I'm Trying to Get My 11 Month Old to Sleep in Later than 5Am.

Looks like you have some good advice already. Put some safe toys in the crib (soft books, small cuddlies, etc.), make sure there is a "room darkening" quality of shade over the window, and make sure he is well fed when he goes to bed, and that he is warm enough. 5 am is just about when a house hits its coldest phase, and kids tend to wriggle around and kick all the blankies off. And as one of the mom's said, don't rush in there and he may fall back to sleep. Being a "morning person" is one thing, but 5 am is a little too early. Unless you're a farmer or a garbage collector.

The other thing to consider is that there may be something or someone waking him up. Birds, another family member who leaves early, a cat crying to go out, etc. Even a noisy home furnace kicking on can do it.

I am a firm believer that some kids are morning people! My 5 year old daughter has ALWAYS been an early riser - and it's even harder during summer months when the sun rises early!
We put her to bed now between 730 and 8 and she is up by 6 or 7 each morning.
I assume your son takes naps? 5 am is so early for us mommies, huh? :(
I don't think he's old enough to "reason" with as far as when he can get up. You may just count your blessings that you have a kiddo who falls asleep easily and sleeps so well.
So now that I have written all this...it seems I have no advice, just sympathies and understanding!!
ok, I suggest you go to bed a little eariler and adjust your schedule more to his. Pain in the butt, but still easier than 5 am some days!
Best of luck! Soon he will be a teenager sleeping until 1pm!

:)

Try putting him to sleep a little later, im sure that is his schedule and you dont want to change the 7 p.m. thing, but keep him up a little later. He is use to the amount of hours he sleeps so that wont change, only the times he does it, will change. Good Luck!
A.!

This is probably just a phase. Back in October (when the time changed), my son started getting up at 5 am. He was 18 months then. Just like your son, he was tired around 6:30 or 7, and he went to bed without a fuss. Then, he was up at 5 am every day! This lasted for about 2 months, and then all of a sudden he just changed his pattern. It was tough getting up so early, but I just adjusted my bedtime and it was fine. Getting up so early actually has its advantages. I got a ton of stuff done by the time most people were just waking up!
So, I say just wait it out and eventually he will get a whole new pattern. My son is 2 now and he goes to bed by 8:30 and is up at 7. I like that much better!

Our 2 year old is a pretty early riser (usually about 6amish)so I always leave a book or 2 & a smallish toy in the crib for him to play w/in the morning. The problem w/us is that he shares a room w/his 6.5 year old brother. Occassionaly, he wakes up big brother but for the most part, the older one sleeps thru the noise. Luckily, the big boy is a deep sleeper! He's even slept thru a shop vac running outside his door! Our 2 year old squawks at first when he gets up but once he realizes neither of us is going in to get him, he occupies himself w/the books or cars. And sometimes even goes back to sleep. Sometimes, he turns his fishy/music maker back on himself & is back to sleep. So, try leaving something in the crib your son can play with or, if he likes music & is soothed/lulled by it, maybe turn some on as soon as he wakes up. Good luck!

I too have the same problem and my son is 15 months. He goes to bed at 7:00 and wakes up at 5:00. I hate it because he goes right back to sleep after we pick him up and I want to ignore him but sometimes he poops so I always want to check. Good luck if you get any good advice, passs it on. Thanks, S.

My daughter has been much the same as your son - ever since she was about 9 months old, she began waking up at 6am on the dot, regardless of when we put her to bed. Now, 6am isn't so bad, but for awhile there she was pulling months of wanting to get up at 5/5:30ish (which is WAY to early). My husband and I were grumpy and tired all the time because of this, until we finally figured out that her sleeping pattern changed with daylight savings time! Her body wakes up as SOON as the sun even peeks over the horizon and when we changed our clocks, she was still wanting to get up the same time her body was used to as opposed to respecting the new hours (LOL).

I bought a pull down blackout shade for her room, and it completely took care of the 5am waking up time, and got it back to 6/6:30ish. Put a blanket over your sons window tonight before he goes to bed, and see if blocking out the morning light will make him sleep in a little longer. Worked for me!

B.:

My son was doing the same thing. So I put him to bed later and also put a black out shade in his window that I pull down at night so in the morning the sun will not shine into his room so he'll sleep later now. Also he will sometimes wake up hungry and want a bottle so I'll give him one and he goes right back to sleep.....for a couple of hours.

Hope this helps and good luck!

What I usually do when my daughter wakes up is I don't go and get her. I make her stay in her bed until I am ready for her to get up. now if she goes to sleep or not, it does not matter to me but she has to stay in her bed until it's time to get up. If I hear her making noise then I will go and check to make sure she doesn't need a diaper change or a bottle and then I leave her in there and usually she will fall right back to sleep after she realizes mommy is not coming to pick me up.

So I would suggest you try that. Make sure he's not wet or hungry and leave him in there until you are ready to start the day. Whether he goes to sleep or not doesn't matter. I think if he knows you will go and get him right when he wakes up then he won't think that it's a bad time to get up. I think it's just a matter of routine. Sometimes it's easy and other times it's not but try that for a week or two and see if he doesn't go back to sleep on his own.

When my son was this age, we were living in Germany. Our flat had "outside" shutters which virtually cut out all light and he still woke early. So ... my German landlord suggested putting wooden puzzles at the foot of his crib at night after he went to sleep and before I went to bed. I would hear him wake up, and play quietly with his puzzles. Sometimes I would hear him stir, spot the puzzles and then go back to sleep for another 15-45 minutes. Anyway ... that worked for me.

I am having the same problem with my 2 year old at the moment. What we've been doing is leaving her in her crib (she is a pretty happy kid when she wakes up on her own, she doesn't scream or cry. . not sure if yours does). She usually falls back asleep in about 30 mins then wakes up around 7am!! I have also been putting her to bed later, (was putting her down at 7pm, have changed it to 8pm). My advice would be to just let her wait it out, she'll eventually get the hint that she's not going to be picked up. However, if she's a screamer I know that may be hard.