic of leaving it until 6 to get him up but it would just upset him. I've tried treating it as a night waking and going in, feeding him in the dark and putting him back down but he's not willing to go back to sleep. He's bf and does seem keen to feed when I go to him but then he always does first thing so I don't know if that's hunger/thirst or just comfort.

Is this a temporary thing or do I need to do something to help him get more sleep overnight? I'd like some too! I'd especially like to be on top of this before the clocks go back and 5am becomes 4am...

I had this! I got a lot of good advice on this board. They said to amend his nap times during the day. It took less than a week to sort once I moved him from napping 2 hours after he woke up to 3-4 hours.

What's his nap routine at the moment?

Thanks, Twinklestar - the usual nap plan is that he goes back down about 3 hours after waking. I could try extending that but don't think it's the only cause as it even happens on nursery days, when he is so interested in what's going on that he won't nap until after lunch!

This morning he's been up since 4. Yuck.

The same thing is happening here too.

This is my 3rd dc and as far as I can remember they have all gone through this early waking period about this age.

There isn't anything I have done in the past that solved the issue...it was just a phased that passed. Albeit slower than I would of liked it to pass!

coffee. will get you through these horrendous mornings

Me 3! 4:30- 5-30 am. I'm destroyed.

I don't allow to nap till 9:30-10. I pat the wee shit till 6am.

I have a 3 yeAr old and work part time.

Last week 3 year old had a peppa marathon with me sleeping on couch.

Yes older one used to get up early but not before 5. By her timetable I've another 3 months of this.

I used to be smuggy macsmuggington as dd1 sleeps fabulously.

My son is 18 months and is prone to waking early. He was exactly the same as your DS, started sleeping through around the time he sat up and crawled. We had 2 months of absolute sleeping through the night 7-7 bliss then he started waking anytime between 4.30-5.30 and it went on for months. I blame teething, developmental changes and separation anxiety. He is also a fussy eater and regularly wakes in the night hungry.

Like your son, he wouldn't be happy to just be left until 6am but we did a sleep training method where we went in every 5-10 mins to reassure and say 'it's not time to get up yet, go back to sleep.' Then got him up at 6.

He's only just started sleeping later, this was the result of dropping the morning nap and moving his nap until after lunch. Nothing else we tried made a scrap of difference (sorry). I am so used to the early mornings that I am ready to get up at 5.30 every day and nip downstairs for a cup of tea (and Mumsnet) before he gets up. He has also started to understand 'It's not time to get up yet' and sometimes rolls over and goes back to sleep for another hour.

A couple of tips which might help:

Blackout blind, or even better get some of this blackout window transfer it won't damage your windows and blocks out all the light
No morning nap before 9am (even if he has been up since 4.30)
No bedtimes before 6pm
No getting up for the day until 6am
Protein snack before bedtime
Anbesol (over the counter at Boots) for teething
Cut down the morning nap to no more than an hour
4 hours wake time before bed

Sometimes early wakers are just early risers and you just have to ride it out.

Reading with (tired) interest - ds2 is a crappy sleeper and up half a dozen times through the night for his dummy. Recently started throwing a 5am wake up into the mix as well and I'm dreading it being the start of a long early morning phase like ds1 did. Bah!

Is it time to drop to one nap? DD was 10months when she did.
May be worth pushing the morning nap as late as possible and doing away with an afternoon nap. If he's been awake since 4 then that'll be a challenge though - start by shortening the afternoon nap rather than abolishing completely.

So posting as of course my whine on mumsnet cured us today and up at 7. But don't know what helped:

Yesterday no morning nap and put her down at 1 (for 45 mins - ouch)

Might have accidentally done a bit of wake to sleep at 5 am. snoring husband drove me into her room

So what to repeat? Afternoon nap was a challenge. She'd been up since 5 but big one was a soft play so it kept her going. By 10-11am in the house she is a whiney mess.

Wow, looks like I'm not the only one! I don't think he's ready to drop a nap: he quite happily takes 2 of about 90 mins at home and one of 2 hours at nursery (because it's more interesting than home!). I've read elsewhere that you know they're ready to drop a nap when they're hard to get to sleep but as soon as he's put in his cot he just goes straight to sleep so I feel like he needs the rest. He's very physically active all day!

5:45!! Grr grr. Time for daddy daughter time

My almost-3 year old wakes at this time every day (we get up this early in the week anyway). Children just get up early, full stop.

I also tried the 'sleep training' method described above and wouldn't let ds get up until 6am at the earliest. It sunk in fairly quickly (but then we'd already done sleep training at bedtime so he knew the score).

I also think dropping all night feeds will help.

I wish i had the answer. 1yo thinks any time from 4am is acceptable. Coffee, peppa pig, mumsnet are my friends ....

I dunno if all kids get up early. My three year old crawled out of bed at 8:45 and never gets up before 7:30.

I really don't believe the 5 starts are inevitable they can't be.