Hi moms,
My 19 month old son is a good sleeper, eater and napper. He used to sleep til 6:30 or 7:00 am, but latelt, he's started waking up earlier and earlier by little increments every day! This morning it was 5:15! It's pitch dark out! We've tried giving him his morning milk and putting him back to bed but that's not working. The pediatrician suggested more protein at dinner, but that doesn't seem to help. He's not teething (he's got all his teeth) so we're really not sure what's going on. He's not content to just stay in bed for for a half an hour, otherwise we'd let him. Other stats: he's down to one nap which he wakes from at 3 or 4 everyday. He's going to bed around 7:30 or 8:00. Putting him to bed later doesn't help.
If anyone else has had the same problem i'd love to hear from you! Thanks!
Try putting him down for his nap earlier. He's getting to the age where he doesn't have enough time between nap & bedtime to sleep as longas he's not tired enough before bedtime.
B.
Hi--I haven't read the responses before I typed this, so pardon if it's a duplicate, but have you tried putting him to bed earlier? I know it seems counterintuitive, but it worked for us. We lived by the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Babies" and pretty much all of the advice we found in there worked for us. Thankfully, too, we happen to have good sleepers, but our little guy was waking up earlier than normal right around the same age as yours. We consulted our book, and it suggested earlier bedtime, which we did gradually, and he now sleeps till 7:30 most days (he's now three). Good luck. I know I don't like getting up before the sun!
my 15 month old starting doing the same thing lately. Thankfully....we haven't reached the 5 am mark yet....But, I have found that sometimes....I can get him to go back to sleep by bringing him in to bed with us. Otherwise, sometimes he is just hungry...so after an early breakfast he will go back down for another 30-45 minutes. It doesn't sound like much, but I will take what I can get. I can only guess that he is going through a grow spurt....
Good luck!
Hi A.
I don't have this problem (yet- maybe, my son is 16 months) but I read somewhere that if a child naps past 3:30 it can interrupt their night sleep (thus why he wakes up early). Can you try moving up his nap? Maybe that will work. Good luck
How long is his afternoon nap? On a good day, (when the routine gods are on my side) I put my trio down between 1/1:30 for their nap. If they wake up before 3:00, that's fine but I usually don't let my trio sleep past that hour. Basically they never nap for more than 2 hours in in the afternoon. That way, I can usually get them down by 8/8:30 and they usually wake up around 8/8:30 the next morning.
Put him to bed earlier. The later we keep my daughter up the earlier she wakes up the next day regardless of when she naps.
Morning,
His nap time to to late in the day. See if you can get him to nap earlier. This should help him sleep longer within the night.
I'm a big fan of the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book as well, and this issue is addressed.
What do you do when he wakes at 5:15? Do you immediately rush to him at the first sound? If you have, then he has probably learned that when he wakes up if he makes a big fuss you are going to come running and it's 'time to play'. Some babies wake up earlier than usual, have mom or dad come rushing in, then start pushing their wake up time earlier and earlier to get your attention.
We do not go to our baby until 6:00 at the earliest, unless of course the sound he is making is out of distress or need. He used to get up at 5:15, then 5:00, then 4:45. It was awful. He just wanted to play with us. After reading the HSH,HC book we implemented the 6:00 wake up time and now he sleeps just fine. Sure, sometime he will wake up at 4:45, mumble a little to himself then fall back asleep.
I'd try putting him down for his nap earlier and putting him to bed earlier. It may be luck-of-the-draw, but here's MY 19 month old's schedule:
Bedtime: 7:00
Wake: 6:40
Nap: 12-1:30 (sometimes 2:30 if he's at daycare, but he never sleeps this long for us)
Have you tried the whole "sleep begets sleep" theory that the earlier you put him down the later he'll sleep? Doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot. I know that no matter WHEN we put my son to sleep he's always awake at 6:40. Ugh.
