9 month old can't stay awake after 6pm = early mornings, please help

[Elf]

DS is nine months and for about 6 weeks has been waking between 5 and 6am. 6am I can just about cope with but not 5am. As I am sure many of you have experienced, it just means the day is crazy because he is tired again really early and would probably like lunch at 10am etc etc.

Anyway of course, he is ready for bed by 5.30pm ish probably. We try not to give him his bedtime bottle until 6pm but he is still zonked out by ten past. The cruel thing is that he does usually sleep 11 or 11 and a half hours but that still only takes you to 5 or 5.30ish.

How can I move him around? I am really trying, with just trying to keep his morning and lunchtime naps as near to normality as possible but I just can't see how you keep up a knackered baby!

Any advice very gratefully received. By the way I used to post quite a bit but have been computerless for a while and have been out of touch.

Our DS (10 mths tomorrow) wakes between 5 - 6am, I just give him his 6oz milk, treating it as night time, then he goes back till 8am. Lunch 12-12.30pm, tea 4.30-5.00pm then bedtime milk at 6.30pm, bed by 7pm. He has 2 half hour sleeps in the day, but today he only had 1 and was really grumpy this afternoon . Very rarely, he won't sleep again at 6am then I am at the end of my tether all day as I am shattered too. I tend then to give him a mid morning snack of fruit to keep his mealtimes on track.

Sorry I don't have some tried and tested way to solve your dilema.

maybe just a phase? it does happen unfortunately - maybe drop morning nap and make him go a bit longer at lunch?

Thanks you two, Oooggs, or anyone else who does this, do you take the baby downstairs and heat the milk and then go upstairs again to feed them and hope they will still stay sleepy? Sorry to be pedantic!

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elf, is it worth trying (gradually) to extend his bedtime just a bit? Give him a bath, put on a video, dance about with him, walk roudn the garden - anything to keep him awake for 10 more mins each night, till finally you are lookign at 7pm not 6pm??

I have 3 very early risers (6am onwards) but they do go tobed 7pm and after all, this is positive in that I get a nice long evening (to do chores, lol).

I know what you mean about knackered baby - they are all grotty at about 6pm (in my house anyway) but if they look like they are going to keel over we just do one last thing to keep em going.

In answer to your question Elf, I take the bottle upstairs at approx 10.30pm (my bedtime) and leave it in the bottle bag. Then when he wakes up I out the dimmer switch on in his room just, take the bottle out of the bag, DS out of cot, bottle in mouth and he drinks. I don't talk to him, put him on shoulder to 'wind' then gently put him back in cot, switch dimmer off, and race back to my our bed very quickly to get more sleep