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.

My little one at this point, his 13 months now, dropped a nap and I pushed bedtime to half 7/8 he sleeps til 7/7.30 now (touchwood I haven’t jinxed it)
them 5am wake ups are not fun

Struggling with this with 8mo DS too! He’s never been low sleep needs, and he can do 6.30-6.30 but if that rhythm gets interrupted he then gets in an overtired cycle. I think it’s currently hunger as he’s so knackered by bed he doesn’t take a full feed, but also I’m having to give him dinner earlier to do the nursery run.

Our timings are nap 9-9.30, big nap 1-3.

He always always always poos on waking and once we’ve sorted that at 5am he’s wide awake. But then whinges for more sleep at 6.30am

Please don't do this! A cause of SIDS is overheating. Put them to bed at 8 and they might wake at 6. Or when they wake at 5 feed them and cuddle them back to sleep?

I sympathize as this was/is still me sometimes.

I tried making naps shorter but it just made my son unbearably grouchy in the day time, I tried putting to bed a bit later, didn't work at all. He was just an early riser, he napped twice a day till he was about 20 months, now 1 nap a day (2yrs 11months) l, goes to bed at half 7 but usually chats and sings to himself till 8 and wakes between 5 and 6, it has only been this last week it has been more 6 than 5! He is unbearable if doesn't get a nap, he isn't ready to drop it, he asks for it telling me he is tired.

Some are just early risers, but I am assured they grow out of it, just some take longer than others.

You are giving bad advice!! A 3.5 tog is a 1/3 of a normal doona/duvet do you want to sleep cold!! All good sleep consultants advise warmth warmth warmth.

It's definitely about pushing bedtime later. I know you mention this "shifting the problem" but it's not actually a "problem". 10-11 hours overnight is super normal, so 7-5am is a really good stretch. Push all your naps and meals and aim for 8pm bed - that should get you to 6am!

Some wonderful hints and tips here all amazing.

for us - we drove ourselves to distraction trying every one of these and not one of them worked. DS just sorted himself out one day.

I would honestly recommend just letting nature take its course and they will crack it one day without you noticing.

We found it so much nicer once we just let go and accepted it and I know it feels like eternity when you’re in it but DS probably only did this for about 5 months overall.

good luck! You got this.

Mine was like that but she grew out of it naturally.

Okay so I have a 3 year old who is a crap sleeper and always has been, then twins who have been much better. They are nearly 11 months old and sleep through till 6.30/7 most days. We do last feed at 7.30pm (although they often want it at 7 we stretch by 30 mins by distracting with cuddles and play), occasionally one of them will wake at 5.30 or 6 but I give them back dummies and blankets and they go back to sleep till 6.30/7am. I also use a night light and white noise machine which I think helps massively and I have another in the toddlers room and I think it also helps him stay asleep longer.

My godson is up at 5.45 every day, he’s nearly 10 and has done this since a few mths old. Doesn’t matter how late goes to bed he still wakes at this time! Putting them to bed later rarely makes them sleep in, just makes them grumpy. Is room properly dark so light mornings aren’t waking him? Good protein rich meal at tea time and if possible a banana just before bed may help, have you tried giving milk when wakes at 5? May go back to sleep? My son does if I do that. He could also be going through one of the leaps making him wake early

I think before you call out folk for giving ‘bad advice’ you need to remember that young children overheat far far more easily and quickly than adults. There’s making sure your baby isn’t freezing cold and then there’s adding extra layers to make them extra snuggly (meaning they fast overheat and don’t wake up). What might be fine for one baby could be catastrophic for another.

Sleep consultancy is not a regulated profession and very few will have any medical training. Follow safe sleep guidelines based on research/studies until at least a year (if not longer).

OP please be very very careful with recommendations like the above. As for your predicament you could try tweaking nap times or moving bedtime later but you then risk having an over tired baby who has a more disrupted nights sleep as well as losing your evening. If you’ve already achieved the unicorn that is so many hours unbroken sleep at 11 months, I’d be mindful not to mess around too much. Could cause yourself more stress in the long run/backfire.

Hello, we had the same thing!
After a lot of research I tried an ‘anchored nap’. No matter what time baby wakes in the morning you try to start their first nap at the same time every day (or as close as you dare!), using baby’s age appropriate wake windows.
My LO is 10m so we go on 3h
It took a couple of weeks of gradually moving her nap further back every day but now she sleeps 7-6.30/7am. first nap is never less than 3h after waking.
Alternatively I used a sleep coach called Calm & Bright sleep support who have lots of tips on their instagram page.

Don’t go to him immediately, and build up this delay over a few weeks.
Make sure he has one teddies to keep him occupied.
My DD wakes up early sometimes but she just plays by herself for a bit before I go in.
Good luck

😂😂😂 3 hours of daytime naps!! Wish I'd lived on that planet!

5am is really not unusual for young children to be up.
I'm not saying it's not a worthy pursuit... Have you considered going to bed a bit earlier yourself? And I mean that kindly x
I think you have a routine many would be very grateful for - me included!
I feel like for some of us, long days and short nights are part and parcel. All my early risers are still early risers.

At this time of year my Ss5 wakes at 5 for the day fairly regularly aswell. Some kids just don't sleep any later till they're a bit older. Sorry 😅

We used to do short morning nap 9-9.45 and then longer lunch nap 12-2.

DS would sleep solidly but only ever for 11 hours at night. So we used to get either 7-6 or 8-7. Can you delay bedtime? That said I think some babies are naturally awake early.

do a dream feed before 12 am, make sure room is very dark and use white noise machine

At about 11 months I was moving my children from 2 naps a day to just one. That means doing lunch a bit earlier to avoid baby falling asleep head-in-plate 😊 so lunch like around 11, then clean-up (face, hands, diaper) and a good undisturbed nap. Takes a few days to have your child settled in this new regime, but the benefit is they sleep better during the one nap, are therefore better rested and can stay up till a bit later and/or really knackered. Usually children up and awake between 7 and 7.30.

This would be a great routine for us. Quite a few suggestions to move to one nap.

There are lots of posters who have said the same, no matter what the changed/moved their kids just wake up at a particular time. That could just be us!

Thank you :)

Interesting - thanks!

Thanks, we do give it a while before we go in, in the vein hope he'll go back down. I've avoided teddies or anything in the cot as I thought it was advised not to until they're older?

I treated anything before 7am as a 'night waking' so would feed/change nappy but otherwise not interact, avoided lights on as much as possible, stayed in her room rather than bringing her into ours.