Does my 11 month old just need less sleep?

1

1sttimemom

Registered User
Hi Mamas,

For the last 2 weeks, my baby has consistently (2 night exception) between waking up before 6am. At first, I thought/hoped it was a phase but now we technically should be out of that developmental phase and she is still waking between 530 and 6am.

She goes to bed at 7-715pm every night and has done so since birth. I'm wondering if this is...

1) due to the earlier sunrise (before 5am)- as we're in Beijing now, not sure if HK has this issue being so much further south, or

2) she's just older now and needs less sleep.

Any experience/ideas would be appreciated!
Thanks all!
 
BOTH of my kids ALWAYS wake up earlier in the summer. it IS due to the earlier sunrise. this happens every year for us, even though they have blackout curtains. through the winter months, they wake up between 6:45-7:30 but in summer, they wake anywhere from 5:30-6:30am. ..... I HATE IT! ;) it doesn't matter if they go to bed later, they still wake up earlier.
 
My 3 year old sleeps a 12 hour stretch so i dont think its older. Do you have black out curtains??
 
with my #2 - she's been sleeping 13 hour stretches (up from 11hours), but only started a couple weeks ago with the new grobag I got her and the air con on (I don't believe in black out curtains - never used them) maybe more comfortable environment?
 
Thanks mamas for the thoughts and suggestions. We have blackout curtains, but light does seep through the top. I also just turned on her air con about 4-5 nights ago.

I was just looking through Baby Center's "How much sleep does your baby need" and as a total, they do need about 15-30 mins less sleep as they go from 9 months to 12 months old (though this is just a guideline)...

Her naps during the day have been a lot more "solid" than they were when she was younger, so perhaps it's just her longer naps during the day is leading to less night sleep. A month ago, she'd take a 1-1.25 hour nap in the morning, and a 30-40 min nap in the afternoon.

Now, she can go up to 1.5 hours in the morning and more than 1 hour in the afternoon. What time do your babies go to sleep at night and if you've done 7pm bedtime as well as a 9pm bedtime, any difference in how well they sleep?
 
I think maybe she is having too much sleep in the day? One book I had said that if they are waking earlier then its time to shorten the day nap.

When my daughter was around that age we tried to streamline her nap with her older brother so went from 2 naps to 1. Bit of a disaster as now she only sleeps maximum 1.5 in the day. But she does sleep 7pm to 6.30am/7am. She has woken up about half an hour earlier in the last week which I think is the light rather than getting older (she is now 17 months). I am going to try and plug the gaps where the light seeps through as when we go in and tell her it is still time to be asleep, she quietens down. I think she thinks its later than it is as its lighter at the moment.

So, in short, might be worth shortening the day nap and block some of the light and see if that helps.
 
my son hasn't really napped since he was about 2.5 years old (he's now 6.5) and he still wakes REALLY early... so does my daughter. i don't generally believe in black out curtains either, but when the kids started waking at 5 am, i got them... and at least the kids usually sleep until 6-6:30 now...whatever works is my motto.
 
We use.. ahem... blackout binbags taped to the window ;-)

I think you just need to try a few different things for a while, shorter daytime naps, different bedtime etc but you may need to accept that's just when they wake up for the day like Carang said. We've tried all sorts and The Boy still wakes at 6, I think he's sleep training me as now I get up then as before I used to try to persuade him to sleep longer ;-)
 
I have an early bird too (3 years old). Nothing seems to help him sleep past 6am. Often it's 5:30am, especially on sunny summer mornings. I've given up hope that we have any control over this!
 
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