Sleep until 7am?

[Eden's Mum]

We are so close to a full nights sleep with the wee one, but he wakes at 5.50am most mornings. I go in and give him a breast feed in the dark and then put him back down again but he rarely if ever goes back to sleep. even when he does, i then find it difficult to resettle myself. Any one got any ideas to make him go on longer? he is really ratty if he hasn't gone back to sleep so he clearly would benefit from it. He struggles to stay awake past 7pm.

Our routine is as follows:
breakfast 7am
nap 9am - 9.45am
lunch 12pm
nap 12.30pm - 2.30pm
nap  4.30pm - 5pm sometimes if unavoidable
tea 5pm
final breast feed 6.45pm
bed 7pm

It doesn't seem to make any difference if i cut out the last nap except to make him really bad tempered for the rest of the day and difficult to settle at bed time as he is over tired. We have black out blinds and curtains and a lovely soothing bed routine. he puts himself to sleep from awake without anyone doing anything.

there is no solution is there?!? writing this i guess i realise i just have to live without that extra hour and find a way to go to bed early!!! (Marking will have to do itself! )

If anyone has a good idea for a sleeping draught for him though i would be grateful!

[Jaime]

hmmm i agree.... could just be done sleeping.  11 hrs at night can be normal.

otherwise, have you tried wake to sleep?

either that, or just treating it like a nightwaking and not feeding him until 7am??

[charlibabes]

I haven't got any suggestions, just support.. I am going through the exact same thing with my 7 mo.  She goes to bed 7-7.30pm and wakes anytime between 5-6am.  Sometimes she wakes at 4am and fusses for 10 mins before putting herself back to sleep, she might sleep to 6 or 6.30 if she does that. 

Any other experienced Mum's out there with advice?

[Mom to M&M]

11 hours at night is VERY normal at your son's age. We also went through a long period where DD would wake every morning between 5 and 5:30 (ugh). We tried earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, less day sleep, more day sleep, darker room, etc. We learned a few things - one that DD only needs 10.5-11 hours night sleep and the other that she needs her day sleep. She's very active and when we tried to limit naps it only made things worse.

She's now waking between 6:15-6:45, much better. The only thing that worked for us was shifting the whole routine forward. So when she would wake early we still wouldn't let her nap until 9, or as close to 9 as possible. And we extended A times too. Now she naps around 9:15/9:30 and around 2:30/3. We wake her by 4:30 and bedtime is around 7:45.

If your DS is waking at 5:50 but you'd prefer 6:30/7am, I'd hold off and not allow that first nap until 9:30. Keep the last part of A time low key and quiet so he doesn't get too overtired. Then let him nap from 9:30-11 (if he wants to/will nap that long). If he does nap until 11, second nap shouldn't be until 2:30 - wake him by 4 and make bedtime 7:30 instead of 7. Over the course of a week or so this may help shift his wake time until 6:30 at least.

Good luck!

[Antoinesmom]

You may want to try the wake-to-sleep. It has worked for my ds 5am waking. I actually would go in and change his diaper and hour earlier and put him straight back to bed. Did that for three nights and he stop waking at 5am. We're now have to start on the 2am waking the same way. Will start tonight.

Changing the diaper may be too much for your LO. Tracy suggest just going in and put the paci in or rub the LO's back just enough to make the babe stir and restart the sleep cycle.