Here is whats happening. My baby just turned 1 and he is the worlds worst sleeper has been since the day he was born. He goes to bed between 8 and 9. He wakes up between 5 and 6 am to nurse, goes back to sleep until about 7. By 8:30 he is tired and ready for a nap. He fights sleep too so it takes like a half hour to get him to calm down and then I rock him to sleep (or sway on my feet whateve he is in the mood for) Then by the time I lay him down he wakes up. He will be in a great mood then about an hour or two later he is cranky again! I would like him to sleep longer in the morning how should I do this? He just started sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago so I am not sure he is ready to give up his morning nursing session. I also put him in my bed when he gets up in the am. Should I nurse him in his room and then lay him back down in his crib? If he cries should I ignore it? I am not opposed to CIO but in the morning that seems silly. Should we just get up and see what happens. I don't know what to do and I am tired of my happy guy being cranky. He is getting teeth I am sure. My two older boys slept through the night at 3 months and never gave me nap issues or anything so I feel very inexperienced with this little guy. Please give me some great advice. Thanks!
sorry, my daughter has always been a lousy sleeper. She is six now and still gets up every single day before 6am...she didn't sleep through the night until she was almost 2 years old...she goes to bed without a problem but is an early riser.
It's just in some kids makeup to be early risers....
I would put him to bed for the night earlier. I have found with my kids, the earlier they go to bed, the better they sleep. My 17 month old twins go to bed by 7pm, wake at 7am and nap for 2-3 hours at 12:30pm after lunch.
To me, and compared to my kids as babies, your baby sleeps and naps great.
Nurse him, before naps and before bedtime.
Or at his wake time.
He needs it probably.
Growing.
He's probably also hitting a growth-spurt and 1 years old is a major developmental change in a baby.
Teething is also occurring.
Your baby IS sleeping through the night.
He sleeps for 8 hours straight, until he wakes at about 5-6am to nurse.
By this time, he has not fed for 8 hours. His tummy is empty.
Then he goes back to sleep.
His waking up at 7:00am, is normal.
That to me is NOT early.
My kids wake at 6:30.
My friends kids wake at 5:30-6:00am
Your baby to me is a good sleeper.
Babies and kids, naturally wake up at a certain time in the morning. It just is. You can't really change that. Taking away naps or making bed times later, will only make sleep worse for a baby and backfire. So just keep to your usual routine.
Believe me, your baby waking at 7:00am is Not early.
It is, pretty normal.
Some Moms would even wish their kids slept that late.
Your baby's schedule sounds just like my daughter's at that age. She would go to sleep between 8 and 9, wake up to eat at 5 and then sleep until about 7. I felt this was perfectly normal. She would have a morning nap at daycare, then an afternoon nap. She wasn't easy to get to nap, usually had to either sleep on someone, or go for a stroller ride to fall asleep. You might want to just keep him up a little longer in the morning before trying to get him to nap.
I'm a grandma but two young mother friends have found wonderful success with this lady at this website:
We went through this with our first baby, but finally did the CIO method. We also found that going into the room repeatedly to soothe the baby only made her cry harder and longer. The rough part of listening to the crying didn't last as long as I thought it would. But you have to be really consistent. We never could rock our babies to sleep. They would always wake up as you put them in the crib.
He doesn't need to eat during the night. Give him a snack and nurse before bed and he should be good until you get up in the morning. He's waking up and can't put himself back to sleep and isn't opposed to a nighttime snack, of course ; )
Be consistent and get him on a routine that works better for you. It'll benefit him as well.
buy this book and read it:
healthy sleep habits, happy child
it's awesome.
good luck-
also- if he's breast fed, remember everything you eat- he eats. If what you eat doesn't agree with him (milk, spicy food, garlic, soy, etc) or biologically stimulates him (chocolate, caffeine, energy drinks, tea, etc) that may be the real source of your frustrations.
Focus on keeping him awake and engaged and intersest-then put him down for a nap and let him figure out how to self soothe-do this at night-he'll get used to it. When he gets up in the morning-put him in his high chair and give him breakfast and a sippy cup of milk-same for lunch and dinner-nursing has become, for him, the signal to sleep and he depends on you to help him-so when he wakes up , he needs you in order to get back to sleep, because he doesn't know how to do it on his own. Does this make sense?
