10 Month Old Wakes Early

With my little guy, there was something bothering him when he woke up earlier than usual. He either had an ear infection or he was teething. If she normally sleeps later, and this is just recent, she might have something going on. Maybe she's growing and needs to eat more. With us, we just had to ride through it. Plus, is she crying or fussing? If my little guy was just fussing a bit, he sometimes would fall back to sleep again on his own, so long as we didn't bother him. Too bad they don't come with a manual, huh? Or, whatever the issue was would just show up in writing on their forehead, like one of those thermometers. "Just hungry, mom" "Just fussing a bit, let me sleep". It'll pass.

I am with a few others in saying 1) you have an early riser, and 2) you need black out shades, a white noise generator (HoMedics makes a great sound machine with that and other options - check eBay), and a play panel on the crib.

My son, who is now 12, is and always has been an early riser. Regardless of his schedule, time of year, etc. his internal clock has him waking at 6 am. I did all the above after setting a 7 PM bedtime, and he would still wake at 6 am EXCEPT the difference was that he would happlity play with that Fisher Price activity panel for 30 minutes to even an hour until I was ready to greet the world.

Even at the age of 12, when I thought he'd start sleeping in after styaing up late, he's found that he wants to stay up later, but can't get enough sleep because his body tells him to wake early. Poor guy! The latest he can sleep is 8 am.

I would try the above and perhaps shrink the bedtime down to 7 pm. See if that works before moving it too far down - that might wind up infringing on activities that might keep you away from home and become another problem for you later on.

Our 21 month old son has a floor fan (in the hall), midnight-style blinds, and a Metallica Lullaby CD on repeat (also in the hall). It has worked for us. There were a few weeks here and there where he woke up crazy early like it was noon ready to play, but he always goes back to the 7-8am range. Even with that, I let him watch cartoons in bed with me for a half an hour or more to let me wake up slowly. Good luck,

B.

My 2nd daughter is also 10 months, and does the same exact thing. She goes to bed at 7pm, and wakes 5-5:30am. My way of dealing with this "issue" is to feed her at the 5am waking and then put her back in the crib. I use an "overnight" diaper on her, and don't change her at that time. 99% of the time, she falls back asleep for an hour or more. Sometimes she cries for the first few minutes after I walk out, but then goes back to sleep. Sometimes the feeding causes a bowel movement, and in that case, she's up at 6ish for good, but not ususally. So, it might be worth a shot if it gives you more sleep most of the time! My first daughter did the same thing, with an early 5am waking to eat, then back to sleep for another hour or 1 1/2 hrs. She eventually dropped the early waking sometime around 12m+, and now wakes at 7-7:30am consistently (She's almost 3yrs, and goes to bed at 8pm). I think increasing the last nighttime feeding might also help, but my 10m old is breastfed so I can't do that. We did give my first daughter a big bottle, then brushed teeth of course, before putting her to bed to keep her belly full.

I have never used blackout shades (only blinds), but do think they'd help, esp. in summer. I do use a white noise machine in both my girls rooms, to help keep outside noises buffered.

Good luck! I know how hard it is to drag yourself out of bed at 5am.

Some babies will change their wakings at times. The early rising stage can be annoying. What I did with my triplets, and still do, is blacken the windows. My oldest was a very early riser and I wish I would have thought of this for him, lol. With the blackened windows, you can control when their sleeping hours are. You can use black leaf bags, paper bags, etc. Use a soft night light so you don't bang your toes when you walk. But this way you can keep the same constant light and then they're only sleeping what they need, usually longer. I would still bump their sleep time to 8pm, but this is up to you depending on what schedule the house is on. Some families are on an earlier schedule while others go later.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat

M.,

I know your pain. My son has decided in the last 3 weeks that waking up at 6-6:30am is great! Now, don't get me wrong... he sleeps all night (goes to bed between 8-8:30pm) and that is so wonderful and we are very lucky. But it is so early that he rises. Then by 10-11am he is so dead tired and is a bear to deal with so then I lay him down for a nap and he naps for 2-3 hours. I don't think there is anything that can be done (I tried). I think with the sun rising at 5:30am, that has to do a lot with it. Let me know if you find another way!
Good Luck!
Chris

Black out curtains maybe? My 13 month old twins have been waking earlier and earlier since the sun's been rising earlier. We experimented by putting heavy towels over their blinds and they actually slept until after 6, so we just installed black out curtains. Good luck!

They sell blinds that are supposed to darken the room and I agree about the curtains. Try towels first though b/c it may not help. My son was exactly the same way, he would wake up super early every day and if I tried to put him in bed earlier, he just woke up even earlier. Luckily, he was always happy when he woke up in the morning so we put some crib toys that attached to the sides in the crib and he played with them in the morning for awhile before we needed to get him. I always waited to feed him so that he wouldn't get used to being fed early. When he was old enough we got him a toddler bed and made sure his room was safe for him to play while we laid in bed. We put up a gate at his door and let him play in his room. At first he would call for us but I told him to play with his toys and he got used to it very quickly...it's the only way I kept my sanity. Every morning he would wake up early and play in his room. When he got old enough to tell time we taught him not to wake us up until 7am. And he was great about it. Of course, by then he didn't have a gate anymore so he would climb into bed with us.

When we first started keeping him in his room to play my husband thought it was cruel not to go and get him...of course, he wanted me to get up with him. But after about 3-5 days he was playing no problem. I always had the monitor on and he was only in the next room so I never really slept once he was up but at least I could lay in bed and pretend to sleep. My son is now 8 yrs old and he is still up at the crack of dawn...I have room darkening blinds and I even got him a loft bed (he sleeps in the bottom bunk) which is like a cave and he still gets up at 6am. But he plays and gets himself his own cereal and let's us sleep until 7am. You could also try adjusting bedtime in small increments, this worked for me when we would change the clocks to get him back on schedule. I tried 10-15 minute adjustments every few days.

M.,
I agree with the idea of slowly moving her bedtime to earlier. My son always slept better (and later) when he wasn't over-tired. Doesn't seem logical but it is true!
Also, white noise is a great idea. I always ran a humidifier in my son's room to mask other noises in the house. Make sure the sun isn't coming right into the crib--and move it if it is. Close blinds/curtains before she goes to bed. Good luck I know this can be very frustrating.

M.,
My daughter will be 3 in August and also sleeps about 10 hours a night. She sleeps from about 8:30pm to 6:30am.
ALthough 5:30 might seem early look at the positive end of things. It sounds like your daughter sleeps all night. This in istself is truly a blessing as I hear lots of moms talking about how their chldren are up several times a night. Every child has their own internal clock and your daughter might be an early riser. I have learned to adjust my day and schedule according to my daughters.

M.,

We are not morning people at my house. Since birth, I've encouraged my daughter to not get up early. I have friends that tell horror stories about their kids getting up at 4 am or 5 am and starting the day. That's just not something that can happen at our house.

DD is almost 9 months old. If she gets up any time before 7 am (the time I've deemed to be the earliest start to the day) I feed her, without talking and making as little eye contact as possible, and put her back in her crib. Sometimes she stays up for 10 minutes or so, just chatting away, but she always goes back to sleep.

I put her back down even if she gets up at 2 minutes 7 and its quarter after by the time she's done nursing. If she nurses to sleep - awesome, otherwise it's back to bed awake. Sometimes, if we've had a really tough night, I'll put her back to sleep even if it's a little later.

Good Luck.

S.

My son is a bit older but he had recently been waking up 2 hours earlier than his usual wake-up time. We installed room darkening shades and now he is back to his usual schedule.

Another thought...does she seem to be really hungry when she wakes up? If so, maybe increasing the amount you are feeding her at her last feeing would help.

Nope - this is one of the pitfalls of parenting. When they are young like your daughter, they tend to get up early. And that early waking hour lots of times doesn't change until they are school age (8 or 9). Have fun! (I remember the pain ! :)

you could do a couple different things. may be wake her around 10 pm and see if she is hungry. may be try to feed her and keep her awake until 11pm and then put her back down. another thing you can do is after you change her diaper in the morning see if she will lay down in the bed with you. sometimes,we put our arm around our son who is the same age and tell him go to sleep. he fusses for a few minutes but usually goes back to sleep for about another 45 minutes to an hour. do you work or stay home? another thing i would do is buy this book,on becoming baby wise by gary ezzo and robert buckham which you can buy in borders. it talks about nighttime sleep,eating and not letting the baby totally be on his or her own schedule. it gives you some good ideas on how to have some control over these issues. good luck.

You may not want to hear this, but you may just have an early riser on your hands! My daughter was a late sleeper & I loved it, but my little guy (now 3) - he loves the morning! He gets up at 6AM no matter what! I am now attempting to embrace the mornings (I am not a morning person) - coffee helps. My husband gets up with him & lets me sleep in every once in a while...

We used the Sleepeasy Solution to help with our daughter's sleep problems. The book says children under a year need at least 11 hours of sleep. They had a section on early waking- in a nutshell- you could try adjusting her bedtime earlier by 15 minutes and see what happens. Children who are overtired tend to wake earlier. Just look for the "sleep-cues" such as glazed eyes, rubbing ears or eyes, yawning, refusing to meet your gaze. I know it sounds backwards but we used to put Evie down at 7 and we moved ber bedtime to 6:30 and it made a huge difference!
Also, white noise (we use a fan) and blackout curtains (available at Walmart) are recommended.
Evie wakes around 6 but sometimes will be up at 5:45 and we just leave her in her crib until 6:30. That way if she is still tired she has a chance to "practice" falling asleep on her own.
This book was worth the investment so I highly recommend it if you're interested. Best of luck- I hope this info helps.
R.

Try to find heavier shades for her room (or tack up a heavy blanket), and try them out a night after you've tried to keep her up late.

I work 'til 2 a.m., and our son sleeps in our room which filter out most of the light. He's never had a problem sleeping until at least 9 or so, provided he stays up until 9-11 p.m.

We had the same problem with my son. I just would get up with him, because I thought he was an early riser and I'd have to deal. Then he started getting up earlier and earlier-we're talking 3:30 or 4 am. So our pediatrician suggested an alarm clock. That seemed a little beyond him. So we went to Target and got a string of car lights. They are made for kids bedrooms--like Christmas tree lights, but bigger. With little plastic cars and trucks over the light bulbs. So we put them in his room with a timer and we told him that we would come and get him when the lights came one. We set the timer for maybe half an hour after he usually woke up. Or maybe even just 15 minutes. And we wouldn't go into his room until the lights were on. We made a big deal of the lights being on and saying that it was time to wake up. He caught on pretty quickly. And then after a week or two, we started setting the lights for later and later. Now they are set for 7 am and sometimes he even sleeps beyond that! Though there are plenty of days that he's still up at 6. But what he'll do is play quietly when he wakes up and not expect us until the lights come on. He's almost 2 and a half and we started this around his first birthday. Since we've been doing this a year and a half, we sometimes go in half an hour early if he's been up for awhile. But that doesn't happen very often and he almost never is up earlier than 6. Good luck.

My experience with my 13 month old son says a later bedtime will not affect what time he wakes up. Son as my son turned one, his bed time changed to about 8:30-9pm. He still wakes up between 5:30-6:30 am, depending on how much noise is in the house. This is the same time he woke up when he was going to bed at 7:30. He usually falls back asleep after nursing and sometimes playing (music and toys in his crib) about an hour or so later. He usually eats breakfast about 8:30. Hope this helps.

My daughter woke up at 4am from birth until she went to kindergarten. Three years after she was born my son also had that habit, but he woke up at 4:30am. My daughter fell asleep in her dinner plate around 7pm, daily. I put my son to bed by 8:30 because he was a nightowl. He always played quietly by himself with his lego or drawing. I was grateful that I at least had my evenings to myself. And they were always the first ones at daycare and I was never late to work!!! You gotta bend, and you will survive. You can flex to learn to love it!