11 months - wakes up early - I need your help!

[tulipan]

Ladies,

I don't know what to do anymore! My LO is 11 months old and a really good sleeper. He sleeps very well during the day (two naps - a short one 40 min at about 0900 and a longer one 90 min at noon). He goes to sleep between 1830 and 1900 and doesn't wake up during the night. The only problem is him waking up earlier and earlier in the morning. He used to sleep until 0700, that became 0630, then 0600 and is now as early as 0500. I understand that some babies wake up early and I would not have a problem with it if he wasn't upset and tired. He cries and tries to go back to sleep but he just can't. This morning I cuddled him until he fell asleep again at 0630 for an hour. He woke up grumpy again, but rested.

His room is quiet and dark. I give him a bottle when he wakes up because that's the only thing that calms him down. He's usually a bit tired in the morning and very lively in the afternoon and evening.

What can I do to help him sleep a little bit longer? He used to wake up so happy when he slept until 0600.

[Purplecattypants]

Hi there,

Sorry you are experiencing the dreaded ew's, they're a killer arent they? Could you post a typical days routine for us in terms of EAS please? Thanks 

[deckchariot]

My initial guess is that you're headed for the 2 to 1 switch - that's the only time we ever got EWs with Abby....but always good to start with posting your routine.

Also - you might want to check out this thread:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=95670.0

hth
michelle

[Purplecattypants]

Thats what I was thinking Michelle 

[tulipan]

Ladies,

 my Lo's routine is:

0500 - wake up
0600 - bottle
0800 - breakfast (in the nursery)
0830 - nap (45 min)
1000 - snack
1130 - lunch, then picked up from the nursery
1215 - nap (around 90 to 110 min)
1430 - snack
1700 - tea
1800 - bottle
1900 - sleep

There are absolutely no problems from 1000 on. LO is such a happy baby, it's just the mornings that are all wrong.

[deckchariot]

yeah....I'm guessing it's the 2 to 1 switch....he's ready to be up for a bit longer, not really ready for just 1 nap, but heading in that direction!  Check out that link I posted above.  There are basically 2 ways most moms approach - keep that morning nap short (which yours already is), but keep moving it later, so that eventually it gets dissolved into the 2nd nap.  Or long am nap, short pm nap.  Since it looks like you already have it set up for a short am nap, I'd try starting to push that morning a time a bit more.  Also, with my dd, we often did early bedtime during the switch (ok, still often do early bedtime), and it doesn't result in an earlier EW for her, so you may want to try that too.  Does that make sense?

[tulipan]

Thank you.

This is what happened yesterday morning: LO woke up at 5 very tired and grumpy. I cuddled him until 6, then gave him a bottle and changed his nappy. Afterwards, he still wanted more cuddles (usually he wants to play) and he soon fell asleep on my shoulder. I put him back in his cot and he slept for an hour and woke up at 7.30. He had no morning nap, but he slept for almost two hours at noon!
This morning he woke up at 5, but played in his cot until 5.45. Then he called us and got his bottle and a fresh nappy. Again, I cuddled him and he fell asleep. He slept for an hour. He is now in the nursery, so I don't know yet how his morning has been and how his midday nap will go.
I know this goes against everything you and other experts advise. I hope I haven't done something completely wrong!

[deckchariot]

the 2 to 1 switch is a bear in general, so finding what works for you and your lo is really the key - so if you don't mind "starting" you day so early, and what you're doing is working, you can keep it up.  But ifyou want that wake up time to be a bit later, you'll probably want to work towards a different plan.

[tulipan]

I hope that LO will realise that he can just continue sleeping after he wakes up at 5 am. He's tired, but he wakes up completely if I let him play. If I cuddle him, he falls asleep quite quickly.

Anyway, that doesn't mean that it works perfectly. Today he slept until 6 and only called out for his bottle about 15 minutes later. Much better than waking up at 5! He was however wide awake and had a 30-minute nap (shorter than he used to have) later in the nursery.

[lilmonkey]

lurking

[deckchariot]

It may not be a developmental issue - since at his age, he knows how to put himself back to sleep.  The EW usually have to do with sorting out that 2 to 1 nap switch, so if it doesn't sort itself out and you weary of the EW, let's figure out a plan to negotiate through the switch and see if that helps him to sleep longer...

[tulipan]

You're right. I don't think it's going to work the way I've tried.
The problem is that my son is in the nursery during the week and I can't influence too much when he has his naps there. They try to do what I suggest, but they find it very difficult to keep him awake if he's tired. Would it be at all possible for me to do something to help him with his 2-1 nap transition anyway?

[deckchariot]

Since he already takes a short am nap, I think actually you could make small adjustments that the nursery should be able to do as well - especially since he's only in nursery in the am - because eventually, that's the nap that will go.  Can you ask them to simply put him down 15 min later than they currently do?  Then when you pick him up, you'll want to try to extend him 15 min as well.  He really is soooo close to what my dd does on 1 nap days, so I don't think it will be a huge adjustment for him. 

Even if nursery were able to move his nap by 15 a week, then pretty quickly, I think, he could transition to 1 nap.  Now, there may still be days he needs that morning nap, so you could tell nursery something like - if he's really sleepy around 9ish, go ahead and let him take a nap (but no more than 1 hr).  (once you've moved his 8:30 nap to 9). 

What you can do during the transition is put him to be earlier - try 30 min, you most likely will not get an earlier wake up.  Keep putting him to bed early while working on the nap thing.  With Abby, if shes way tired an takes a morning nap, I try for an afternoon nap, and if that's a bust, she still has an early bedtime.

I know that's kind of rambling - so, you can do early bedtime, ask nursery to move nap 15 min later and keep it to no more than 1 hr.  Then you can move afternoon nap 15 min.

The transition is different for every bub - we've been working on it for almost 4 mos now, and she still has 1-2 days a week where she needs 2 naps (like today), and sometimes still has early bedtime.  I know that she needs at least 2.5 hrs of day sleep and she cannot handle more than 4 hrs of A time before bed.  So that means if she's up before 3:30 or has less than 2.5 hrs of day sleep, she goes to bed early.  But it took me probably the first month of the transition to figure that out!  But once I did, that made it much easier!

HTH
michelle

[tulipan]

Michelle, thank you so much for your advice.

I will try to do as you suggest. I forgot to add that for the last three days my son started his morning nap at 0850 and slept for 30 minutes. Does this say anything to you? He starts his second nap closer to 1230 now and sleeps for 90 minutes.

[deckchariot]

looks to me like he's got his own plan going for that 2 to 1 transition!  Gradually, that am nap will dissappear and that pm nap will lengthen - it looks great to me!