Sleeping FAQ: 12-18 Months – Early Morning Waking

We’ve got to stop this early morning waking from my 17 month baby, worse since we moved house.

We are desperate after nearly 4 weeks of our 17-month-old boy waking between 4.30am and 5.30am!! Several nights a week he also wakes every few hours slightly unsettled or crying, often settling himself back quickly or allowing us to settle him quickly by saying ‘shhh,’ ‘night night’ or rubbing his head briefly. He has been on Gina’s routines since around the age of 4 months. Our early weeks and months were very difficult with him as he suffered from gastroesophageal reflux. Because of the reflux going undiagnosed for a while, his weight dipped in the beginning. However, he has responded well to two reflux medications. He is still on reflux medication but we have begun to decrease his dosage. His weight is now actually high, at around the 75th centile. We weaned him using Annabel Karmel’s book and Gina’s routine and recipes. He loves food and eats a wide range of fresh food every day, generally having one hot veggie meal and one hot meat meal plus cereal and fruit in the mornings. From the time we started the routine he adapted well to it. He always had a bit of trouble having the full two hours at lunch. However, that was always our goal and we have stuck to the principle of a long afternoon nap. Since he started the routine he has had long patches of waking up a bit early (6ish). However, this was often due to our noisy neighbour who rose early for work. He has had many weeks, however, of fitting into the schedule perfectly, waking at 7-7.30am. Everyone is always commenting on what a happy contented child he is.

At around 14 months he began to refuse his morning nap, and since then he has been having around 2 hours sleep at 12.30-1pm as his only sleep of the day. This is a good sound sleep and he hardly ever wakes up. When things are going normally he has breakfast with around 6oz of milk at around 7am. He then has lunch at around 11-11.30am and dinner at 5pm. I give him a bit of fruit and water at 9.30ish and after his two hour sleep. He began walking at about 14 months. Since then I have taken him out twice a day for at least a walk, but most often a play at the playground. Since starting the schedule he has only ever woken in the night when he has had a cold. Other than that he woke up a few times the first few weeks after the nanny started. He has been spending two days a week with a very good nanny since he was 13 months. She is on board with whatever we are trying and keeps to his schedule. Any time he has woken up he has been relatively easy to settle without us even picking him up, other than the odd occasion with a very clogged nose or some other physical discomfort. Since walking I have had to be strict about putting him down sometime between 6.30pm and 7pm, whereas before he stayed up to see his dad until about 7.30pm.

The real trouble started recently, however, just before we moved house. On the day of the move he awoke at 5am. We assumed he realised things were changing and thought nothing of the waking on that day. The day of the move, he had a very tiring day at the zoo with the nanny with only 45 minutes pushchair sleep at around 2pm with a few minutes on the way home at around 4.30pm. He slept the next day until 7.15am! Since then, however, he has never slept past 5.40am. The day after the move we slotted back into the schedule I outlined above. However, this has been very rough on him as he gets exhausted by lunchtime because of the early morning waking. I have tried to go back to a small nap at 9.30am but he is not tired enough yet. He seems to need a nap at around 11am, when it is time to eat! After the move we tried to keep everything as similar to our old place as possible. He has almost the same decoration in his room. His bedtime routine has stayed the same – bath at around 5.45-6pm, dressing with a little quiet singing then several soft books with around 6-7oz of milk. In the past two months he has become very attached to a soft toy that he clings on to in bed. The only other change is that he has said his first real words in the past month outside of da-da and ma-ma, so now has expanded to other things such as bye-bye and his awareness of what we are saying and doing has grown a great deal as well. He sleeps in a sleeping bag and we have wondered lately if he is now uncomfortable in it. We also tried reducing his 2 hour daytime sleep to both 1.5 hours and 1 hour and neither of those changes has made a difference. It just means he is tired in the afternoons! He also has 19 teeth and is now getting the 20th, but has typically not been kept awake by teeth. Help!

Carla

Looking through your little boy’s day I am suspect that he is falling into an exhausted sleep at 6:30/7pm. This is frequently a problem at this age as suddenly he is much more active. Waking early in the morning is often a result of this. He is also aware of the move, although you seem to have tried to make it as smooth as possible. As he feels more familiar in the new house, you may find he will settle back to sleep again when he wakes in the early morning.

Try to be consistent about him settling back down in his cot until at least 6:45am. Each morning when he wakes and begins to cry go into him and tell him “it’s not morning yet, it’s time to sleep”. Some toddlers do come into their light sleep between 5 and 6am but will chatter to themselves for a while before going back to sleep if they are always told this.

Having tried to put back his morning nap without success you may have to build in a quiet time in the morning around his snack time. Use it as a time to look at a few books together. Some toddlers who do not sleep at this time will happily spend 20 minutes or so in their cots playing with a selection of toys, possibly whilst you or the nanny do some tidying upstairs. Would he then last until 11:45/12 noon before having his lunch? This way he would go down at 1pm for two hours which may help him not be so tired in the late afternoon.

Have you tried him without a sleeping bag at the lunchtime nap? Once you are able to see how he might cope you can decide whether to go without it at night. I have come across newly walking toddlers who suddenly seem to find them restricting. If you do decide to try without a bag at night, put your son in an all-in-one footed sleepsuit (usually made of fleece) as this will help him stay warm. I would also put a duvet of the right size in his cot as getting cold in the night could become another issue.

If your son has a very busy morning, build a quiet time into the afternoon around 4.30pm. Once in from your afternoon walk, try to sit with him for 20 minutes quietly looking at books before his tea at 5pm. Toddlers of this age can easily become overtired as they suddenly become so physical when they learn to walk, and may need a guiding adult to help them have some quiet times in the day. I can see that your bedtime routine is very calm which is good, but if your son can go down about 7pm and chatter to himself then drift off to sleep he may well sleep later in the mornings.