How do I get my 11 month old to sleep an hour extra in the morning

[SunshineAndFizz]

11 month old goes to sleep about 7pm and sleeps until about 5am (I know this is great - we've had to work hard to drop bottles/self sooth over many months to get to this point).

Any suggestions for how to get him to get sleep just a bit longer to after 6am? I just can't stretch another hour. He wakes his older sister then too.

He has two naps during the day, and bottles first thing and before bed. Eats well. No other issues. We have blackout curtains.

What times are the 2 naps and how long are they for? The most likely culprits are either he’s tapping out on the amount of sleep he needs in a 24 hour period or that an early and/or overly long first nap is compensating for lost sleep overnight. Or he’s just an early riser!

Move all meal times, nap times and bed times an hour later.

At 11 months the routine should be

10 am - 11.30 am
2.30 pm - 4 pm

9 times out of 10, if the nap is too early, it facilitates the early waking.

Totally disagree with these timings.

We did 9-9.45 morning nap (woke them 45mins after falling asleep)
12-3 (max 3 hours from going down) nap
Bed at 7

Have you tried adding another layer of clothing or increasing the heat in the room so he is snuggly … 5am is usually the coldest part of the day so babies tend to wake as they are cold

His first nap is at about 10am and lasts for 1hour 20mins. Second nap about 3pm is 30 mins.

I'm sort of going through the same thing with my 11month old. Spoke to my health visitor the other day who mentioned not letting his afternoon nap being later than 2, 2.30pm. Should help with being more tired for night time sleep

For an 11 month old?
Mine would have never slept if they'd napped that long and till that late.
Mine had 1 mid morning nap of an hour and another 30 mins nap during the school
Run at 2:30. They slept 8pm-7:30-8am

In my experience the stress involved in trying to make them sleep another hour completely cancels out the benefit of another hour's sleep! It'll happen. Try to go with it.

Op at 11 months mine were very active and we spent most of the day out of the house.
Mine slept in their buggies whilst we were out for maybe 1-2 hours tops.
They had a bath at 7 and were asleep around 8pm possibly later depending on what we were doing that evening. They all slept in till 7:30-8am

Try putting him to bed later and making sure he's knackered at bedtime.

Thanks, I have considered moving it back, but it's sort of just moves the problem rather than solve it.

Hmm he just doesn't sleep that long for the second nap.

Much like grown ups, some babies need less sleep. He might just be a low sleep needs baby. He’s sleeping about 12 hours in 24 which is in range of 12 - 16 hours per day.

Try pushing his bedtime back by 15 minutes for a few days and see if that helps.

Early waking is really hard to solve as they have such low sleep pressure from 5am onwards, if he doesn’t need any more sleep then there’s very little you can do to convince him otherwise.

Interesting, haven't thought of this. Thanks!

But if you cut the morning nap to 45mins (a sleep cycle) he will eventually start napping more after he has eaten lunch.

@Cas112 thanks, good to know it's not just me. I'll give this a go!

Can you add a portion of porridge or similar 30mins before bed, so he isn't then necessarily waking from hunger?

I would add that if minor tweaks don't do it then just roll with it otherwise you'll drive yourself mad. I know it's exhausting but my ds was always an early bird and still is. We only finally got to 6am wake ups at about age 4. He still gets up at 6am now, regardless of when he does to bed.

There's definitely something in this, part of me is like ah just accept it and move on!

Yes possibly he's a low sleep baby. We call anything after 5am 'the danger zone', if either kid wakes up during that time there's zero chance of getting them back to sleep.

I’m with you OP, doesn’t matter if my son (also 11mo) goes to bed at 7pm or 9:30pm he still wakes up at 5. It’s been months. I haven’t tried capping the first nap yet though.

Try shortening nap 1?

If my near 11 mo sleeps over 1 hour 15 for his 1st nap, he totally rejects his 2nd and ends up overtired by bedtime and waking early the next morning. Also if he gets too much daytime sleep across his naps, he tends to wake around 5.30am the next day because in 24 hours, he's had enough sleep.

Reducing his 1st nap even by 10 or 15 mins might mean you can push his bedtime later without losing sleep across his day, especially if the 2nd nap is a little longer, it might make it easier to push for a little longer between 2nd nap and bedtime.

My 11mo's schedule is roughly:
7am wake
10.15 nap 1
11.30 wake
3.30 nap 2
4.30 wake
8pm bed

If the second nap is only 20 minutes, it's getting pretty close to dropping the nap altogether. I'd try for a lunch at 11am and then down for a nap and see how you go. Hopefully he'll have a good nap then that'll see him through.

Yes, it's all just trial and error until you find the right routine... until it changes again.

One of mine always fought the second nap and sleep generally, the other has always wanted to sleep as much as possible!

I'm wondering if this might be worth trying, reducing his overall daytime sleep with one large nap in the middle of the day. Thanks!