we seem to have an extra hour in our day....

[Mama2boys]

All,

Our routine seems to need some tweaking and would be grateful for all your help.

DS is getting about 12/12.5hrs of sleep everyday, not sure if that's enough....The main problem is that he is waking up at 5 everyday...and is sleepy and not really ready to be up.

Our routine is as below:

First moan - 5am
Wi/Wo - to 6am then awake and milk
8am bfast
11 am lunch  - he is very sleepy by then and cranky too
11:30/11:45 - asleep in 5
2/2:30 wake-up and snack
5:30 dinner
6:30 milk - he drinks very little at this time
7:30 -7:45 sleep takes about 20/30 minutes to fall asleep not sure if its OT or UT..

not sure at all what to do - problems as below:
1. 5am wake-up - if I shift the afternoon nap the whole day will scrunch up and just not work
2. too long to fall asleep
3. I think he can manage 5/5:30 hrs of A time, is it time to increase this?

Thanks in advance.
Mukta

[speechie]

Ugh- I loathe early mornings- Marking as Nick woke up 5 AM for 2 days in a row- he's usually a 6:45 on the dot kid... but waking up, yawning, but will NOT go back to sleep with WI/WO or even with a snuggle in bed....sigh....

[emmas]

He sounds a bit OT to me, if he is waking at 5 and not napping until 11.30 thats 6.5 hours of A time.  I'd maybe try to put him down a little earlier and do a few early bedtimes see if he can catch up.

[Mama2boys]

Will try and get him to bed a bit early in the afternoon, but that would mean an earlier BT and we have tried 7pm bedtimes to no avail and DS will not sleep before 7:20....

Do you think if he was OT for the afternoon nap he would still sleep 2 hrs? because he does more often than not...

Do yu think W2S will work to extend his am sleep?

[emmas]

I had lots of success with W2S for EW, say he was waking at 3.50 (yes I had that for nearly 2 months!!) after W2S it would become 4.30, then I'd do W2S for that time - I managed to get to 7 and now he wakes between 7 and 8.

DS will nap for his usual nap but EW if he is OT, I just try early bed - I find 6.30 is ok, nearer 7 and he won't go off until nearly 7.30 - that might just be him though!

[Mama2boys]

good point, might try really early like 6:30 as well....will let you know if the magic works!

[Mama2boys]

ok - was it bad or was it bad.

DS was in bed at 6:30 but very upset and angry and not ready to sleep - fell asleep only at 8pm.

Thought I would do w2s at 3ish he was moaning a bit just before 3 and i went in and changed his diaper (was very full and we normally change at 11pm before i sleep) and he was then up till 4:15. Finally slept off to wake at 7:30

Lets see how today goes. I rather have a 5 am start than this!!! aaagghhhh

any more tips and ideas?

[speechie]

OK- I too tried to put my LO down earlier than normal last night- I put him in bed at 7PM- same thing- would not sleep- finally I got him out of crib at 8:30 + he ran pell-mell up and down the hallway giggling for 20 mins. He was sound asleep in his crib at 9 PM... ARGH.
Then he woke up at 5:15 AM - I think for us, he's discovered that Daddy is up at 4:50 getting ready for work and he hears the kitchen sounds and wants to see Daddy...sigh.
This wasn't happening over the summer when we had window fans going? Maybe he benefits from white noise, but I don't want him to need white noise to sleep...
UGH Mukta- glad I'm not the only one...

[emmas]

I just get ds to stir when I do W2S, literally so he just sighs.

Sorry your night was not good.  Hopefully tonight is better.

[NiknLily]

Hi
Just a thought but have you tried doing nap earlier as well as early bedtime? if hes waking at 5am then 11.30 is a long morning A time.  OK I know he is still doing a good long nap but he may still be getting accumulativly tired by bedtime which is causing the early waking?

Maybe try 11am nap and 6.30max bedtime.  I think the key is to do super early bedtimes and not to let A times get too long for them to have chance to catch up on sleep and get over the OT.  I know it feels like your going backwards but as soon as he catches up on sleep his ew's should go then his day will naturally shift forward again.  And I know you probably know it already but give any change in routine time to take effect, your looking at 4days min to a week to recover completly sometimes longer.

[Mama2boys]

thanks ladies,

will need to try this - super early nap and bedtime because today the nap was poor as well  DS only napped 1.5hrs not the norm for him.

I think I am going to stop struggling for a bit and just flow with the flow IYKWIM.

Today technically since wake up was 7:30, A time was only 4.5hrs and yet poor nap....

uph!

[Vicku]

Hi Mukta!
How is it going now? I just saw this and read through it

[Lissybits]

Hi Mukta

I seem to remember this scenario only too well
We used to do as you are planning - early nap and early BT for a few days until he'd caught up on sleep and got over OT and then we'd slowly move it back to normal time. It used to work for us

Do you do a longish wind down? This always helps with Mr. N Forrest/Tigger!

Sending lots of sleepy vibes and hoping tonight is better 

[Vicku]

Sorry off topic, but Nic looks like a real little surfer on that pic Lis, I love it!

[Mama2boys]

Hi Ladies,

firstly Nic looks like such a pro, he is such a cutie!!!

Now to DS - so as expected DS has been unpredictable as always.

Friday he cut short his nap to only 1.5 hrs and slept till 6am on Staurday. Same on Saturday - short nap and 6am wake-up on Sunday and then Sunday we had to cut short his nap a bit 1hr 45 minutes and he woke up at 7:10am!!!

So its the first time ever he has slept nearly 12 hrs....who knows what this kid wants!!! I had to chcek 3 clocks in the house to make sure of the time he actually woke-up.

Lets see how today goes