How can I help my LO to wake later in the morning?!

[mum101]

DS likes to wake early in the morning for his first b-f. If it's 5am, he usually goes back to sleep until 7am.  If it's 6am he's up for the day.

He had been unwell so he started waking all night for feeds, very grumpy at me, which continued past his illness. I realised he'd become used to being fed to go back to sleep and we have just (hopefully) worked that out. The last 2 nights he's not woken once!  Here's hoping it continues (fingers crossed)

My next thing to attempt is to get him waking at a more appealing 6:30?  I work 2 days a week, so he'll need to wake at 6:30 for 2 days. 

[deckchariot]

Can you post what a "typical" day is like - when he wakes, naps (and how long) and when he goes to bed?  That gives us a good place to start in terms of tweaking his routine.

[mum101]

His routine is a bit rough atm, as he sometimes has to have one sleep.  2 days a week at day care. Day care always puts him down for two naps and similar snack times. But he doesn't have long naps there usually, 45 minutes per nap at the least.

Other days... this is my time frames I try to keep to.

5am wake to bf
7am wake for the day
7:30 breakfast
9:00 nap, I keep this shortened to 45mins or an 1 hour, as he sometimes refuses to nap in the afternoon
10:30 snack
12 lunch
12:30 long nap, he will sometimes take an hour or 2.
3 bf
3-4 snack
5:45-6 dinner
7 bedtime.

He has always gone longer between naps as the day progresses, without issue.

On Tuesdays I skip the nap as DD has 2 things to attend in the morning, so unless he's woken extra early, I keep him to one nap. As he sometimes refuses naps, I'm guessing he's moving towards one nap a day.

[deckchariot]

I suspect the EWs are because of the 2 to 1 nap transition.  I would keep shortening that 9am nap - to 30 min and then you can cut it out and just keep the pm nap, as he settles into 1 nap every day, that should eliminate the EWs.

hth
michelle

[Sylvia.]

has he always woken to feed at 5 am or is this a new waking? i resettled at this time, didn't work of course but we tried until eventally it did, we kept the room dark and never feed until 7am, i pushed dd2 into one nap at about this age, dd1 did it later, i was a happy mumma when we only had one nap to worry about and both girls were napping at the same time, will it be possible for ds to do only one nap at dc

[mum101]

has he always woken to feed at 5 am or is this a new waking?

He has always leaned towards waking early, certainly 6-12 months he has been waking at that time. He was slow to start solids and still had a night feed for quite a while, but I wasn't keen to try and eliminate that any earlier as I felt he needed it.

I am hoping I can get him sleeping later as going to one nap won't be a nice experience!