11 month old early wake ups

[TiredMama72]

My baby has just turned 11 months old and is generally a good sleeper but a very early riser, 5am - 5:30am usually 6am a lie in….

I have tried earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, shorter naps, longer naps, longer wake window before bed but nothing seems to get him to sleep that little bit longer.

He has recently started nursery and by the time we get to nursery at 8:30am he is absolutely shattered and doesn’t sleep well most of there and is pretty miserable. Room is pitch black, white noise machine on, nothing I can think of to be waking him at that time.

His day looks like;

wake up 5-5:30am

leave in cot until 6:30am

nap1 normally anytime between 8-8:45am depending on what time he woke up and usually let him sleep 1hr15min although have tried 1hr30min recently to see if that helped

nap 2 1:45/2pm again for 1hr15min or 1hr30min

bedtime 7-7:30pm usually asleep within 15mins

I am just trying to decide whether just to get on with it and hope he starts doing a bit later wake ups or if I am doing something wrong and should tweak his naps/bedtime - any help much appreciated!

I would try and cut him down to one nap.

Also I think leaving him in bed for 1.5 while he's awake isn't great. I would get up with him.

1.5 hours *

Could there be too much daytime sleep? Mine was also waking at 5-5.30 for a while and it's tough, but we made him power through to 10am before he could have a nap, then second nap around 2/2.30. It's hard because when they wake early they want to nap early and you get into the cycle, but if you can break the cycle they can reset a bit.

Can you try to get him to 10ish before napping, and then cap nap at 30-40mins? Then see if he'll do a longer one between 2-3.30. Then daytime sleep is around or under 2h, whereas at the moment it's closer to 2.5-3h.

Our transition to this routine was quite rough, lots of overtired crying while we got there, but after about a week or so we started to see a difference, probably at around 10m old. It didn't go from 5am to 7am instantly though, he's now 14m and I'd say for the last 2 months or so it's rare DS wakes before 6.30, and most of the time it's closer to 7am. He's also in bed for 7pm, and has around 1-1.5h daytime sleep across the 2 naps.

Why are you leaving him in his cot for 1/1.5hrs in the morning?

Sounds very normal to me. The early wake up is because he's had enough sleep. Most babies need 10 hours overnight sleep (rather than the holy grail of 12 that everyone loves to quote). If he's going to be at 7/7:30 then of course he'll wake up at 5/5:30.
It can take a few weeks for a change in a later bedtime to take effect.

If you're happy with a 7/7:30pm bedtime then you will have to accept the early wake up. Probably have an early wake up until all naps are gone and then their night sleep stretches out to 12 hours.
He's probably not ready for a nap drop yet as he's sleeping long enough in the day across both naps so it isn't that. You could try calling the later nap but he will probably be miserable.

His overnight sleep isn't always guaranteed to be great at this age, a lot of babies don't get better overnight sleep until they're 2.
I probably wouldn't leave him in his cot until 6:30 though, seems odd to just leave him laying there for that long while he's awake