1 Year Old Wakes Big Brother and Parents at 5:30 AM

We go through this every day too! My son is 1 and wakes up b/w 5 and 5:30 each morning. We tried pushing his bedtime back, but then he just woke-up cranky at 5:00. A couple of days ago, we shortened the bedtime routine and extended the night by 30 minutes and we have had a "sleeper" until 6. It could be a fluke, but I have my fingers crossed.

Essentially, his internal clock is what it is, but we found that if he played his little tush off right until bedtime, he was physically more tired and is sleeping longer. Instead of 3 books, we read 1 when we get home and 2 before bed. Instead of eating at 5:30, we eat at 6. We pushed the entire night back.

We also put a few soft toys in his crib. It seemed like he was waking-up at 5:00, but wasn't really ready to get up and moving until 6:00. I put a couple of snugglies in there, so if he gets up early, he can cuddle and lay back down. So far, so good.

Good luck!

Wendolyn,

Ahhhh, a morning nap. Enjoy it while you can, it will go (or the afternoon one) soon.

He's only 1. He'll be two soon. Don't worry about the early wake up. Now it is inconvenient, later it will be (if you write them down) stories for when he is young.

Good luck,
M.

Before I went to bed, I used to fill a 4 oz. bottle with water and leave it in my son's crib where he was sure to see it if/when he woke. He would get thirsty in the night and also in the morning. This seemed to help. I would also recommend putting some books in the crib for him to look at in the morning...swap them out each night so they are new when he wakes. Good luck!

My suggestion is getting a heavy curtain to block out the light and a room darkener shade as well. Use a fan in the room as white noise to cover any other noise from outside.
This should help a lot and of course keeping him up longer
but that is not always easy.
Best Wishes
A.

Hi, Wendolyn!

I completely agree with Karen's advice about delaying nap times and bed time in an effort to get your early riser to sleep in a bit more. The words of wisdom that came from my mom that worked for me with my daughter were to push the times back gradually; by 15 minute increments every few days. It takes a little bit of time, but they need it gradual for it to be successful.

I hope you find this helpful. good luck, and God bless!

u cant change what comes naturally, if u try they will suffer. u must go to bed earlier and adjust yourself accordingly. your oldest is suffering by having baby in the same room, its not fair to him. put the crib in your room, put the oldest in your room or a cot in the living room or whatever, but sharing at these ages is not fair to either of them...when they are 4 and 6 its fine but now, its not fair to the oldest...he needs his sleep and his body clock is different.
i have NEVER been a morning perosn, but i had to adjust for sake of my youngest...now 6 yrd old is in bed at 830, youngest at 8. im in bed 930 or 10 and up bright and early at 6...used to be 5...the oldest sleeps until 7. the good news is that as they grow their sleep patterns channge and sometimes lengthen.
hang in there...it gets better.

I had a similar problem with my 2 year old this spring. I got the old fashioned blinds & heavy light blocking curtains & it seemed to help.

Does he eat a lunch as well? I didn't see that in his schedule. What about moving his dinner up by a half hour or adding some snacks?

I'm sorry you guys are going through that. It's tough to get them on a better schedule sometimes. Hope you find what works for all of you soon.

I wouldn't worry about it...everyone else go to bed earlier too then and just get up early. The sun is starting to come up earlier in the a.m. now so maybe everyone will adjust - kids change their schedule regularly - try pushing his bedtime back a little, the dark curtains sound like a good idea too.

It's the light. Try room darkening shades or closing the curtains. Putting him to bed later isn't going to work. He'll still get up just as early, but now he'll be cranky on top of that. It's the light in their room.

That sounds like our schedule until just a few months ago! My child was not ready for one nap until closer to 15 months. The 5:30 mornings this winter were tough, dark and cold :(
Each time I tried to modify her sleep it backfired on me.

My daughter is now 19 months old. She wakes up between 6:30 and 7am, takes one 2 hourish nap around noon and goes down at 7:30pm. What helped us was daylight savings. When we changed the clocks back we kept her on the same bedtime schedule and the rest fell into place.

You might try putting your little guy down closer to 6:30 since he's ready then. Earlier bedtimes always translated to longer sleep for us. Good luck!

Hi
What a wonderful predicament to be in!!! Two healthy children who love life, and a happy family. Praise Be to God who gives us strength.
Sounds like the issue is that he is not really ready to be up. So what do you do? First in a few weeks it could change, so the easiest is to wait it out, praying all the way.
I would certainly try keeping him up longer in the AM, in the afternoon, and then at night. Why? Because it sounds like he is associating eating with bed. Is that possible? Perhaps not but I wonder. Use bathtime, fun active things like marching bands, and songs, fun quiet things like playdough & crayons that is interactive to delay the onset of bed.
My experience is that kids sleep only as much as they need. Some need less than others, and some need less than their parents. Some where around 1 my children all started sleeping less and less. They were not sleepers, but since you think yours are showing signs of needing sleep you are right to try to do something. Mine never showed signs of needing sleep although they slept 10 hours in 24, 2 hours in 24, 5 hours in 24, and 11 hours in 24 if her sister didn't wake her. You can relate. Except they were twins so you couldn't reason your way out. I would try that. I would reason with the older boy, that you were just going to give him a bottle cause it was so early, especially as you work toward a later rising time. Who knows it just might work!!!
God bless you and all you do
K. === SAHM married 38 years == adult children 37, coach; 33, lawyer, married with 10 mo; and twins 18, in college after homeschooling.

I don't know what you feel comfortable with based on the schedule. But my daughter sleeps 8-8. She gets one nap from 2-4. If I were you, I would try eliminating the morning nap. If he has the one nap, he will sleep longer through the night. Also, try a heavy curtain

With my 15 month old, I have noticed that the more tired she is, the less she sleeps. I put her down for the night by 7:30 and she sleeps right up to 7:30 in the morning. Our schedule is something like this:

7:00-7:30 am wake up (breakfast and play)
9:00-9:30 am nap for 30 min-1 hour
10:30 - 11:00 am bath
Noon- 12:30 pm- lunch
1:30-2:00 pm - Nap for 2-3 hours
4:00-5:00 pm- snack
6:30-7:00pm- dinner & evening bath
7:00- 7:30 pm- dinner

Over the past few days, this schedule has been a bit flexible with her not wanting either the morning nap and instead taking an evening nap around 5:30 for 1 hour. If that happens she goes to be around 8:00- 8:30 and then wakes up at 12 hours later in the morning.

My suggestion to you would be to try and push dinner a bit later and ad a 30 min nap to his schedule..

Good luck and happy sleeping :)

I would start pushing back his bedtime. I know his eyes are glazing, but keep him up an extra 10 minutes for a few days (7:10 for a few days, 7:20 for a few days after that, etc)
We did that with our son, who by 18 months was waking at 6:15 every day, putting him to bed 20-30 minutes later every night has him back to 7am consistently.
Also, once he drops the morning nap I bet his schedule will adjust. That might happen soon, my son started about 13-14 months and was set on the new one nap schedule by 16 months.

LOL.."hampster bottle.." That was great. Thank you for the giggle.

I don't need to tell you that prayer is a good start. I think maybe a later bedtime would help cut out the need to get up so early. Cut out the 8:30am nap too and change it to before or after lunch.

Good luck,
Nanc

When I took my firstborn out on his first walk around the block, one of our sweet old lady neighbors stopped me to admire her brand new little neighbor in his stroller. She congratulated me on his arrival, and then in her broken English, she pointed her finger and said; "When he sleeps...... YOU sleep." She was so cute. She was wise to say that, and I did listen, and rather than running around to get housework done while he was napping, I'd lay down too for a short nap, then I'd just clean when I awoke from my rest. I think it really was a help to me. Wise words from a wise woman. Also, I have a friend who has seven children and she home-schools them all. Every day, from 1-3 in the afternoon, they ALL rest in their bedrooms, no matter what age. The house is quiet for those two hours each day. The kids don't have to sleep, but they do have to be quiet. So in that case it's; when Mom rests, they all rest! Pretty cool, huh?

Its tough when the little one wakes the big one. 5:30 is early for a wake up especially since he is ready for nap when its time to get the big one out of the house and get a chore in.

I have always found that the earlier I put them (my big guy too) to bed the longer they sleep. My little one was doing the same thing as yours and then I moved his dinner up and got him to bed by 6-6:30 and he slept until 7:30 the next day. I know most people freak when they hear such an early bedtime and say that they will be up at 4am but its worth a shot and has always worked for me. Dr Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is the book that was like my bible. Good luck!

Try putting him to bed a little later. 7 is early, push it to 7:30 and after a few days to 8. it will give you an extra 30 min in the morning.
to keep him later, push his dinner time by 15 min, and that will push out everything else, take 10 - 15 min betw dinner and milk to read a book, roll around or whatever.