Am I starting a new bad habit?

[Missie]

Hello There,

My DS is almost 15months, and we finally got him to start sleeping through about 2 months ago, with lots of help and advice from this board. However, even though he was sleeping almost 11 hours straight, he still wakes up early, and nothing we could do would stop this. We were changing nap times, bedtimes etc to no avail.
Anyway, just this week we started giving his morning bottle into the cot with him at 6am, and then leaving the room - and bingo! he drinks the bottle and then goes back to sleep until 8am! This is great as he needs the sleep and he his in great form for the rest of the day.

However I'm a bit worried that this might cause more problems in the future?
What do you think?

Thanks a million

Missie

[*Natasha*]

What does his routine look like?

[Missie]

Hi Natasha,

Well, on a normal day he's awake at 6 and has an 8oz bottle then, he's either up for the day, or he may go back to sleep til 8am.
Breakfast 8.30
Nursery 9.00
Lunch 11.45
Nap 12 - 1.30
Snack 2pm
Tea 4pm
Home at 5pm
Another Tea 5.30
Playtime with mama and dada
Bedtime wind-down begins at 7pm with
8oz bottle
Bath
Story and 2 songs
Asleep by 7.40. Goes asleep by himself with dummy, but spits it out after a while

He's a really active guy and is usually exhausted by bed-time

Missie
x

[mari]

TBH, I would start his day when he wakes, and do an early nap and an earlier bedtime if he is really tired.
I gave Alex a bottle when she started to wake early and the wakeups just got earlier as she was waking for them.  I would steer clear of any bottles in his cot at anytime, day or night.

[Missie]

Thanks Mari,

Deep down I think I knew this, we worked hard to break the feed-to-sleep association to start him sleeping through, but the extra sleep recently was bliss.
I read from other posters, that some people get up and wait half an hour before giving morning bottle/breakfast, do you think this would help with the early wake-ups?

Thanks

Missie

[mari]

It might, all I know is that I would not even take a bottle up the stairs!  Give it downstairs so that there is no association with bottle and bed!  I have had so many sleep issues due to feeding to sleep that I advise against it so much, (sorry)

I have noticed that his nap is not very long.  Aim for a nap around 5.5-6 hours after wakeup, and then another 5.5-6 hours after waking from nap to bedtime.  Try to get at least 2 hours nap, then bed as early as you think he will go to try to cure the early wakings.

[Missie]

Hi  Mari,

Thanks for your reply - well, we started this morning. DS woke at 4.30, but was shushed back to sleep. Then woke at 6. We took him up and gave him his bottle downstairs. He was in great form at first, but was obviously still tired as was cranky.

DH dropped him to nursery and we warned them that he might be more tired today and maybe to let him nap a bit earlier, so we'll see how that goes.

I agree his normal day-time naps are a bit short, sometimes only an hour and 15 mins. He always naps short at nursery, and I'm not sure there is anything I can do about this.
At weekends when he is at home he normally takes an earlier nap and it lasts about 2 hours, maybe there is too much going on at nursery for him to really relax.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted about our progress.

Thanks