11 month night wakings and waking up tooooo early!

[rina]

i have all kinds of questions that i'm sure interrelated!!!  my 11 month old  generally wakes up after 45 minutes of sleep and it could be me just giving him his paci or another 1/2 hour of pd and walk out. i'm not too concerned with it since he's pretty has done that since day one!

he sort of sleeps through the night. sometimes there's a waking and it's maybe 5 minutes of pd/walk out. but now he wakes up way too early... 5 or 5:30. sometimes he's happy, sometimes he's cranky. we moved bedtime up recently and that took care of his night waking, but now this. any advice?? here's our schedule:

5:30 wake
breakfast, activity
830 nap (1.5, sometimes 2 if he's super tired)... generally 2.75 hours after waking
snack, activity
100 nap (1.5).... generally 2.75-3hours after waking
snack, activity
515 dinner
600 bathtime, bottle, story, cuddle
in bed by 630, asleep usually no later than 7

thanks!!! ~rina and marco

[Ennypen]

Can I share my schedue with you.. so you can compare it and see if it helps you?

7am.. wake up.. milk / nappy change.. get up..
9am .. breakfast (cereal with milk)
11am.. nap
1pm .. wake up .. nappy change
1.30pm.. Lunch - veggies with meat or fish.. followed by  yoghurt / custard
4pm - nap
5.30pm - wake up nappy change
5.45pm - Dinner - veggies/ pasta .. followed by fruit
6.45pm - Bath
7pm  - up to bed..nappy, pjs and into cot.

Will invariably sleeps through now and hs done since about 10 and a half months.. he does have a paci to help him to nod off to sleep and he is able to pop it back in if he stirs in the night..

It seems to me that maybe you need to shift things forward a bit.. so he goes to bed a tad later and gets up a tad later...

Hope this helps even if its just a little bit

H xxx

[Colin Macs Mom]

I agree with Helen, I think that you need to shift things forward a bit.

[rina]

well, last night was amazing. he had a 2 hour nap, so he went to bed later: bath at 620. it took him about 40 minutes to fall asleep, so he was out by 7:20 and he woke up at 600!!! glorious!! the only thing was that today he skipped his afternoon lap entirely!! yikes! that never happened! so, we'll see what happens tonight.

[Colin Macs Mom]

LOs are such funny things aren't they?

[Ennypen]

They never cease to challenge and amaze us eh!

See if over a few days you can even things out so both naps are fitted in and bedtime could be say about 7pm.. it should work!

H xxx

[katriona]

Helen,

I was really interested in your schedule for wee Willy. Could you explain how the naps work for him? I just wondered at the second nap being so close to bedtime. Are the naps later in the hopes that eventually the first one will be late enough that you can just drop the second one, and bring bedtime a little earlier for a while? Always interested in ways to make the 2-1 switch 

Thank so much!

Katy

[Ennypen]

Hi Katy

Explaining how the naps work for William isn't all that easy.. hehe because well.. they just do! 

The timing for the first nap has been developed just because its when William starts to show tired signs and shows me that he needs to go for his sleep.. he normally sleeps for 2 hours and you could set a clock by him.. so he's getting the sleep he needs.

You are right that the second nap seems to be after a shorter A time and it seems end very close to bedtime and I have often wondered about that.. but again the time has been chosen after watching when Will seems to get tired and need a sleep and as long as I get him up no later than half past 5 he virtually always goes down to bed well - apart from a little blip that we had when he learned to sit up and pull up on his cot bars which disrupted bedtime for a week or so.. but we are back on track now. He also sleeps right through the night more often than not now.

Even though it was not the reason for the fairly late afternoon nap, I had thought about making the switch to one nap but at the moment watching him I am going to keep the two for some time yet. He is shattered by 11am in the morning.. and although he is not always showing tired signs for his afternoon nap if I don't put him down for it for any reason.. like we are out, he turns into a very narky overtired little boy by bedtime. I guess that what you have suggested about getting rid of the pm nap and bringing bedtime forward a bit would be a good option.. but his daddy does not get in from work until 6.40pm so Will hardly sees him as it is.. so an earlier bedtime wouldn't be too good for us if I am honest. I think we may do that one day when his daddy has some time off work so he has seen him in the day but I doubt I will do it until the amount of sleep he gets in the day seems to detract from his night time sleep.. which it isn't right now.

My schedule is not built around theory... its just what works for William and what makes him happy and relaxed and flourishing. I guess thats what Tracy tried hard to teach us.. listen to your LOs cues and you  won't go too far wrong.

H xxx