Early Waking - 8 month old - waking up his brother too!! Help

[brendabrenda]

My 8 month old son is doing great on EASY, but has recently taken to waking up somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30. I am unable to settle him in his crib and his noises and crying wake up his two year old brother (who used to sleep until 8am!). I need to find a way to extend my 8 month old's sleep until at least 7:30am because we are all just exhausted with this early rising.

By accident I tried holding him in a chair one early morning and he fell right back asleep. I have been causious not to make this a habit.
He isn't hungry because I don't give him his bottle until 7:30am regardless of what time he wakes up and is content to just wait. After I get him out of his crib he is happy and wants to proceed with the day as usual. I need some advice on how to re-set his clock for a wake-up time of 7:30-8am.....he goes to bed sooo easily without fusing (yeah baby whisperer) and eats up really well too.

Here's his current schedule (he just turned 8 months)

wake at 6:30 ish
7:30am = 6-8oz bottle
8:30am = breakfast - eats oatmeal and fruit
10am = nap. (goes down super easy and sleeps for about an hour and 15 min)
Noon = 4oz bottle, cereal, meat and veggies
1:30pm = nap (simultaneous with his older brother). sleeps about an hour
4pm = 4 oz bottle, cereal, meat/veggie
6:30 = bedtime. Goes to bed really well.
8pm = dream feed (about 4oz)
11pm = dream feed (about 4oz)


I know I am truly blessed to have my boys, and it is amazing that they fall asleep so easily, I just need a little help with the early wakenings..... any advice is appreciated. Thanks

[*Ali*]

The only thing I would say about your routine is his middle A time is really short so he is doing a short UT nap in the afternoon which is then followed by a really long A time to bed. Other than that the day looks fine. He's doing an 11-12hrish night so its not an early waking really. You can try shifting the day by 5-10mins every 3 days but some babies are just set to wake early. And bear in mind that if you are getting a 7.30am start to the day it won't really work to have the last nap at 1.30pm with his brother. His last A is already very long at 4hrs so he will need a later nap to make a later BT.
What if you just got him up instead of him crying at 6.30am? Even an 11hr night is enough for many babies so he probably just isn't really tired enough to sleep. He was probably just lulled to sleep by cuddling you that morning but as you say you don't want to make that a habit.
When you say he goes to sleep easily do you mean on his own?

[brendabrenda]

Hi Thanks for the reply.....
I think I just find it frustrating because I am not a morning person myself! lol...... thanks for your tips.... I'll let you know how they go....
He does go to sleep on his own. No props or walking or anything. I just wind him down and plunk him in his crib and off to dream land he goes.... thank you baby whisperer.... unless it is after 4am then it takes more work to get him back to sleep!

[*Ali*]

Yes, I'm not a morning person either. My DS2 is up at 6.45am most mornings and DS1 sleeps until 8 or 8.30am so I lament not being able to sleep in until then

[new mum01]

Hi, I hope you don't mind me jumping on - I'm also trying to extend my LO's A times to achieve a later bedtime & a later morning wake-up!
She is almost 8 months old & now sleeping through with no props - the same situation as Brendabrenda..

Anyway so today I extended the A time to 3.5 hours when it is normally around 3 hours which I know is a bit of a sudden leap but hey. She woke up after her 1st nap of the day at 45 mins, then took 25 mins to go back to sleep! Just heard her babbling to herself for all of that time. I know it isn't a pattern yet so it might be hard to find a 'reason'... I just wondered if you had any ideas though?

PS. she usually does 2 good naps a day of 1.5 hours so all going well at the moment except for the 6am wake-up.

[*Ali*]

She probably woke at 45mins as she got a tad OT but because she is a good independent sleeper she fell asleep again.

[new mum01]

Great, thanks for shedding some light Ali. 

[*Ali*]

That would be my guess anyway. It could have been a noise woke her or something like that if just a one off