12mo Sleep Schedule Advice

[Sleepbabysleeppls]

DS 12mo schedule looks something like this:

Wake 5.30am (sometimes closer to 6am on a good day)
1st nap - 9-10.15am
2nd nap - 1.45-3.00pm
Bed - 7pm ish

Generally sleeps through until 5.30am.

The issue is, he always seems tired. Is he not getting enough sleep? I would love him to sleep longer in the AM, until 6, but have tried most things.

Am I worrying over nothing - is this a good routine/good sleeper?

Are u waking lo from naps??

Really at 12 months I think you should be dropping the morning nap - as it’s so long at the moment I’d drop by 15 minutes every few days but by putting him down later and waking at 10 as well, then aim to have a longer lunchtime nap - the ideal is 12-3 and then personally I’d put to bed earlier if you can.

Some people say that babies sleep longer at night if they don’t have a morning nap so close to waking up - I don’t know how true that is tho to be honest!
The reason for shortening the morning nap is so that they are then tired enough to have a long lunchtime nap which sees them through to bedtime.

@ChittyBang1987 no I don’t wake him

My view differs to pp. We had this routine and personally what suited my lo was
930/945 till 11am sleep.
2pm/215pm till 330pm/4pm nice big feed before this nap.
730 to 8pm bed.
630am rise in morning.

I think awake times are too long, my lo at that age wouldn't have been able to do. But you know ur lo.

For us a later bedtime consistenly to see a change resulted in later wake up.

Usual of add a super, complete darkness, pink noise, not cold etc.

This is what worked for us. Any changes you make to routine or bedtime can take up to 3 weeks to see a change.

You can cut down naps in morning see if makes a difference but we found for us it made lo completely overtired and a bubbling mess. If you lo was nearing 16 months I would say cut morning nap down.

I loosely follow the Huckleberry sleep schedules and they suggest 2x naps of about an hour until 15mo ish, so agree I won’t be looking to drop the morning nap until a bit older. I would say his wake windows are about 3 hours but probably less in the AM, however (!!), if he wakes at 5.30am, I try my hardest to stretch him to as close to 9am as possible because I’ve heard that can reinforce an early wake? Although it’s made no difference tbh.

With his nap lengths I don’t think I can alter wake windows too much as otherwise it would give us a very early bedtime, or we’d have to add a 3rd nap in again!

Our schedules seem very similar. Mine also wakes at 5.30 or 6 on a good day.

5.30am awake
8.30 - 10am nap
1.30-3pm nap
7pm bed time (although this often means asleep at 7.30)

When you say he is always tired, what do you mean by that? Eg eye rubbing, grumpy etc?

On the rare occasions DS does sleep until 7am, usually because he's been restless at 5am and he's come into bed next to me, I do think he seems less tired in the day time. But he does seem programmed to wake at 5.30, it's very frustrating!

We were doing a 8pm bed time too, but he didn't wake any later and there is somehow a big difference in the amount of evening adult time it feels like we have when he's asleep at 7.30 compared to 8.

@DandelionNumber12 I was convinced it was the light waking him but it’s now basically dark in his room at 5.30 and he is still waking! How long did you try the 8pm bedtime for?

I’m loathe to try anything that could make things even worse but I would LOVE to crack the early wake.

He yawns a lot throughout the day. So around 7.30/8am he is yawning ready to go back to bed (after a 5.30 start!). And at bedtime he is out within minutes. I really do feel he could do with a little more sleep just even 30 mins more in the morning.

When I said tried - actually we moved bedtime to 8pm and initially he did seem to sleep a little longer in the morning. I think it stuck at 8pm for about 6 weeks, but then he started getting grumpy at dinner time. So we moved the schedule back half an hour again. He didn't start waking any earlier. I was also surprised that he went down as easily at bed time, despite it being earlier.

Sounds to me that morning awake period to 9am is too long. Causing overtiredness. But giving too early creates early wake up. It's a cycle of overtiredness and Early waking.

For us when we changed to 8pm bed took about 1 week. But can take up to 3 from what I read.

Out of interest have you tried giving a bottle? Then seeing if lo goes back to sleep? I know a few people do this.

Could always add extra calories in day. I know the advise from nhs 3 meals blah blah. If I followed that my lo would be screaming at me she's hungry and she's not overweight in the slightest.

@ChittyBang1987 agreed but no idea how to break that cycle. Have tries a bottle in dark room, doesn’t want it, so isn’t waking out of hunger.

Theres several ways to do this.

Push lo straight through to 8pm but could cause overtiredness. But hopefully only lasts a few days until starts sleeping past 530am.

Add a 3rd nap on a temp basis. To get through to later bedtime. Bringing first nap to 8/830 until starts sleeping in later.

Other one is go straight for the busy morning and keeping lo busy until nap for 930am letting them sleep as long as they like and we'll fed before hand. Then 2nd nap will be a lot later. Giving you later bedtime.

Other one which I have never been daring enough to try about 5am set an alarm and for a week rouse lo enough to disturb but not wake so that in hopes they sleep through their usual wake up time. Takes up to a week from what I read.

Other way is to do some cc in early hours. Or doing whatever you can to get lo back to sleep at 530am.

If lo isn't hungry then to me that says lo has had enough sleep so the bedtime is too early.

Ok, so this morning, first woke 5.25am. Left until 6am as would go quiet in 10 min intervals. At 6 was getting louder so went in with a bottle and he drank it all and slept until 7.20. So about another hour. So I assume still tired/hungry?

no idea if this will work tomorrow or continue to work long term but am I now creating more of a problem by feeding at this time? Going to put him down for 1st nap at 9.30, so about 2 hour wake window rather than usual 3.5! If it’s over tiredness then hopefully this might help?

Also now wondering what I do with milk routine… not going to give him another bottle this AM as obviously had one at 6, so I’m giving breakfast now, then he’ll have another bottle after lunch and one before bed…