10 month old getting up at 4.30/5am for the day

[senorita81]

Hi, hoping someone can give me some advice. My 10 month old wakes up nearly every morning at between 4am and 5am. He goes to bed around 7.30pm as I can't keep him up much longer than that. He wakes 2 to 3 times a night as well and he doesn't nap much during the day. Sometimes he can last till 1pm that day from 5am that morning without a nap! I thought babies were meant to need sleep! He definitely doesn't need as much sleep as an average 10 month old.
Altogether he probably naps about 45 mins a day at the minute. The early wakening is so difficult , he just won't go back to sleep and I end up putting him in front of the cartoons for a bit while I sleep on for a bit but I don't like doing that every morning. Really hope someone can help.

My eldest was a lark too. Up before the sun and neither of my children were nappers either so really do know where you're coming from.

For my early bird baby I stuck with calm, dark and quiet until at least 6am. Blackout blinds in their room (we used the portable kid rather than installing something expensive) then when they did a 4am special I'd soothe and snuggle them back down in bed. Basically refuse to engage with anything other than back in bed and quiet.

Sometimes I'd have to do a few mornings in a row (and camp on the floor) but then I'd get a good couple of mornings where they'd wait until after 6am before waking or at least before waking me. Sometimes I'd wake to the sound of them chattering to themselves but at least the message was getting across that 4am was not a time to play.

It's tiring to do but worth it when the idea of nightime and daytime starts being real.

My early bird is still an early bird...fortunately now they are 10 they spend the time chilling out reading until the rest of us wake rather than disturbing us.

Hope you find something that works for you. Good luck

Thanks for the reply :) We have blackout curtains but might have to get a blackout blind as well. I have tried to give him a bottle and settle him back down but his eyes are just wide awake and I just know he is up for the day. He can't settle himself back to sleep so if I put him back in the cot, he will scream the house down!

My first was the same and he’s still an early riser as a teen. Agree with Noodles suggestions. The No Cry Sleep Solution does have some good tips on early rising and naps

Dd was like this, it nearly broke me. The thing that made a difference for us was getting her naps cracked. Weirdly she needed to sleep during the day to need sleep at night. We started out with her having naps in her pushchair, not ideal but it worked. So twice a day we'd put her in and rock her to sleep.

Once she's got the hang of naps her night time sleep sort of fell into place. At about 18 months we then moved to getting naps in her cot. But to be honest I'm not entirely sure it wasn't just a really crap phase she went through. All her sleep went to shot for about 3 months. It felt like an eternity.

So that wasn't massively helpful to you I know but I think the gist of it is just do what you need to do to survive!