Did I do the right thing?

[Carmela's Mom]

This morning my 4 month old son was up at 6:00 a.m. He wasn't crying so I left him.  He went back to sleep after 30 mins.  From 7:00-7:45, he was on/off again and at 8:00 I finally got him up for the day.  He seemed tired this morning and I'm guessing because of all the on/off sleep he got.  I put him for nap #1 at 9:45 versus our normal 10:00.  He slept for 45 mins.  He got up at 10:30 a.m. and was still groggy.  I put him in the swing.  We went and got his sister from preschool, I fed him and then he was the happiest little boy.  By this time it was 12:30 when I was expecting to put him back in.  But he was so happy, I kept him up until 1:00.  Even at 1:00 he didn't appear tired but I put him in anyway.  He fell asleep.

I am guessing that he was overtired???  Very rarely does he stay up 2.5 hours and usually its because we are running errands or something, but usually he's cranky.  He wasn't today. 

[Izzy-B's mommy]

What worked for us was, I always put Isabella down for her naps at the same time every day, and woke her at the same times.  And I always put her to sleep at the same times each night and woke her up in the mornings at the same times.    (and still do)   The odd time I let her sleep a little bit longer if she had a bad night or something....   

Not sure if that helps at all.

[Carmela's Mom]

I try to follow that advice, but I guess my question is when he wakes earlier than normal in the morning on his own or for naps.

[Izzy-B's mommy]

Sorry about that .. I guess I read it wrong     

What I did when Isabella was that age was If she woke eary from a nap or from her night time sleep, I would just keep going back in to retuck her in until it was time to get up.  Now, 9 times out of 10 if she's up before her normal time she'll either play until we go get her out, or, if it's her night time sleep, and we go tuck her back in and tell her "it's still night time Isabella"  she'll go back to sleep.   

I guess I by just keeping her in her crib I was setting her clock in some way. 

[Nikki~]

My only concern would be with leaving him in bed for so long after he woke up initially and then on and off for so long is that he may come to disliking his bed and actually start to wake up cranky rather than find his bed an enjoyable place which he seems to at the moment. He is still so young that his routine will change so much, that personally I'd just get him up if he is still chatting after 10mins. JMO.

[jwhitt]

My son went through a phase where he did this (right around 4-4 1/2 months actually). I'd hear him on the baby monitor around 6-ish and think oh great, he's waking early, but then I would fall back asleep and I assume he did too because then I would wake up and hear him again around 7:30 (his normal waking time)  I just kept with his normal A times and nap times and everything seemed to work out ok for him.  He did have a rare morning every once in awhile where he would get SO CRANKY I would put him down early, but with him I've found it's the time I get him out of bed that matters, not the time he actually wakes up.  As long as he was just laying in bed happy he was resting and that was enough for him. 

Also DS's A times are sometimes longer when we're out running errands.  I don't know if he catches a quick catnap while he's in his carseat or what (he's always awake when I go to get him out of the car), but I've seen him be perfectly happy on 3.5 hours of A time when we run an errand in the middle of that where if we're at home the whole time he's ready go to down at 2.75-3 hours every time.