Help! My 10Month Old Keeps Waking up Btwn 5-5:30Am

Push his bedtime to 8 or 9 pm. Why do you put him down so early? My girl goes to bed around 9 pm and sleeps until 8 am(she does wake up at night a few times due to teething problems, and sometimes to eat, but goes right back to bed).

Hi R.,
I think you are expecting too much by wanting your baby to sleep for 12 hours. 11 hours of nighttime sleep is plenty, I remember my first baby going down around 7:30 pm and waking around 6:30 a.m.. 6:30 pm isn't nighttime, it's a very early bedtime.

My almost 10 month-old son does the same thing. I have tried moving his bedtime back and forward, with no success. I don't go in to my son until 6am, even if he is crying. He mostly just talks to himself. He is also a great daytime napper (sleeps 3-4 hours during the day). He is a happy baby, so why mess with things. I read that you can try to cut back on the nap length (max nap time 1.5 hours) to see if that lengthens the morning sleep. I haven't tried this because I enjoy my free time while he is napping! Some babies are just wired to wake up that time, no matter what you do. I try to be asleep by 10p, so that I am not wiped in the morning.
The Weissbluth book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is a great book that discusses normal & abnormal sleep of children birth through adolescence.

Hi R.
I know that this might be a problem for you but what about putting him to bed later. If I had gotten any of my 4 children to sleep 12 hours in 24 I would have been thrilled. All children don't you know. By 10 mos mine slept 11, 5, 6, & 10 by age.
If you are reading in books:stop, & please try to remember that all numbers in them are averages. My oldest & youngest were great sleepers and still are. My middle children were terrible.
Since you are young enough to be one of my children, I just want to say talk to mom, maybe you were an early riser too. She may have great stories to tell.
Mine is this: By the time my younger son was 6 mos old, we realized by sitting watching at their doorway that our older son was not getting him out of the crib but that he was really climbing out himself, crawling across the room to climb into his brother's bed. He would sleep there, but our older son was not sleeping so we set up the other twin bed. He never fell out, but he could get up. And up he got. Since there is no reasoning with this age we too were up. By the time he was a year old, he only slept about 4-5 hours in 24 and it was down hill from there. MD said he was fine: no medical problems, and didn't show any effects of sleep deprivation, even though I was. From 2 years on he slept 2 hours in 24 and as he grew we reasoned with him about his night actions/and non activity depending on his age. Today his wife is AOK with him sleeping 2 hours as he can be up with their 9mo who sleeps better than his father.
God bless you and your family
K. -- SAHM married 38 year -- adult children --- 37, coach; 33,lawyer, married; and twins 18 in college. The twin who doesn't sleep is AOK on campus, and the other is commuting.

I wish I had the answer. We are struggling with the same thing! The only thing that I can tell you is that pushing back bedtime just makes my guy crabby when he gets up at 5:00.

Because he will be 1 next week, I worry less about SIDS. Having said that, I have started putting a couple of stuffed animals in his crib when I go to bed at night (towards the end of the crib) and he gets up and plays with those for 15-20 minutes before yelling for mama or dada!

Thanks for the post- I hope others have some suggestions!

Hi There,
It is my opinion that 6:30 is too early for anyone to go to bed!! It is still very much daylight in the summer. If he is going to bed at 6:30 and getting up at 5 or 5:30, he is getting nearly 11 hours of sleep per night... 10-12 hours per night plus about 3 hours worth of naps is perfectly average for his age. My son who is 15 mos. has averaged 11 hours of sleep per night for months now... we put him to bed anywhere between 7 and 8 depending on lengh and time of his nap (usually about 7:30). Try moving his bed time back just a few minutes per nigh over a period of time and see if his body doesn't ajdust gradually to sleep a little later. I have also noticed that my kids are tending to wake up a bit earlier in the past month or so... it could be the light shining in his room or the birds chirping!! Good Luck!

Hi there ~
I just went through that problem with my 10 month old..I figured out that at 5-5:30 the sun came shining in his room so I put up a blanket over the window so it would be darker in there. Seems to have worked so far - although he was up at 6am this morning, but I realized the blanket fell off the window!! I find that keeping the same bedtime is crucial, putting him to bed later makes a crankier night and baby in the am. See if a dark shade over the window(s) helps!!

With the sun coming up earlier, is his room getting light? My son's room is pretty bright by 5:30 if I don't put his blinds down. You may want to try darkening his room--put up blinds, or curtains over blinds or something like that. You may also want to gradually push his bedtime a little bit later.

Hi, my son ( about the same age) tends to wake up @ 30-40
mins earlier than 'wake up' time... Since I have twins ...
I usually just go in lay him back down and
Offer a pacifier ( he doesnot really want it)
and leave quietly... Typically he will sleep
another 30-40 minutes or at the very least
Play quietly till normal wake up time
!I've noticed playing with nap
Times/ length doesn't seem to change
Anything except his mood- cranky:).
Good luck

Whoa..... your baby sleeps 11 hours at night AND takes a two to three hour nap during the day??? Wow!!! Do you realize how LUCKY you are????? Does this actually happen EVERY day??? You have got it made, sister-friend! I think I'd count my blessings! LOL! Good for you.... what a wonderful baby you have! :)

Hi R.: I would just get used to having an early riser. Both my kids did this. They are now almost 3 and almost 7 and have finally started sleeping later. They sleep to 7 am or more now. I never minded though, I'm more of a morning person. Good luck.

My 10 mos daughter is doing the EXACT same thing. She has 2 naps a day that average 3-4 hours. She goes to bed betwen 6-6:30 and was waking up at 6:15 until recently. About 2 weeks ago she started waking at 5:20. Changing her bedtime was not the answer because she is so ready for bed then. So I actually let her stay in her crib in the morning. She would play (talking) for about 10 minutes and then start cranking for about 3-5 minutes. Next thing I know she would be back to sleep and she wouldn't wake up until around 7:00. This morning it was actually 7:20! I actually woke up on my own this morning! ;^)
I hope this helps! I look forward to any update since our situations are so similar.

Good luck!
K.

This time of year is tough, with the early bird calls and sunrises. My kids have always been early risers but I agree that 5am is too early. Your bedtime and nap schedule looks great to me (even though other moms are surprised and think you're lucky, you actually are following textbook pediatric sleep advice and are doing a great job providing your child with his much needed sleep - keep it up! he will thank you later). We have found that our daughter who is 15 months, needs to go to bed at 6pm in order to sleep past the 5:30 a.m. wake up call. Last night she was in bed at 5:30 and she slept until 6:30 this morning! If we put her to bed after 6pm, she wakes up at 4am for the day, and that's vicious. Don't cut his naps down - your son still needs this sleep during the day. I would recommend trying a 6:15 or even 6pm bedtime. Try it for a week before you decide whether it's working or now. And watch his cues! Oh, last thing - we enforce a 6am "get up" time. So even if our kids are up, they stay in their room until 6. And later, when he's old enough if this is still a problem, you can set an alarm that goes off when he's allowed to get up. This worked for our son as early as 19 months. You're doing a great job, good luck!

I think we have the same child...lol. I would first ask if you put him in overnight diapers (huggies brand for boys works best)? My son (now 12 months) goes to bed at 6pm and wakes at 6am sometimes, but sometimes its 5:30 or 5:45, but I just don't get him. He usually just entertains himslef or goes back down for another 30 minutes. Your son may cry at first,but he will get the picture in no time. Don't lose the naps because I think that will ruin his night sleep. Plus how will you get anything done...lol. Good luck!

Hi R.,
I'm with everyone else. You're expecting way too much. He goes to bed at 6:30 p.m. and sleeps until 5:30?? That's a pretty reasonable amount of sleep for a 10 month old! If you'd like him to sleep later, you'll have to cut back the naptime during the day and try keeping him a bit later at night. My son at 10 months old was sleeping 2 hours a day and going to bed at 7:30 p.m. and would sleep until about 6 or 7 a.m. which I was very grateful for!
Good luck but I think you're pretty lucky already!
Lynsey
PS- please don't make him CIO until he goes back to sleep. After 11 hours of sleep, clearly he's well rested enough. He's probably starving by that time.