Does Anyone Else Have This Problem??

My baby is 18 mos. and I have had situations like you. Perhaps something kicks on at that time that wakes him up. Like the heater? Or he gets cold? It might be a phase and he'll work his way out of it. If there is no problem - then I personally would not get him out of bed at 5:30am and let him fall back asleep of wear himself out till a more appropriate time for you. Best of luck.

That is too weird...my daughter started doing the same thing at about the same age as your son. It is now 2 months later and she still wakes up everyday between 5:45 and 6, regardless of how much sleep she has had during the day or the night before. I think our kids have found their internal clock!

J. - that's so annoying! I'm sure it's impacting your sleep too...

Is the room totally dark & quiet? We've discovered they sleep so much better, longer, etc, with total dark.

Your son is a lot younger than our kids, but we've had a situation with each of our three where total dark cured our problems.

The older one was waking up midway through the night - like 3 a.m. and not able to fall back to sleep. The middle girl was not able to fall sleep at all. The baby (5 at the time, so not a baby compared to yours) was waking up way, way early and waking us all up. In all three cases, darkness was the key.

Apparently we cycle through sleep stages, and get "near awake" a couple times a night. At the "near awake" point, light or noise can stimulate a child to come fully awake and stay that way.

Anyway, try making sure your son doesn't get any of the morning dawn. If that's already the case or doesn't help, then I have NO idea what to tell you.

I can only say that all my babies were early risers and I figured most babies get up at 5:30 in the morning. I always enjoyed that early morning time of day with them before the day really gets going. But I'm an early to bed person and an early riser myself.

Suzi

My little one did the same thing around 18 months. It lasted for about a month. He had a big growth spurt during this time as well. We fed him cereal before going to bed and that seemed to help some.

Usually early wakes indicate overtiredness. Although it may seem counterintuitive, it may be time to shift him to one nap, even if it hasn't worked before. I don't blame you for being reluctant since your last effort resulted in night wakes! Is he still going down well for his afternoon nap? Does he go to bed by 7p? Check www.babywhisperer.com message boards for some great, specific advice. I can't remember exactly what to do at that age!

Hey there momma,
My boy did that and I found that putting rice cereal in his bottles worked wonders. I prepare his formula all at once. Depending on what formula you use there should be mixing directions for making 1 quart at a time. I use the blender. Anyway blend in the rice cereal until you have the consistancy of runny applesauce. Be sure to heat his milk before feeding. I find that it usually takes about 30 seconds in the microwave if it's been in the fridge. I know people say you are not supposed to heat milk in the microwave because it heats unevenly. Just shake the bottle up before giving your little guy his milk. Anyway, that should fill his tummy up and keep him sleeping longer. My 3 year old did what your fella is doing and my 6 month old started just last week. The thickness of the milk will keep him full longer. Try it out and let me know how it works. Good luck!

I thought for awhile that my almost 12 month old son was going to be a persistent early bird as he would wake around 6 or 6:30 a.m. This has really improved and stretched to 6:45 or 7 am consistently in just the past two months. The more good naps my son has in the day time the better and longer he sleeps as night. We have gone through many days of no matter how tired he is he can fight sleep or sleep small amounts compared to what they say is recommended.

I would be willing to guess that he is overtired! My son still takes three naps a day despite the fact that he is almost one year. Two shorter (45 min to 1 hr) naps and one longer nap (about 90 minutes). He goes to bed every night between 7 and 7:30 pm (even though he often wakes up from his last nap around 5 something) and will sleep almost 12 hours. I do know that every time I have tried putting my son to bed later to see if he would sleep in it resulted in even earlier waking. As soon as I switched back to his normal bed time or some nights even 15 minutes earlier, things improved or at least went back to normal.

"Good Night, Sleep Tight" has been the most helpful book for me regarding sleep training.

Also, if he has just made a major milestone consider that all of the books say that those types of events can disrupt sleep for a period of time. So maybe that is part of it too. In that case just be as consistent as you can be with your routine and keep your fingers crossed. You are blessed to have had a good sleeper until now so hopefully that means he will return to that shortly.

My 13 month son does this as well and has been doing it for about 4 months. He usually wakes up each morning anywhere from 4:30-5:30 depending on when he went to bed. The only thing that has worked for me is to give him about 2 ounces of milk and then he will go back to sleep. I tried the dark room, putting him in my bed, rocking him, playing soft music, pacifier (he never really took one anyways), feeding right before bed....none of it worked for us, except for the milk. He usually doesn't even finish it, but just that little bit of time it takes for him to drink it puts him right back out. My son isn't fully awake when he wakes up, so if I get to him soon enough, he's still sleepy. You might try it with your son just to see if it works. Good luck!

We had similar results with our son and realized he was waking up when the sunlight hit his room. We had his blinds closed, but in a downward direction so the light came right in. We then switched it so they closed in an upward direction and got ourlittle sleeping-in-'til-8 o'clock-angel back. Sometimes it's the simplest things. Good luck!