Baby Waking

Guess what- only 1 or 2 naps and make the last one so that you wake him up at least 4 hours before his bedtime. I have a 3-1/2 year old boy and let me tell you we have had our share of sleeping problems with him. Just when you think he;'s settled down-boom!- he changes on you. You have to adapt to those changes. I'm not saying put up with it, I'm saying get a new strategy each time to keep him on regular sleeping times. Another thing, only stay up an hour or two after he goes to sleep. I know that can be hard but it will pay off. My advice in the beginning is what we did when our son was around that age. Your son is getting too much sleep during the day. I even shortened his snap times to the max of 2 hours per nap. Good luck!

I would drop the 3rd nap if at all possible. Also, check to see if his room is getting light when the sun comes up. Blackout curtains on the windows might help. That's what worked when my kids started waking up early. Good luck!

I would try shortening his naps or maybe see if you can get rid of the third nap to make him more ready for a longer sleep. If you do not feed him right before bed you could try that as well. When my daughter did that it was a sign for us that she needed to nap less during the day and feeding her a warm bottle before we put her down helped her as well.
Also, I do not know where you live but I am in AZ and in the summer time (daylight savings for everyone else) my daughter (now 3 yrs old) seems to want to stay up later and get up earlier because the sun is up much longer. We put a sun shade on her window and tint which helps our utility bill and keeps it dark in her room longer in the morning and earlier at night. The trick has bought us an extra 30 minutes to an hour of sleep in the morning. Children seem to be very in tune with light and dark. Making the room darker in the morning and night might help as well.
I hope one these ideas helps! It is so tough when you think you have a set schedule and your little one throws you a curve.

My son went through a similar phase and it too will pass! Make sure your son is warm enough in his room (we still use a little space heater just to make sure the AC doesn't get it too cold in his room), and give him time to go back to sleep. Just like most adults wake up several times a night, so do the little ones. They need to learn to put themselves back to sleep. About this time I also put a book and a couple toys in his crib so if he did wake up early, he would have something to keep him occupied. He may stay up a while and then puts himself back to sleep. I also find the pacifier to be a huge help. My son is 13 months old but only uses it for sleeping and it's a lifesaver now that he can put it back in himself! Good luck!

Good luck with that, I suggest going to bed earlier. Sorry not trying to discourage you but my son was a 5 am riser until he hit his teens. He will now sleep till about 7 - 8 am. He may be having teething issues. My daughter never cried when she teethed. Maybe you can put some safe toys for him to play with while waiting for you to wake up.

Take care and God Bless you, parenting is the most difficult yet most rewarding job in the world.
K.

Hi. I'm K. and I have four semi grown kids (12,14,15,and 16).I raised all of mine by the baby wise books...couldn't have done it any other way as they were so close together. However...that said, all kids are different. I'd see if he has trouble digesting something you eat. I'll give you a list of things my kids couldn't digest and let you work through it. According to our pediatrician, if you schedule feed (every 3-4 hours during the day), the food you eat enters your milk production after the second feeding. So if you nurse here at 8 and 11 am, what you ate at 7am will be in her milk for the 11am feeding. What you eat for lunch she'll generally get for dinner etc. According to the dr. the following is a list all babies generally have trouble digesting, all of which caused my children to be sleep deprived due to upset tummies. Not all of them cried because of it:
Dairy (all of it)
eggs
nuts
beans
broccoli
cauliflower
fish.
Some of my kids could also not digest chocolate (that was torture) or tomatoes products from a can/jar as they were too acidic.
I hope this helps. And feel free to ask questions if you'd like!
K.

I would have loved it if my baby slept until 7 at that age. I'm having a little trouble sympathizing (I mean that in a nice way though :). I'd say for sure, drop the third nap. When mine wakes up that early (she is 13 mos), I just feed her and change her in darkness and don't handle her alot and just put her back to bed and usually she goes back to sleep for a couple more hours. Tired mama's is just part of the deal. They all go through strange sleeping phases. My friend has a 3 year old who just stopped waking at 4 am everyday.