getting baby to sleep longer...

my 15 month old has been waking at 5am for several weeks. this seems to be his natural wake up time, when i go in there he is "talking" and laughing and ready to play. if i leave him he will just shortly start screaming for me - will NEVER go back to sleep.


i have discovered, however, if i give him a bottle at about 3am, he will sleep till 7am.... that is a solid 2 hours of extra sleep for me and him!!! (btw he is not waking out of hunger cos when i try and give him the bottle at 5am after he's already woken up, he hardly even takes a sip).


i know 15 month olds should not be having night time feeds but by intervening, i can buy 2 more hours of sleep for both of us. it only takes me less than 10 mins to give him the bottle and get back to sleep myself at 3am. the difference between 5am and 7am is HUGE and anyone who has ever been in this situation will know this!


what do you think? break the rules and give the bottle or wake up every morning at 5am?

Your method can work as an interim. Also:

- Shorten the daily nap by 30-60 minutes. If you have two naps, eliminate the morning one.

- Delay bedtime by 30-60 minutes.

- Increase size of bedtime bottle. It does sound like perhaps he is a bit hungry.

- To ensure he takes a good bedtime feed, decreases size of dinner and/or take it earlier.


When does he go to bed?




"if i leave him he will just shortly start screaming for me - will NEVER go back to sleep."


Yeah at 5am it's too late to go back to sleep for many kids.

Mine used to wake at 5.30am on the dot every day. I tried limiting her sleep during the day, all the things that are supposed to work, but at the end of the day, that was her body clock for many, many months. I just sucked it up and got on with it and hoped it would pass which it did eventually.


I would definitely not do the bottle thing though if he doesn't need it, because then you building another rod for your back and that is what he will expect, then you will have the battle of getting him off the bottle. It's a vicious circle.


My 2 month old is now waking for the day at 4.30am!!! I'm going slowly crazy!

no, no - dont do the bottle at 3 am - really, as axptguy said, short term solution. I know it sounds tought but (apart from the things the others mentioned) - have you ever tried to leave him to scream a bit? I found (eventually after a few months!!) that if i pop in a say "too early, you have to sleep now" - they would scream for a bit (well sometimes for quite a bit) but i just used earplugs and they will fall back asleed eventually?

"have you ever tried to leave him to scream a bit? I found (eventually after a few months!!) that if i pop in a say "too early, you have to sleep now" - they would scream for a bit (well sometimes for quite a bit) but i just used earplugs and they will fall back asleed eventually?"


Agreed. If they haven't pooped or are all wet, they can take a while alone. Our #2 will nowadays often wake up early but not say anything. We'll find her sitting in bed playing with her stuffed animals. In many cases she'll fall back asleep.


It is very important that they learn to fall back to sleep by themselves.

well he must know how to fall back asleep by himself as he sleeps solidly from 7.30pm to 5am. it's just that at 5am he seems to have had enough sleep and is rearing to go! everything i've read about this sounds like it is very "normal" (although not preferrable) and that's just how some babies roll...


i'll try some of the suggestions above. especially the bigger bottle at night. although he always finishes his bottle - 9 oz. can it get bigger than that? rice cereal?


he's only on one nap a day. never more than 2.5 hours. i must say i'm quite bummed about the 3am bottle as it was giving me TWO extra hours of sleep. it's VERY tempting!!!

"although he always finishes his bottle - 9 oz. can it get bigger than that? rice cereal?"


That's pretty big as it is. I don't know if you want to give him even more!



As for the nap during the day, shorten to 2 hours and see what happens.

have you tried tiring him out more during the day (after his nap)? I noticed my little boy sleeps longer & more sound if we've gone out that particular day, could be the park, the pool, playdate, anything besides his usual routine at home. Delaying his bedtime sometimes made him cranky, but more physical activity and shorter naps worked well for us.

with the nap - 2.5 might be a bit long? i started cutting ours down to 1.5 hours now, but they are a bit older I guess - i started at around 18-19 months i think...

mumbloxy is right. I have a friend who had a boy now 18 months has never slept thru' the night since birth. She was asking me how to get him sleep through the night and sleep longer. I told her to let his son to get out to run and walk and climb stairs, just do some exercise in the evening and tell me the next day if he will sleep through the night or not..... it has been a month, her son sleeps so well at night from 10pm-9am. She and her hubby wants the baby to sleep around 10 because they want to spend time with him as they willnot see him the whole day. I think it is up to them to what time letting their baby to sleep at night. But the problem solved, baby sleeps so long and so soundly at night. Everyday i bring my son to the park to play and run, 2 times a day. Both mid day nap and night he sleeps so well. Day time nap is 3 hours and night from 8pm-6.30-7am. To feel sleepy is one thing, once he has enough of sleep he will wake up but when having good exercise, tired and sleepy, he will sleep for 10-11 hours with no problem. I also did not cut his nap time in the day if he wakes up few nights at around 6.15am, i know he will eventually waking up at around 7 soon. I was successful this way. I also did not make the room dark at all in the day night since he was born and with a baby CD songs play. In the day I make the room as bright as sunlight (pull curtain away) so he will sleep everywhere when we go out in his pram - restaurant, shopping mall, coffee house, someone's house, club house etc as we sometimes do go out during his nap time. Again, every child and every family is different, there is no need to follow every bit of it but good to try the suggestions.

"She and her hubby wants the baby to sleep around 10 because they want to spend time with him as they willnot see him the whole day. I think it is up to them to what time letting their baby to sleep at night."


Sure, so long as they are aware that it could lead to some issues when he has to start taking the school bus at oh-dark-thirty. But they could just move the times then.