If I put him to bed later will he wake up later?

[cockles]

DS has finally settled into sleeping through (at 20 months touch wood) - from 6.30-5a.m. Is it worth trying to shove bedtime later for a couple of weeks in the hope he will eventually sleep a bit later? Or should I just bite the 5 am bullet til he's a teenager?

i would try putting him to bed about 7.30-8.00pm and he should sleep a little longer

some children it works some it doesn't - mine always respond to being to put to bed late - my sisters children alwyas get up at 6am not matter what.

does he sleep in the day still?

you could certainly give it a go although IME, there is no rhyme or reason to the way small children manage their sleep!!

Yes he has naps usually 11.30-1ish. And is really really tired by 6pm. I just worry he will get overtired if I push it - which means earlier and earlier rising! Oh - why are they so bonkers...

Give it a try. It works with my ds - the later he goes up the later he stays in bed (he's 23 months).

But my friends ds is up at 5.30 no matter what, and then is just grumpy all day if he went to bed late.

Worth a try...

It's certainly worth a try. My ds often still wakes up at the same early time fafter a one off late night, but if he goes later consistently for a few days then he starts sleeping later too. Good luck!

Not necessaraly, my ds will sleep for 12 hours regardless of what time he goes to bed, but dts wake at 7am regardless of what time they go to bed, I figured ds needs 12 hours sleep as a priority, but dts stomach wakes them up

Ds gets up at the same time regardless! Argh!

It made no difference to us - DS is programmed to wake at 5.30!

12 hours! go away.

Got to be worth trying, but like others have said I find it takes a few days or maybe a week to reset the waking time.
Is his room really dark? You might need serious blackout stuff if you don't already have it.

Why is 12 hours unusual? I thought it was the norm, ds is 6 and has always slept 12 hours or more, dts (3) do too, if I put them down at 7pm, which is most nights

Yes have complete velcro blackouts thank you! I thought 12 hours was the norm til I had the babe who couldn't sleep more than 9-10... I'm sure he would benefit from 12, though - I so envy everyone whose babies fit the norm!

My dd will wake every morning between 5.30 and 5.45. i have tried later bedtime, earlier bedtime, cut her day nap to just one hour..the only result is a very cross little madam (19 months.) so to have a nicer girl we let her sleep 2 hours during the day, she goes to bed at 7pm and i am now used to very early mornings. i think you just have to what works best for you.

with us it made absolutely no difference whatsoever! No matter how late, whether naps or no naps, they are still up at 6am!

btw, velcro blackout stuff..does it work? the ones that were advertised on MN?

The blackout stuff - well it does work as in the room is completely dark. It's a faff to put up and down every day tho if you have tall windows. And mine is peeling off but that's probably my fault. So on the whole a thumbs up.

How long have you had it before it started peeling? Trying to decide whether to invest in blinds or that velcro stuff..

Not long tbh - I think the strain of taking it up and down every day doesn't help, tho you can always peel half of it off if you see what i mean - it depends how much you use the baby's room during the day. If you can get a good blackout using blinds go for it - I couldn't, having sash windows that are too big for readymade blinds.

I thought I'd update this in case anyone else is trying to stop the earlier wakeups! We tried doing bedtime at 7 or later instead of 6.30 for 2 weeks. It seemed to work - twice he woke up at nearly 6, much better than 5. Then he went back to 5 again. I suspect this is because I was so excited I let him come into bed with us as soon as he woke up, so I might try again... except now he is really overtired. Not very conclusive either way.

haven't got to this stage yet, but have you tried adjusting the times by 10-15 mins at a go? so bring it forward by 10-15mins for a few nights, as long as it takes, then do it again until you get there - could take ages, but would be easier to push it in shorted bursts than a big change in one go?

cockles - my ds regularly woke at 530am after a 7pm bedtime. I juggled his bedtimes to see if it made a difference but to no avail. Until..... we went on holiday last month and his naps went all awry on the journey to Devon. This meant a later bedtime (8:15pm) that night and...hey presto! He woke at 7:30 the next morning. Since our return I have kept to an 8pm bedtime and he now regularly wakes at around 7 - 7.30am. Occasionally he will wake at 6.30am (like this morning) but even that is acceptable imo. so, if you're asking me, the answer is yes! btw (he still naps twice a day and these have been juggled too).

It's working! There is life after 21 months of early starts

so what did you do cockle?
just shift his bedtime forward?
I am having this problem too - ds goes to bed at 7.15, wakes at 5.45. this isn't too bad, but when I have to work it is a killer!!

Shifted it forward by half-3/4 of an hour and stuck with it for 10 days. Ouchy - he was exhausted - but for about 5 days he slept 12-13 hours ! ! !. Then we went on holiday and now we are back to waking up at 4-5 am aaaaarrrrrggghhhh
i dunno why we even bother they are obviously not meant to sleep are they

can you try thinking of 5am as another night waking rather than morning, ie feed him in the dark & quiet then re-settle him for another couple of hours? we do that as i just can't cope with getting up when she wakes at 5.30am and often she'll give us another 2-3 hours (with some cuddling persuasion).