Any tips on getting them to sleep in later ?

[BigBird]

My dd (13 mths) used to normally wake at 7:30/8 and she would have bottle/breakfast at 8. In the last 4-6 weeks or so she has started waking earlier and earlier, this morning it was before 6:30. It would be lovely to get back to the 8am starts so i'm trying to figure out what I can try. She goes to bed at 8 every night but if we keep her up later it doesn't mean she sleeps later. She is more active now and has just started walking. She went onto cows milk about 4 weeks ago and so has 7oz before bed. Previously she had 8oz formula (I wonder could that be it ??). She eats about the same in volume - maybe a little more but no major changes in eating habits. Her naps have changed from 1.5hr morning and 1 hour afternoon to 1.5-2 hrs after lunch and she needs that sleep to help her keep going and she is exhausted by 7:30 and falls asleep quite easily at 8. She wakes a couple of times between 3-6ish usually and settles easily when given her soother. Its just now she is WIDE awake at 6/6:30. Maybe this is normal and I just had it lucky before now !!!
Anybody tried to get their babies to sleep later and been successful !

Tried and failed, sadly. Ds was up at 5.55 this morning. Anything between 6 and 6.30 is the norm. Dd may sleep in till 7. Keeping them up never worked, just left them tired and cranky and up at 6 Sorry.

Admitedly my dd is only 9 months (so we might have this problem some time!), but she sleeps from 9pm to 9ish in the morning. Sh also only has 6oz of formula in the evenings.

I think the trick is to make the whole day later (so later lunch, later nap), rather than just the bedtime as if dd is overtired at bedtime she will wake up earlier. Perhaps this is the problem with your dd - it might even help if you start to put her to bed at 7.30 rather than 8. Or perhaps she still needs a morning nap (so that her afternoon one can be a bit later)?

Alternatively, could there be a regular thing that wakes her at 6? Does she have blackout blinds in her room? when does the central heating come on? do you get big lorries driving past in the mornings?

Hello,
Our dd is 14 months and sleeps 7pm to near enough 8am. She has 1.5 hours sleep after lunch, going down at approx 1pm up 2.30pm. I've cut back on her milk drinking by giving her a bit with her tea at 5pm (in fact she has a little cup of tea - very well diluted indeed !) and then I give her about 5oz before bedtime- offer her some whilst she's watching Teletubbies video and the rest after her bath just before bed.
She also has just started walking and I'm trying to give her a chance to stretch her legs in the fresh air every afternoon.
A GF suggestion as to why she is waking early could be that she is exhausted at 8pm and going immediately into a very deep sleep rather than just drifting off. Somehow this means that early in the morning they are refreshed and raring to go!
Could you give putting her to bed earlier a go and see if it helps ??

Good lord - 8am/9am?!!!! how lucky you lot are.
6.30 is a lie in for me it's usually more like 5.30-6am with DS (16 months) and believe me I've tried everything to change it!

sounds a bit strange that going to bed earlier might help, doesn't it..? I can't really understand how this might work - but, worth a try nonetheless. I think it could be true that she sleeps very deeply and soundly for the first few hours, and quite lightly from 3am on. I can even go in at 9:30pm and switch on the main light and cut her nails and she doesn't move !!

Lucy - great suggestions but can't change her total day routine as she is in creche, and the time does vary so it's not really something waking her, and the room is pretty dark, wooden blinds and curtains with blackout lining.

How does this concept of going to bed earlier and drifting off into a lighter sleep actually work ? At the moment she goes to bed at 8...sometimes just nodding off but usually awake but tired and she doesn't usually cry and is asleep in 10/15 mins.

I'm with you katierocket, my 2 DS's let me lie in until 06:15 am at the latest and DS2 is nearly 4 so I'm pretty much used to it by now.
I've always been an early riser right from childhood so it looks like I've passed it on, much to DH's horror!
No advise from me I'm afraid, just sympathy.

How does the deep sleep/late nights thing work?

Basically (as I recall) during the night we go through two kinds of sleep - very deep sleep and REM (dream) or light sleep. We usually have far more of the latter than of the former. Also we usually go through some REM sleep first before getting on to the deep sleep.

If children are very tired when they go to bed - i.e. past the getting-a-bit-crotchety stage and either very moody or eyelids drooping - then they will skip the REM sleep and go straight into a deep sleep. This ironically makes their sleep lighter later in the night and they are more likely to wake up in the night or early in the morning.

I hope you followed that - I'm not 100% certain of the details. But it does sound like your dd is sometimes overtired at bedtime - I think you should try putting her to bed a bit earlier just as an experiment. You have nothing to lose and she's highly unlikely to wake up even earlier.

Up to very recently we had the same problem. For the longest time DS has woken at 5 - 5.30am fully awake and ready to start the day. We unfortunately just had to live with it - DH and I taking it in turns to get up. DS has a bath at around 7.15pm and is asleep by 8pm - I didn't try to move this any later (if that is possible anyway) because he has a set routine at the nursery, and DH and I wouldn't have had any time to ourselves. About 3 weeks ago he suddenly started sleeping later, to around 6.45am (which is a real lie-in for us) - don't know why, but it's great.

Forgot to say - DS is 17 months.

Azure, you've given me hope!

My 4 year old ds wakes early, which is o.k during the week but a pain at weekends when i would love a lie in! He has a safety gate across his bedroom and i have taught him that he has to amuse himself until he hears my alarm clock go off. I set it for a reasonable time and he usually looks at books and stuff until i come and get him.