Author Topic: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old  (Read 6667 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« on: June 01, 2006, 13:54:43 pm »
My 1 year old used to sleep from about 7:30 PM to 6:00-6:30 AM. I was fine with him waking up at 6:00 AM as that is the time we get up to get ready for work (not that I like that hour on weekends!) But in the last month or so, he has been waking up early. Sometimes 5:15, 5:30 or 5:45 AM. I have tried moving his bedtime later (closer to 8:00 PM) but it didn't change anything. I've tried moving it earlier (7:00 PM) but it didn't change anything either. With rare exceptions, he does stay in his crib playing for about 30 minutes or so and we don't get him up until 6:00 AM unless he is crying. However, not only am I tired because he wakes me up and I can hear him on the monitor, he is not getting enough sleep. I can tell because he looks and acts tired just after getting up (he rubs his eyes and has circles under his eyes).

A couple of things have happened lately. He has transitioned to 1 nap a day at daycare (5 days a week). He sleeps about 2 hours a day (sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more) from about 11:30 to 1:30. At home on the weekends, he is still taking 2 naps (at 9:00ish and at 1:30ish) but they still total about 2 hours (about 1 hour each). So daily, he gets about 11.5 to 12.5 hours of sleep.
He has never been a huge sleeper to begin with. He only started sleeping through the night at 9 months and he has been a consistent napper since about 6 months but never a huge napper either (not the kind to take huge, long naps).

He also recently learned to walk (about 1.5 weeks ago) and is walking all over the place. We have also started transitioning him from formula to whole milk. However, the 1 nap a day started well before this early waking thing and the early waking started before the walking and milk transition. So I'm not sure if they are related.

I should also mention that he goes to sleep each night easily and independently and he is very, very tired by 7:15, when we put him down. I've tried black out shades (didn't work). He sleeps with white noise, so nothing wakes him up. I don't think he is waking out of hunger, he doesn't act ravenous and he gets plenty to eat during the day.

The bottom line is that I think he needs to be sleeping more but for whatever reason, he is basically waking up after 10 hours of sleep at night. And he seems restless in the early morning (I can hear some noises here and there from about 4:00 am until he wakes up).

Any advice? Thanks.

Offline Richelle

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 43
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 834
  • Cayman Islands
  • Location: Cayman Islands
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2006, 19:36:16 pm »

I'm going to scoot this over to toddler sleep!
Richelle

<img src="http://lb1f.lilypie.com/9qX6m5.png" width="400" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie First Birthday tickers" />

<img src="http://lb5f.lilypie.com/W0lJm5.png" width="400" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers" />

Offline Florencia

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 75
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 887
  • Playin' hide n' seek
  • Location: Mexico City
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2006, 20:16:52 pm »
I have a couple of questions,

you said that early/later bedtime didn't work? how was it... did you put him to bed at 7 pm and he woke exactly at the 10 hour mark or he woke at the same 530? because even if he's an early riser and has a set time for waking, the early bedtime should help him sleep more time iykwim... sounds tricky. For how long did you try? I insist on this because an early bedtime seems to be really helpful with early risers but you just have to give it a go for at least 2 weeks to see things moving in the right direction.

Another question is, is he teething? He's in the exact age for molars and beleive me, they put me in an awful roll of early wakings until i discovered what was bothering my lo. I had to use a combo of motrin-tylenol at bedtime to help my ds stay in bed over 10 hours (my goal was 10.5 hours or the amount he needed to wake happily and not seeming tired).

Once we clear up with this questions and if the early bedtime doesn't work, we can try wake to sleep.

I wouldn't suggest late bedtime sinc eyou said he's too tired by 715 (an indication that he's clearly needing an early bedtime). Putting him to bed later will only make him overtired and make the sleep troubles get worse.

Walking is also a reason that could be waking him. But i don't think is the main one, only one more factor added to the mix.

Sorry, gotta run and pick little munchkin from my parents'.... keep us posted, ill be logged in tomorrow. Good luck"
Mom to Manolo, spirited monkey and Jose Miguel, an angel cupcake

Offline ~tess~

  • BW Devotee
  • ****
  • Showing Appreciation 21
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 389
  • Location: WA
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2006, 20:34:01 pm »
i used to have a sticky about this long long ago....my children(yep, both of them!) were early risers.  i accepted it for years but finally tried to move my daughters wake time. this works.  it always works...even now at almost 3!

if she is waking at 5:30am then get her to bed by 6:30...earlier if possible.   get the 11-12 hours a night in first.  once the child is sleeping the appropriate time at night for age, then move the time.  15 min increments.....it can take a week to move...so go to bed at 6:45 for a bit...it should slowly move in the morning as well. 

if they go to bed later they wake earlier. (most kids...) so put to bed earlier...not 7pm...earlier!!!  i used to put my kids to bed at 5:30pm when they woke up at 5:30am.  least i knew they were getting the right time of sleep at night!  then i could move the wake time later.  blackout curtains help too....linens and things has some now that i really like.  otherwise black sheet over the blinds works too.

some kids are early risers.  mine are.  my son slept until 8am once in his life.  my daugher has done 7:30am on occassion.  but they wake with the son and even blackout curtains dont' always help......it's their genetics!!!  you can only fight it some, lol ;-)

best wishes....took me years to accept the early waking....but it did give me and dh tons of time at night together!  just go to bed early!
~Tess~
DS, 13
DD, 12

Offline imsmum

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 36
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 806
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2006, 20:48:30 pm »
Here's the othere side of the early to bed fence--LOL.  The only time the early to bed helped my dd was when she was transitioning down from a nap or if she has been ill otherwise she slept a set # of hours at night and the early to bed only shifted the wakeup time earlier  and I would chase her around the clock.

One thing is the w/e 2 nap thing may be confusing him and setting his clock for an early w/u.  I would try to do 1 nap 7 days a week and see if that helps.  In the meantime I would try the 1/2 hour earlier bedtime.  If you can get him to sleep from 6:30 or 7 to 5:30 with an 11:30 nap I would then do as Tess suggested and start pushing everything back (including the nap) in 15 minute increments.

Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2006, 15:11:38 pm »
It's me again. Sophiesma - sorry, I just haven't started thinking of my baby as a toddler yet! LOL

Florencia - I have to admit, I only tried the earlier to bed a couple of times. Instead of the usual, put him to bed at 7:15 and he is asleep at 7:30, I put him to bed at 7:00 and he was asleep by 7:15. I think he was still up at 5:15 or 5:30, I can't quite remember, it was a couple of weeks ago that I tried it. For one thing, putting him to bed earlier is tough because of schedules. I pick him up from day care at 5:00, we go home and he gets dinner at 5:45. Dad gets home at 6:30 and gives him a bath. He is in his jammies and getting a bottle around 7:00 and is usually in his crib at 7:15. He is usually asleep at 7:30. On rare occasions we are running a little later and he doesn't get to bed until 7:30 or 7:45, but that is rare. Dad would be so upset if he didn't get to see him at night, if only for a few minutes. Bath time is their time. But I know how important sleep is, so if I thought this would really help, I would do it. He is definitely really tired and ready for bed, even during his dinner at 5:45 he is rubbing his eyes.

I'm not positive if he is "programmed" for only 10 hours at night, it just seems that that is what he gets regardless of times. A couple of months ago, he was sleeping more like 10.5 to 11 hours regularly, from 7:30 PM to 6:00 or 6:30 AM. Then he suddenly started the early wakings and has only been getting 10 hours.

He might be teething, but it is hard to tell. He has his two bottom front teeth (none on the sides that I can see coming in), his two top front teeth and one on the side. The other side one may be coming but I don't see anything. I have given motrin or tylenol a few times when I thought he was uncomfortable (showing crankiness) but it didn't seem to change his sleep in any way.

Lately, perhaps along with the walking, he seems to be clingy with me in a way he hasn't been before and having a little separation anxiety, that he also hasn't had before.

Tess - I shouldn't just go and put him in bed at 6:30 one night suddenly right, I should slowly move his bedtime back by 15 minute increments. So maybe 7:00 for a couple of days, 6:45 for a couple of days, then 6:30 for a couple of days? I am petrified that he will be up at 4:30 AM! How do I determine what his "hours" are, if he is an early waker by nature and when the best bedtime is?

imsmum - I thought that having 1 nap 5 days a week and 2 naps 2 days a week would be confusing too, but several people have said that is what their kids do in transitions and to just keep offering the 2 naps as long as he will take them. At home on the weekend, he is so tired and ready to nap by 9:00 AM that I just can't force him to stay up. If he naps then (usually for 1 to 1.5 hours) then I put him down for another nap at 1:30 or 2:00 and he sleeps another hour. A couple of times he has resisted the morning nap, so I just skipped it and switched to the day care schedule of napping at 11:30. But while at school he would sleep for 2 hours, at home he just slept for 1 hour, then he was really tired for the rest of the day.

Last night, he was very tired and we put him in bed at 7:10. He was asleep in 10 minutes. I heard him stir at 5:00 am but he fell back asleep and woke up at 6:00 AM. There just seems to be little rhyme or reason for all this!

Thanks for all your suggestions ladies - keep them coming!



Offline Florencia

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 75
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 887
  • Playin' hide n' seek
  • Location: Mexico City
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2006, 16:43:35 pm »
Hey finleyfoo, I totally hear you with the schedule issues ::) i'm also a working mama and it's hard to make everything fit when lo's decide to change timings...so let's work with a doable plan. Since 7 pm is the earliest he can go to bed (i mean, there's no point in running around like mads and steal dad's time) let's focus on that one first. If you say he takes 10 mins to fall asleep and is rubbing eyes since 545, maybe try 645, 650? is that doable? i think you should see some results with that tweaking first.

The naps... what do they say at daycare? is he tired when he goes down? do they wake him from his nap? He might be needing an extra nap time, say 2.5 hours and if they're waking him to fit the daycare schedule, that might be causing him overtiredness during the evenings, hence the early mornings.Maybe if he can get extra nap time, he will be more rested.

Also in the mornings when he wakes, is he crying? or just fussy? If he's crying for you, maybe you can try to extend the early morning sleep by doing some pd or wi/wo if he does not find this methods too estimulating.

Let me know if some of this insights are helpful to you. We're gonna figure him out!!!!!!!

HUGS!
Mom to Manolo, spirited monkey and Jose Miguel, an angel cupcake

Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2006, 17:11:35 pm »
Florencia - you are sweet to help. In general, he takes 15 minutes to go to sleep at night. So if I put him down at 7:00, he will most likely be asleep by 7:15. I think that is the earliest we can get him to bed and still have a few minutes of Daddy. On the weekend it could be a little earlier. Is that worth doing even if it is only 2 days a week?

Naps at day care: they put all the kids down at the same time around 11:30 (sometimes a little bit later). They are allowed to sleep for 3 hours (per licensing rules). My son takes a 1.5 to 2 hour nap. He wakes up on his own. On rare occasions, he has slept for 2.5 hours. He has only been taking one nap for about a month. Prior to that, he was taking 2 naps, but they were short, only 45 minutes to an hour each. He has never been a great napper at day care.

Naps at home. He has been and still does take 2 naps. They used to be a little bit longer (1 to 1.5 hours each) so he would get about 2.5 to 3 hours. But since transitioning to 1 nap they have been a little bit shorter. One is usually 1-1.5 hours and the other is 1 hour. So he is getting 2 to 2.5 hours total at home on the weekends. Only a few times since the transition has he refused 2 naps. One time recently, we put him down instead at the time that he would nap at day care (11:30) but he only slept for an hour. So he was up from 12:30 until 7:30. It doesn't work for him to try to take another nap if he hasn't been up for awhile and if he sleeps past 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, he has a hard time going to sleep at his regular hour. So it we felt like there was nothing we could do that day, except we did put him to bed about 15 minutes earlier at night.

It's hard to know what to do exactly. Since birth, my dear son has not been the greatest sleeper and he always seems tired to me, despite the fact that I pretty much obsess about his sleep and try to do everything I can to get him more of it.

When he wakes up in the morning (whether it is 5:30 or 6:00) he usually just babbles to himself and plays with his crib buddies (3 small stuffed animals, including his lovey). He is typically content to do that for 30 minutes or so. So we rarely go to him and get him out of his crib until at least 6:00. If he wakes up at 6:00 and just babbles for awhile, we get him up at 6:15 or 6:30. Occasionally he will start crying (and a few times it was before 6:00) and I did go to him. But I know him, there is no way he is going to fall back asleep. If he wakes up fully at 5:00 or 5:15, he is not going back to sleep no matter what I do.

Thanks.

Offline Florencia

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 75
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 887
  • Playin' hide n' seek
  • Location: Mexico City
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2006, 19:02:55 pm »
So, by reading your post i can see that he's having a decent amount of sleep, since he's not fighting bed/nap times and is waking happy.

Other than putting him down earlier... i can't think of anything else... oh yes! stop worrying!!! LOL if he's happy and content, if he seems tired but you know he won't go down, try offering snacks every 1.5 to 2 hours to boost his energy and that way, he might seem less tired.

As for the naps at home, i'd keep on offering the 2 naps a day. He gets more sleep time that way, besides he seems pretty used to the routine (i do 2 naps at home, 1 at daycare). He'll let you know when he doesn't need them anymore.

I assume that daycare wouldn't be in line for putting him down a bit earlier for the nap in the days he wakes prior 545... even if they would put him 15-20 mins earlier on those days, that would help him catch up... i guess it's worth to ask!

HAve a nice weekend and i hope he keeps up the good job he did today!
Mom to Manolo, spirited monkey and Jose Miguel, an angel cupcake

Offline debandbrian

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 7
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 1011
  • Location: Ontario, Canada
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2006, 23:40:26 pm »
Finleyfoo...our kids sound exactly the same! If you go back and read all of my earlier posts (yeah, like you have time for that!!) you'll see I've been obsessing over the sleeps and the times for oh, about 8 months now. We were resigned to the 6 am wakeup too, but it's suddenly gotten earlier WITH some funky night wakings going on the past 3 out of 4 nights...

Anyways, I was wondering how you are coming along with the earlier bedtime. I started stories at 6:30 tonight and ds was asleep at 6:50 so maybe that will help. It's soooo hard with the daycare and you have no control...at least yours is consistent, mine is a home provider so she pretty much lets him sleep when he's tired, so sometimes it's 1, sometimes 2 naps. Really nothing I can do about it though, and otherwise we love her.

So keep us posted on how things are going - I am really curious to see if a really early bed time will cure what's been bothering us all along....though I too am afraid of the 4:30 wakeup....and what will we do when we change the clocks in October...5:00 bedtime lol???
Deborah



Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2006, 14:09:13 pm »
Hi Florencia and DebandBrian - here is the latest.

DS (12.5 months old) had an ear infection in one ear on Tues and is now on antibiotics. So that probably explains the waking and crying in the middle of the night (which was unusual for him - he has been sleeping through the night since he was 9 months old). So that seems to be resolved, he hasn't needed us at night for a couple of nights now.

My original post and main worry was the early wakings - which had been happening now for about 6 weeks. Some mornings at 5:15, some at 5:30, most recently at 5:45. He was getting about 10 hours of sleep overnight, but he always seemed tired so I don't think that is enough.

Mon-Fri he takes 1 nap a day from about 11:30 to 1:30. On the weekends, up to now he has been taking 2 naps (1 hour each, at 9:00ish and 1:30ish). But lately, he has been refusing the afternoon nap which makes it a long stretch to stay awake.

For the past few nights, I have put him down early (6:30 and he was asleep by 6:45 pm). This has been tough as DH does not get to see him and I rush out after work, pick him up, get him home, feed him, bathe him, and up to bed we go. I'm exhausted by the time he is in bed! (DH used to do bath and jammies).

I would not call it a "success" just yet. But the first morning he slept until 6:00 am (he got about 11 hours of sleep) and this morning he slept until 6:30 am (he got close to 12 hours of sleep). Along with a 2 hour nap a day, that is more in keeping with what he should be getting. I haven't seen the results yet of his being more well rested, but I think if we keep this up, he should start to feel better rested overall. One thing is true, he was able to go to sleep at 6:30/6:45 with no problem, so clearly he is tired by that time (and probably even a little earlier, but htis is the best I can do).

What is hard is that some people think we are crazy for putting our kid to bed at 6:30 and I admit, it means we see him less. But he just seems to be programmed to be an early to bed-early to rise kid. What can we really do?

Going into this weekend, I'm not sure what to do about naps. Do I attempt the morning and afternoon nap from before and risk him refusing his afternoon nap and being really tired for bedtime? Or do I push him to stay up past his morning nap, put him down at the same time as day care and keep his body on 1 schedule all the time? If he does take the morning and afternoon nap, the afternoon nap usually ends around 3:00 and I suspect then that he may not be quite tired enough to go to sleep at 6:30 so that would throw off our schedule. What to do?

Offline imsmum

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 36
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 806
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2006, 14:18:49 pm »
given that he's been refusing the pm nap and you've been doing the early bedtime I'd definitely continue on with that and just give the same nap as at nursery. 

And I've been there, rushing home like a mad woman throwing dinner down the kidss throats and whisking  dd off to bed--yes all often before dh got home!  And people thinking we were crazy for it.  But the thing is, it is probably temporary.  What I found was when my dd caught up on sleep she started waking earlier.  If you find that happening you have to slowly push both the bed time and nap time back apace, so you will be able to move the bedtime back to a more reasonable time. 
the other thing that you may find happening even before then, is as your lo gets better rested at night you may need to push to nap back a bit.  11:30 is pretty early even if he is waking at 6 so you may need to push his nap back to 12 in order for it to stay at 2 hours. 

Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2006, 14:23:40 pm »
imsmum - Thanks. So what you are saying is that possibly, when he catches up on sleep, he may start to need to go to bed a little bit later (closer to 7:00 perhaps?) Or maybe once he is well rested, we could try to shift things in 15 minute increments to arrive at a slightly later bedtime?

Unfortunately, day care naps all the kids at once, so that probably has to stick. I've noticed though that he goes down anywhere from 11:30 to 12:00 every day and sleeps about 2 hours (occasionlly a little less, occasionally a little more). Maybe at home we can make a point of putting him down at 12:00 instead. Honestly it's hard because at home, he really seems sleepy and tired at 9:00 am and ignoring that and pushing him to stay awake until 11:30/12:00 seems cruel. We did try it one time a couple of weeks ago and he only slept 1 hour and then was up from 12:30 until bedtime of 7:30! We didn't even try an afternoon nap in that case because I knew that it would occur too late and would then interfere with bedtime.

Offline imsmum

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 36
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 806
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2006, 15:16:09 pm »
I think a lot of lo's have that energy dip at the time they used to have their am nap and most people find a  snack then works wonders to carry the lo's through. And it will be harder on him if he has his one and only nap at 9 and then has to go another 8 hours until bedtime!
My lo also always naps longer with her nanny (usually about .5 hour longer) so we split the difference--I put her down for her nap 15 minutes later so that her normal wakeup time from her nap is only about 15 minutes earlier than normal.  That way she can keep her usual bedtime (roughly). HTH

Offline finleyfoo

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 30
  • Location:
Re: What to do about an early riser? 1 Year Old
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2006, 16:48:47 pm »
Just a quick update. The early to bed (6:30 pm) has been working well. Each morning he is getting up at 6:00, 6:15 and once at 6:30 am! So he is getting more sleep (11-11.5 hours). One night though, I put him to bed at 6:30 but he took a long time to go to sleep (this is unusual for him, it's usually 15 minutes, and he does fall asleep on his own). He didn't go to sleep until 7:15 and the next morning he was up at 5:45 am! So at least for my son right now, the early to bed theory is holding true.

This weekend, we switched to 1 nap (he has been getting 1 nap at day care for a month now) because he had been starting to refuse the afternoon nap at home. It wasn't easy because he seemed tired (and cranky from teething). But we gave him a snack at 9:00 am (his previous nap time) and took him outside to distract him. Lunch at 11:00 (where he looked like he was going to fall over), then a nap at 11:30. He only took 1.5 hour naps, whereas at daycare they are 2 hours. He dealt with the afternoon stretch pretty well but was plenty ready for bed at 6:30.

Should I just keep up with the 1 nap schedule and just wait for his body to slowly adjust? I do think that because he isn't the greatest napper, he really needs to get the hours of sleep in his nighttime sleeping.

Thanks all!