Waking up Way Too Early - Portland,OR

After you feed him, put him back in his crib with a number of toys. Leave a soft light on in the room so that he can see what he's doing without getting over stimulated. I do this with my 11 month old, and she does just fine. She knows that when I put her back to bed sitting up, she's allowed to play, so she plays. Sometimes she falls back asleep and sometimes not.

Our son does the same thing. I've read lots of responses to this and it is sooo normal.
what I do is take a nap with him later in the day or go to bed earlier.
I've decided not to fight it, but enjoy that time early in the morning.. since it goes so fast.

My only suggestion is when your son gets up keep the house quiet and dark. My daughter used to do this too. What I did is lay on the couch, had a small light on so I can see what she was doing, and kept an eye on her. I would not interact with her, just watched her. She eventually realized that it was sleep time and stopped getting up so darn early. I kept the tv off and the house quiet, as I did when she used to wake in the middle of night. There is no reason for both you and your hubby to get up. Hopefully this will pass and your day doesnt have to start so early!!

The way I handled this when my daughter who was a 5 to 5 am sleeper: (at the same time my 2 year old son was a 12 to 12 sleeper.--No sleep for mom)

I gently nudged her going to bed time backward. I just kept her up a little bit later every day and ignored her mornings a little bit longer every bit morning.

This ignoring in the morning is really important. If you want quiet, you need to be quiet yourself. If he cries, still wait say ten minutes to go in. Once he is getting up at 5:40, go for 5:50, and then 6:00. etc.....

Since you have already started playing with him, you will have to gradually start waiting to go into him. Keep him awake at night by 15 to 20 minute increments. Be gentle.

We found as our daughter got older, she responded to the light and morning outside noises more. As someone suggested to us, we bought a blackout shade for her room and a fan for the hall. The blackout shade keeps her room dark, so the morning light does not wake her. And, the sound of the fan drowns out the morning noises that might wake her. (We have a daycare next door, so there is lots of noise.) Anyhow, this worked for us. She started sleeping to her normal 7:00 again.

My 16 month old son has been doing this same thing for the past few weeks.

He's awake by 6 a.m., takes a 90 minute nap starting around 11:30, then goes to bed around 6:30 p.m. Putting him to bed later makes no difference. He also transitioned to one nap a day about 6 weeks ago, so we may still be getting used to the new schedule. Friends have told me the one nap transition is much harder than going from three to two.

Is your son teething? Mine has been getting both molars and cuspids, and I've found that, while he generally takes teething in stride, it does cause him to wake a little earlier and take shorter naps--although he sleeps fine all night. Every now and then, if I leave him in his crib chattering to himself, he will fall back to sleep for another 45-60 minutes, but these times are few and far between lately.

I'm hoping that once those teeth are in, we'll return to a somewhat more normal sleep schedule. I wake up early myself, but I like to have a little more "me" time in the mornings than I've been getting lately.

I'd say 6:30pm is a bit early for bed time... Our son (almost 2 now) has had a bed time of 8pm for a while now, he takes 2-2 1/2 hour naps everyday and usually wakes up around 6-7 am. This is normal for us as we are up for work at that time/earlier. Try getting him to bed later eventually he will adjust and his wake up time may change,.. but like the other moms said, they go through different sleep patterns,.. Just stick it out,.. make yourself a pot of coffee and learn to become a morning person! After a while, you'll learn to love the sunrise. AND! Don't stay up too late! We have a 10 - 10:30pm bed time around our house, afterall no one likes a cranky mommy! Good luck!

Who wet is his diaper in the morning? It could be uncomfortable. You might try changing him right before you go to sleep. A full bladder could be waking him. I knew this about my son because it continued long after he could tell us what was going on. At 9 years old, we still wake him for a trip to the bathroom 2-3 hours after going to sleep. He gets a longer, more restful night of sleep he tells us.

When my children woke up early, something that I found helped was to give them more of a meal later before they went to bed, which seemed to sustain them longer. At 15 mos. is he eating cereal or vegetables, something that would stay with him more than just milk? Worth trying. Hope it helps.

A., this schedule is exactly our son's schedule (or was until recently, with an additional 4am wakeup). Rowan is in bed at 6:30pm or so each night, and is now waking at 6:45am. The difference? A couple of things...

1. I think there were a couple of nights that we didn't hear him at 4am and 5am because the monitor was too low and we were too exhausted. He must have gone back to sleep on his own. I think this was the start of the change. (By the way, he awoke perfectly happy).

2. We began putting him down in his crib awake and leaving the room (we knew he could self-sooth - he'd done it many times in the past, but was recently hooked on us staying in the room until he fell asleep). This was tough to do. He cried 1.5 hours the first night, 45 minutes the second night and about 15 the next couple nights. Then it was just a couple of minutes and he laid down to sleep on his own. Ever since the first night, he began sleeping all night until 6:45am. No wakeups!

I'm not sure if you are putting him to sleep or allowing him to fall asleep on his own without you. If you are in the room with him to fall asleep, you might consider making that change. It is tough. I've always been set against cry-it-out, but when it comes to him and us needing sleep, and me knowing he was just mad and not needing something, I was able to stand my ground.

I hope this helps you!

Hi A. -

If adjusting his bedtime isn't helping him sleep longer in the morning, then it's quite possible that this wake time is normal for your child at this stage of life. I have several friends whose kids are very early risers and that is just how they are wired. I suggest that you adjust your bedtime so that you can get up with your child when he's ready to be awake or just try bringing him to bed with you when he wakes up and see if he'll lay down with you for an hour or two. On a rough morning when your toddler wakes up earlier than you can handle, go turn on your child's favorite video and snuggle on the couch together so you can rest while he watches his show. I know waking up that early may seem crazy, but often the most important thing you can do as a parent is adjust your expectations and go with the flow. :)

Kids sleep schedules change, especially as they become active toddlers. (11 Hours of sleep sounds heavenly to me. My twins never slept that much and didn't consistently sleep through the night until after 13 months.)
If he is taking a second nap he is clearly not going to sleep as much. He probably only needs 12-13 hours in a 24-hour period, so having him take a nap and go to bed later is not going to change when he wakes up.
Also, you shouldn't be "entertaining" him at 5:30. Hopefully he's in a crib and can be safely left alone. You can even explain to him that you're not going to come to him when he gets up and he should play quietly. Or else hand him a bottle of water and go back to bed.
You or dad could also go to bed earlier and be prepared to get up with him. Soon he'll be a teenager and you won't be able to drag him out of bed!

If you change and feed your baby at 5:30 when your son wakes up and while nursing start massaging his feet. He should be asleep again in no time. Stay really calm and quiet while doing all this. See if in a week or two he resets his internal clock and sleeps longer. E.