Early AM waking for 10 month old

[mom2william]

Hi, I would love some advice with my DS who has been waking up too early in the morning for a few months now.  I have read some older posts on this but was wondering what actually has worked for people who have dealt with this.  He wakes up anywhere between 5-5:45am and it throws off our entire schedule!  He wakes up happy but almost never goes back to sleep.  I ignore him until at least 6-6:30am and this hasn't helped.  I try to keep him on a decent schedule of naps even with the early AM waking so he goes down for nap #1 anywhere from 8:45-9:30 and nap #2 between 1:30-2:30pm.  His napping in the afternoon isn't great and I don't know if he's not getting enough night/day sleep and that is causing the early waking?  I haven't tried wake to sleep but am seriously considering it.  Has anyone out there done this for early AM waking with any success?  Do I go in there about an hour before he wakes? 

He goes to sleep for the night around 6:30-7:00pm.  I have tried earlier bedtime and that doesn't seem to really make a difference.  He's only getting about 10 hours of sleep at night and only about 2-2 1/2 during the day (if I'm lucky!).

I am about to go crazy with this!!  6:00am is fine with me but 5:00am is not!  Any advice would be appreciated!!

Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[Jaime]

hi,

you're probably not going to like this... but i think he's waking up because he's had enough sleep.  2-3 hrs during the day and 10-11 hours at night is perfectly normal for most 10 month olds. 

 

[Hsmum]

I agree with Jaime - my LO is doing the same (though he naps slightly less than yours) and has done for about 3 months now...I haven't tried the wake to sleep as it sounds insane to me - once little H is awake, that's it! I've now accepted that he wakes early which is tough but  nothing seems to make him sleep later! More bad news (which I'm desperately hoping won't apply to us but who knows) - my friend's little boy who is 2.5 y/o still wakes at 05.30....

[Sylvia.]

i remember this time like it was yesterday, nothing we did changed the wake up time however time did, i remember saying 6am would be fine but 5am, and then when dd slept till 6am i said 6.30am would be fine but 6am , now she never wakes before 7.10am and has slept as long as 8 am, oh i do wish i could help you but i think your ds may have had enough sleep, oh we did tried later to bed, it didn't work  infact it made it worse but this was just our experience

[mom2william]

Well, maybe he is getting all he needs with 10 hours of night sleep.  I said he gets 2 1/2 hours of day sleep but I don't know why because most days it's less than that!   Lately his afternoon nap has been TERRIBLE and only about 35 minutes.  So...he's exhausted by bedtime.  I felt that if I put him to bed earlier maybe he'd get some sleep on the front end and sleep 'til 6:00am at least.  He's never been one to sleep 'til 7:00am anyway.  I was going to do wake to sleep this morning and set my alarm for 4:00am.  I woke on my own at 3:58am and was getting ready to go in his room and then heard him up on the monitor!    So...he was up for sure about 45 minutes from 4-4:45am and then I must have dozed off.  I didn't hear him again 'til 6:00am when he awoke crying hard.   He has done that occasionally over the past 2 or 3 weeks and I don't know what it's about. 

HSmum and Russyl, what do either of you do with naptimes when your LO's wake so early?  Because I am struggling in knowing when to put him down for his AM nap and PM nap.  If he takes these too early, it throws the entire day off and he ends up having too long of a stretch 'til bedtime and at his age he shouldn't be needing the third nap.  I try to keep his AM nap at 8:45am at the earliest and 1-1:30pm for the PM nap. 

Hsmum, I truly do hope I don't end up with a 2.5 year old who still wakes at 5:30am!!!  Aaargh!  That would be awful but I guess I better start planning on that possibility! 

Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[Paulsmama]

Wow, I was thinking of posting on this same thing tomorrow depending on how today goes.  Paul is just getting over a 2-week long cold where we managed to keep sort of a routine, but he's now awakened at 5:45 am the past two days.  He tried to go back to sleep but couldn't manage it -- probably because of some combination of my accidental parenting (holding him so he could breathe better during his cold) or because he's not so tired now that he's feeling a bit better (fell asleep at 7 the prior two nights).  I heard him in there moaning and sucking his tongue that he does to self-soothe, then talking and occasional yelling, then more moaning/sucking.  I did not get him up for the day until 6:40 am both days.  We've also been struggling with afternoon naps primarily because that's when his congestion has been the worst.  Yesterday we did naps at 9 am and 2 pm and we'll try for the same thing again today and really work on extending his afternoon nap.  I'll let you know if we make any progress what seemed to help.

[mom2william]

Hey Cynthia!  Sorry to hear you are having problems as well!  It is very difficult and frustrating!  Please do let me know about your LO's afternoon naps and what you did to extend them if anything.  Ours have digressed and are BAD!  30-40 min. most days!  So let me know.  I posted on the naps board about DS's naps already 

I am very conflicted about when to put him to bed for the night.  Some people say earlier bedtimes (6:00-6:30) and others say 7:00pm or after.  I just don't know but may try to continue with an earlier bedtime to see if he'll sleep 'til 6:00am at least!

Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[Hsmum]

My LO's naps are usually around the same time as yours,though sometimes there are days when it goes horribly wrong! But he will sometimes have his first nap very early (around so he'll nap again at lunchtime then possibly a catnap if he's really zonked. I don't want him to have 3 naps but if he wakes at 4.45/5am (which happens sometimes) then it can't really be helped...I'm dreading the summer - it gets light very early here as we don't change our clocks(Japan). Once he sees it's daylight, that's it!

[Sylvia.]

with the afternoon nap i would go in just before or as she stirred, this meant standing at the door, and shh pat until she went back to sleep,

if it seemed like she was asleep i just raised my arm stood very still and waited 5 or so minutes, if she stirred again as i was walking out we would start again,

do you have quiet time before naps? i found this very important, we would go into dd room, clean it up, only have one toy which i would let her play with for 5 or so minutes, then i would hold her for 5 or so minutes until i could feel her calming down (as she got older this caused problems and only stirred her up, she want to calm down on her own), i would then put her in the cot and walk out,

if she cried not called out i would go in and assist to sleep, this was everytime at the beginning, once she had mastered going to sleep on her own i found it was then that things slowly improved with her sleeping longer, i did however have to assist her back to sleep for a time,

this is what i did, i only have one child and i have no other experience, one of the other things i did for a very long time was keep a diary of everything, from how long i shh patted, to how many time i had to reenter the room, how long she slept, everything, soon i saw a pattern, i used this pattern every day

[Hsmum]

Yes, quiet time before the naps is important, though if we're out he'll fall asleep in the pram. I've never used shh/pat, he goes nuts if I put him down in his cot during the day - but he's fine in it at bedtime in the evening. I think he thinks he's missing something so I have a Baby Bjorn chair thing in the lounge which he has his daytime naps in (does that sound bad?).

[mom2william]

HSmum,
Yes, I know sometimes I keep my DS up 'til 9:00am for his first nap and he at times gets overtired and then it all falls to pieces and he's horribly difficult to get to sleep and sometimes takes a bad nap and then the rest of the day goes terrible!  As for how your LO goes to sleep in the Baby Bjorn chair during daytime naps, I personally don't think it's too bad.  However, I would have to walk on eggshells if I did that because my DS is such a bad day sleeper!!  I have to keep a fan running in his room during his naps because I'm so terrified of waking him up! 

RUSSYL,

Thanks for all the tips with naps!!  I do really try to have quiet time before naps.  Limiting the toys to just one is a great idea and I am going to try that.  Yesterday, I kept things REALLY lowkey for 30 minutes prior to his second naptime and it seemed to really help.  I think he gets overstimulated much easier than I realize and this seems to help him.  I'm going to keep this up and see if it helps extend his second nap somewhat. 


Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[Paulsmama]

Hi Suzanne,

Hope things have been better for you since the longer nap.  Trying not to jinx us here but we were back to a 6:40 am wakeup this morning.  I suspect that I am going to have to limit DS's am nap again to try for longer pm naps.  I was doing this before he caught his cold and when he was sick I let him sleep as long as he wanted figuring he needed the rest.  Well yesterday he woke up at 5:45 am, had his first nap at 9 and then woke up at 9:50 and couldn't go back to sleep despite trying (and also me trying to help him).  I finally got him up at 10:30 and then he proceeded to have the most mellow 4 hrs  of A time before falling asleep for his second nap at 2.  It really helped that my mom is visiting to have extra hands to keep him calm and quiet.  Then he slept for 1.5 hrs in the afternoon, fell asleep for the night at 7:15 pm, had one very brief wakeup an hour later (probably overtired), and then slept until 6:40 am.  So hopefully we're on the road to getting back to naps at 9:30 and 2.

I was also reading a post on the naps board from Dr. Weissbluth's website about limiting the am nap if there are problems with the pm nap.  You might check that out if you haven't seen it.  http://www.familysleep.com/age_and_sleep_patterns__8-15.htm  I don't know if this applies if a baby is generally overtired, and I know I would be very hesitant to start doing this if we hadn't already been before DS got sick.  But the two days before his early wakings we had am/pm naps of 1.75hr/50min and 1.5hr/1.25hr and DS seems to have trouble if he gets less than 1.5 hr in the afternoon. 

Good luck and I really hope things improve for you soon.  If you are in the US at least there is a time change coming up in a bit, as my mom was reminding me and saying that 5:45 am is not so bad . . .

[Hsmum]

Hi Suzanne, I've had the strangest week - Little H went from 11am to 7.15(bedtime) WITHOUT a nap on Sunday, then 10.30 to 4.30 without any sleep yesterday! So much for him going off in his pram! Emma
Harry 3/24/05

[mom2william]

Hey Cynthia,

Thanks for the info from the Dr. Weissbluth site.  I have actually read on that site before and it has some very helpful info.  I like Dr. Weissbluth's book as well although he is too vague regarding short naps and awake times for babies!!  Yesterday was not so good.  He took a great AM nap.  He slept for about an hour, woke up crying.  I left him for a bit to see if he'd go back to sleep as he sometimes does.  He did but not for about 30 min.  So...slept from 9-10am, awake from 10-10:30, slept from 10:30-11:00am.  Unfortunately, I had to wake him up at 11:00am b/c we had an appt. for him at 11:30.  I kept him up 'til 2:00pm.  He slept from about 2:15 until 3:00 when he woke up screaming and could not get back to sleep.  I was wondering how you get Paul back to sleep when he wakes up too early from a nap?  I simply cannot get William back to sleep even holding him in my arms doesn't work.  Also, due to the scenario with his AM nap yesterday, I'm wondering if that's why he had a bad PM nap?  I am just so frustrated b/c I don't know if the problem with the PM nap is due to too little awake time, too much stimulation, too long of an AM nap or what!  We don't have to go anywhere today thankfully so we'll see how his PM nap goes. 

He's sometimes sleeping a bit later (I think!) so that's good.  More like 6:15am sometimes so that's a major improvement!  I did hear him at 5:15am this AM, though but I think he went back to sleep.  I admit I'm too lazy to check if I don't hear anything on the monitor!     About the daylight savings time, we are in North Carolina so believe me I can't wait 'til daylight savings time begins!  Yay! 

Hope your DS get's back to his good napping self soon!

Suzanne
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William born 3/23/05

[Paulsmama]

Hi Suzanne,

Sorry to hear about the rough day yesterday, but congrats on the later wakeups! 

When Paul wakes up from a nap but is still tired he generally wants to go back to sleep.  If he's too worked up (which is usually the case if he's cried out), sometimes I can help him settle by rubbing his back (tummy sleeper) and saying "Mama's here, just go back to sleep," sometimes I have to pick him up, shh him and walk around the room with him a bit to get his attention before I can put him back down.  I can only help him settle, whether he goes back to sleep or not is really up to him, but if he's tired he often will.  If not and if he's at least trying to go back to sleep I figure it's at least still rest time.  It helps that his room is pretty dark.  When he was younger (ie smaller and not so darn heavy) in a pinch I used to be able to walk him around or bounce him in a closet and he'd fall asleep, not anymore.

Here after naps yesterday of 1 hr/1.5 hr we had a 6:45 am wakeup so I hope and pray we are now back on track. 

Where in NC are you?  I'm from there originally, outside of Chapel Hill.