Posted by
Wheelymate
19 yrs ago
i keep going back to this problem....urgh.
so we are 12 months plus now. in transition to drop am nap as he only sleeps closer to 9.45am so abit pointless because to let him sleep on, it will affect lunchtime nap.
so we have been trying and i will put him down by noon and he can sleep 2-2.5hours, which is great.
nighttime, he is so happy to see his grobag and will go to bed quite happily at 7pm.
our problem is keeping him asleep until at least 6.30am. i have observe that in the past weeks, he will make noises at 5.45am...most times he will fall back asleep but there are times when he will stay awake, which will make him very tired towards lunch. we don't go in for him until 7am.
i don't understand the 5.45am issue- the house is very quiet during this time, room seems cool enough and can't be hunger because he eats well but doesn't look like he's starving for food at 7am. does anyone experience the same thing or have some advice? thanks!
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crj
19 yrs ago
I would stick with your 7pm bedtime (and move it up to 6:30 on days he is really tired)
As for the morning nap, on days he is totally tired, let him have it, and on other days don't... see which way it goes - and you might wind up either keeping or getting rid of it... might take 1-2 weeks to figure out.
Our 14 (almost 15) month old still does:
6:30 pm- 6:30 am
9:00 - 10:00 (most days, sometimes less)
1:00 - 2:30/3:00 (most days, sometimes less)
Not every day is perfect nap wise, but he is usually tired at the right times...
As for breakfast, we moved it up to 7 from 7:30.
At 6:30 am, we go in with straw cup of milk and have a gentle wake up play time... at 6:50 nappy change, wash hands, then straight to breakfast which he loves!
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hi crj,
the problem is not the naps, he's fine with it and because it's in transition, some days we have the am nap, some days we don't.
it's the early morning wake-up that i am confused about...
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Hi wheelymate, you may have an early waker... I know alot of mums say they can train a child to sleep in.... but my experience is that I did the same thing with my two boys, they had similiar schedule to yours and one sleeps happliy till 7 or 7.30am, the younger one, and my eldest has ALWAYS woken around 6am if not earlier. If I get 6.30am out of him I am very happy. I can't explain it, I tried everything including moving bedtime forward and back and everything in between. But he just wakes up happy at 5.30-6am. He's not 2 1/2. He's done it since about 10 months old.
if he doesn't change back to a later wakeup after trying the different bedtimes you may have an earlybird. But at least he's in a cot still and not climbing on your bed right!!
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Wheelymate,
Like Mumof2boys has said, you may have an early waker. Your boy is probably constantly active and can't wait to start the day.
My boy is the same - he was great at sleeping through the night, but again, his wake ups were always 6am! Like you've tried, it didn't matter whether he went to bed later or earlier, he always woke up at 6am or slightly earlier. It's a blessing he loves his own company in his cot and he could quite happily play there for an hour before we get him.
It wasn't until he was 13months (Christmas Day to be exact)when he woke up beyond 6am for the first time (7.45am), and more recently (16months) he's been waking up more and more at around 7am - 7.30am. That is probably because during the day he runs around like a lunatic and we do our best to tire him out any which way we can!
I think you're just going to have to let time take it's course. Take pity on a friend of mine - her daughter wakes up at 5am every day and she's nearly 2!! And some babies at your little one's age still wake up for night feeds...
6am isn't too bad at the end of the day..
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mumof 2 and squiggles,
oh no! maybe he really is just an early riser.....yikes!!
although squiggles, my friend did say her son at 18 months suddenly started sleeping until 8am every morning, what bliss!! maybe keep my fingers crossed for that? :)
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wheelymate,
i do think that as your boy gets older he will sleep longer. mine is sleeping longer now, and i never thought it would happen - thought i was destined to wake up at 6am for the rest of my life, and then suddenly, he changed! and yur friend's son is another example so fingers crossed!
of course, when their back teeth are coming through that's another matter.....tee hee!
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my son is 14 months... he wakes up or "stirs" ar 4:00am-5:00am EVERY morning since December.... which I found out the reason. Two mainly. He's not hungry... he's COLD. He wants warmth, so when I pick him up before he FULLY wakes, and let him sleep between my husband and I, he will fall back to sleep. but if I hold him for 15 minutes, he's fast asleep again, then I put him back into his COOL crib..he will cry, flip on his stomach, and get up standing there.
The other reason is while he's still sleeping at 4:30am... he cries/mumbles.... almost awake, but not. His diaper is super wet. Change him, and quickly falls back to sleep.
That's MY experience. You might investigate into it!
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WM -
is yours walking yet? Mine doesn't walk on her own, but she doesn't stay still. The massive activity conks her out. I also eliminated the AM nap and just put her down for her 2 hours. IT made her nighttime sleep deeper and less wakeful. (now she doesn't even rumble when her sister goes to bed and makes noise in the room.) I know you're having problems getting him to go all the way until 12:30 if he wakes up early - but it'll take a few days for it to happen.
Neither of my girls had any problems with teething and wakefulness. Molars haven't come in with the younger yet, so I guess I'd better knock on wood!
What time was he up today?
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Our little guy took his 1st steps at 10.5 months and is unstoppable!!
This morning, he woke up about 6.45am, but last night, he fell asleep closer to 7.30pm - i wonder if it's because we let him sleep from 12-2.30pm instead of waking him up by 2pm....maybe this guy is so active, an extra 30 mins of sleep will make a HUGE difference.
we'll see how tonight goes and then try 12-2pm and see if that makes any difference!
katetam - sometimes the room is quite humid in the mornings, i wonder if that could be a factor too....
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Correct me if I am wrong (and who am I to give advice as my 18-mo girl hasn't slept through...well, she started to do so this week but that is a separate story) but didn't Richard Ferber mention in his book that kids between 9mths-2yrs need 11 hrs sleep in total (10-12hrs being normal)? If, Wheelymate, your son is sleeping at 7pm, it is completely normal for him to wake up at 6am. He also mentioned that some parents might have 'unrealistic expectations' (his words not mine; not that I am suggesting you are in the category dear) and wish their kids to sleep early and wake up late! What your son did this morning seemed to follow Ferber's statement: he slept later last night (7.30pm) so he woke up later this morning (6.45am) - perfect 11hrs sleep. Just my two cents...
BTW I am not a morning person so I purposefully arrange my daughter's bedtime to be 8.30pm so that she would wake only at 7.30am.
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flipped through Ferber -
for 12 months it is 13.5 hours - 2 hours of those being during the day, and 11.5 night, and then 2 hours 2.5 during the day. I know you're doing Gina, but each child is a bit different - maybe you could try giving him that 2.5 during the day, and then just send him off to bed a bit later so that you dont' have to be awake at 5:00. My #2 sleeps more than my number one - but she wakes up earlier - and I'm just lucky that she has her older sister in there to entertain her.
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mb1 and hkcc,
thanks for info on ferber. mb1, congrats by the way about your kid's sleeping through!!
i admit i sometimes expect my son to behave like a robot - must sleep/eat same time/amount daily. and i know every baby is different but always find that hard to apply for my own situation! i am ever ungrateful for how he has slept through since 3-4 months but love to moan about his early wakings and why doesn't he drink all his milk, etc....:P
so yes, babies are different - my friend's 16 month old sleeps up to 3 hours in the day and can still do 7pm-8am at night...i was just hoping mine would be more like this, that's all, hahahah!!
ok, so maybe i need to change my attitude. that said, i still have 2 criteria that i prefer not to compromise:
1) 2 hour afternoon nap
2) 7pm bedtime
the only reason being that i am alone with him all day, so after 2hours is the only period when i can catch up on some rest and more housework! and i know 30 mins later bedtime doesn't seem like much, but for me, it does make a world of difference because if he only sleeps at 7.30pm, i can only get dinner started then along with the other chores i have to handle.
so if he can do the above, then i am more than happy to compromise on a 2 hour nap (instead of 2.5 hours which he can easily do now) and a 6-6.30am wake-up time.
we'll try this out and see how that goes!!
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My almost 14 month old will only sleep between 1-1.5 hours max during the day (around 12.30pm - 2pm. I have noticed that generally if she sleeps more than that in the daytime, she will sleep less at night which is generally from 7.30pm - 6.45am. My daughter has always seemed to sleep less than the average no matter what I tried, so I guess every child's needs are different and they also change all the time!
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Dude! My 12 month old darling Arielle goes to bed when I do...(somewhere between 9:30 or 10:30) and wakes up when I do (6:30 am). She naps for about 3 1/2 hours during the day at daycare, but, if I put her to bed that early I would almost never see her and I adore her! She seems fine. She doesn't seem tired. I keep a loose schedule, but am not rigid.
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hi guys,
it's been a month since my first post. and since then, we have tried all we can so this seems to work for now:
max. 2 hour afternoon nap
in bed by 7pm but he usually falls asleep closer to 7.30pm. wakes up anytime after 6.30am the next morning.
it's about 13 hours a day and he is generally a very happy child so i guess this is what works for him. one thing we found that has helped is because we rent and his room doesn't have blackout curtains, i have attached some dark cloth to the existing curtains - this makes the room sooooo much darker and i think it makes a big difference. we also ensure that is no over-stimulation towards bedtime as he is such an eager little guy.
khyland, yes, if i worked full-time, i would probably not put my baby down at 7pm. but every family is different so great that your arrangement works for you.
questions for the mums - aside from sickness and some occassional whingeing (a sudden wail and then silence which we ignore) in the night, we never had to go in to him. but last night, he howled for an hour and was absolutely terrified and refused to let me go. seeing that he has slept alone and had no night bottles since 4 months, i was at a loss as to what to do. at 13 months, do they start having dreams/night terrors or is this just a one-off thing that i shouldn't worry about?
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an occasional one off cry in the middle of the night - it happens - generally I handle it very matter of fact - I go, comfort for a second and lay her back down. the one time my daughter did howl a lot - I just made sure that all was well - nothing poking and stuff, gave her her kiss and settled her back in - and she howled for a bit more and went to sleep.
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crj
19 yrs ago
It happens about once every 3-4 weeks with our superb night sleeper... and each time, we wait a few minutes (anything from 5-15 depending on the type of cry) then go in, give him a cuddle and within a few minutes he totally relaxes and then points to his bed and says 'bed'... and he is fine.
Once his legs were stuck in the bars, once his night time cuddle toy was thrown out of the crib, and once we have no idea - maybe a nightmare?
Since it does not happen often, we generally believe that there is something wrong so see to him... if he did this regularly, we would treat it differently.
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hkcc and crj,
thanks for the reassurance. like you guys said, it's rare which is why i don't know how to handle it when it happens! i know it's not a drink he needs but the way he was sobbing, it wasn't like he was crying for attention but upset with something, who knows what. hubby and i both went in and he only wanted me and clinged on me for his dear life, something that this independent little guy rarely does.
fingers crossed it's once in a blue moon and not some separation anxiety issue that is going to call for lots of sleepless nights!
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Hi wheelymate, glad to know your little boy is managing consistent sleep. My daughter has been good too for the past month, sleeps through to 7.30am. She is a bad sleeper and does have many nights of nightmares (always second half of night) or night terrors (first half of night; terrible to see as she would kick and trash, and arch her back away from me). Pd told us not to worry and that babies who are active are more prone to these (sth to do with their minds refusing to shut down for the night?). I normally instantly give comfort cos her cries are unlike other types of cries, almost fearful, but she quickly settles to sleep once the assurance is given. Never have problems of her waking up on a regular basis.
I don't know what others think but I find leaving a night light on helps tremendously. Sometimes she wakes and has this disorientated look on her face (she sleeps on mattress directly next to me so I see her 24-7!!!) and with the light on, she can see things in the room and not feel so scared. I don't mean the plug-in night light (useless!) but a soft lamp-light (got mine from Ikea, blue / pink bulb).
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turns out it's sickness - he's caught a cold and cough from daddy so could be why he's uncomfy at night.
as for my kid's 7pm in bed, asleep closer to 7.30pm, i read in gina ford that some toddlers at this age become more clingy and harder to settle at bedtime. i find that is certainly the case with our child. before it's 6.45pm in bed, asleep by 7pm. now it's 7pm in bed, asleep abut 7.30pm. she recommends some soft lullaby in the room to help toddlers settle, do you guys think it will help?
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