waking earlier & earlier - what to do?

[Jennerific]

i'm not sure what to do. liam has been STTN for about a week now - which is amazing (it only took 5.5 months, so yay!) - but ever since he's started waking earlier & earlier in the mornings. first it was 7:30, then 7:15, then 7, then 6:45 & now (this morning) he woke up for the day at 6:30. if he stays in this same pattern we're going to be waking for the day at 5am soon & that really scares me!!

how can i fix this pattern? if he gets up at 6:30, then he has to go to bed at 6:30 & i don't see how to break this cycle... pretty soon he won't be spending any time with his dad & i won't be able to get any help when DH does come home b/c liam will be in bed ... which depresses me

he's a textbook/touchy baby - definately a touchy napper & sleeper

[*Natasha*]

Could you post your routine?

[Jennerific]

sure! i normal day looks something like this

E 7
A 7:30
solids 9
S 9:30

E 11:30
A 12
solids 1:30
S 2:30

E 4:30
A 5
solids 6
E 7:00
S 7:30

DF at 11:30 or 12

he dropped the cat nap 2 weeks ago - although yesterday he was so tired i thought i'd see if he took one & he did which was great b/c we were able to put him down for 7:30 instead of 6:30

sometimes the afternoon nap is only 45 minutes, i work with pu/pd to get him back to sleep - i'd say 50% of the time it works. the days it doesn't work i try to get him to take a catnap

he got up today at 7:20 which was nice however he woke at 5am this morning & wouldn't go back to sleep i could hear his tummy rumbling so i fed him then he went back down fine. it didn't seem to interfere with his morning feed. the only thing that worries me is that it'd been almost 2 weeks since i'd fed him at night; i'm afraid he's going to want it again

[*Natasha*]

Might need to up his calories during the day and especially at night.
Otherwise your routine looks great almost identical to mine with DD1 at this age.

[Jennerific]

how do i up his calories if he won't eat more?

yesterday he only ate 1/2 of what he normally eats for solids (i think his other bottom tooth is coming through & it hurts for him); he had a terrible DF (10 mins when usually 20-30 minutes) & then woke at 3am with a dirty diaper which i mis-read as hunger so i fed him, only to find a super fully diaper this morning (dumb mommy)

he woke at 6:30 for the day

he took a full BF this morning then just ate full serving of solids for breakfast...

do you think i should keep trying for the catnap or just let it go? it took him 1/2 hour of hard crying before he took it last night so i'm starting to wonder if the NW are due to too much daytime sleep (ie. the 2 times i gave him a catnap were the only 2 nights he woke in the middle of the night)

[lilmonkey]

I think there is a GS at around 6 mos so it might be hunger that is waking him up.  Since he's on solids, one way to increase the calories is to feed him only food high in calories like bananas, avocados and maybe use bm or f in his cereals.  HTH

[Jennerific]

bananas bind him up.. do you think he's ready for avacado?? i bought 2 this week to give him but haven't started yet b/c i'm not really sure how

also he doesn't eat cereal - at all. it gave him hard poops & tummy pain. this was almost 2 months ago though so should i maybe try again?

[lilmonkey]

Doesn't hurt to try again.  Rice had the same affect dd so with ds, i skipped the rice altogether and just feed him oatmeal.  I found that if I use very ripe bananas, it isn't as binding on ds.  Since starting solids, ds would have the avocado and banana mixture for dinner until now.   Now he wants avocado and yogurt.  They change so often that you just got to experiment with what works.  HTH

[Jennerific]

okay maybe i'll give that a shot, i'm just worried about causing him tummy pain & having that contribute to wakups at night ...

They change so often that you just got to experiment with what works. i've never read a more honest sentance!! just when you think you've got it all figured out... *sigh* 

[Jennerific]

i did what you suggested, giving him peaches at lunch & peas at dinner b/c both have lots of calories (& peas have a lot of protien) & we're back to STTN!! yay!

as well, we bought curtains for his room yesterday & put them up before bedtime which really helped cut the light out & he ended up sleeping to 7:30 (even with a bedtime of 7)

[lilmonkey]

Yay!