11,5 months - early mornings and change in routine

[-Tilda-]

We have a 11,5 months old boy and we launched the SHN course 2,5 months ago with great success. Everything went really well and our son started to sleep 11 hours a night from the first night. Then two things went wrong.

Firstly, we had our summer vacation in August and spent 3 weeks in summer houses and hotel. Our son started to wake up at 6 a.m. instead of 8 o'clock and would not fall back to sleep in the unfamiliar places. We tried to jingle him every morning but he would not calm down. Well, we thought that it would all be allright once we get back home.

Once we returned home he started to sleep a bit later in the morning as we thought. However he suddenly slept so well during the night that he would not fall asleep for his second nap during the day. We thought that maybe he would then be ready to have only 1 nap during the day since he was already 11 months old. Once we changed the day routine to have only one nap, he started to wake up every morning at 6 again and will not fall asleep again dispite of all the jingles. When we wakes up he still seems to be tired.

Could you please advice me on how to get him to sleep a bit later in the morning and also on what kind of day routine would give him the best route to change to 1 nap when he is ready?

Thanks in advance for your reply!

[TinasDag]

Hi -Tilda- and welcome to annawahlgren.com!

A couple of questions:
What is your schedule?
Does he sleep in your room or in his own room?
How long did you "try" one nap a day? Any change takes a while to get used to and cutting down on sleep, especially to on nap a day, is always a little iffy 8)
My kids both changed to one nap when they were 11 months and Ingrid still likes a five min power nap if we're in the car around 9 am. Plus, forgett a stroll in the buggy between 10 and 11 am... She gets dead bored and drifts off to sleep... Remember that a 5 min powernap is alwas admissible (and sometimes necessary!) and won't affect the overall schedule

Early mornings are a hassle! We struggle with them as well. There are a couple of things you could check:
How dark is it in baby's room? Morning light filtering in signals the beginning of a new day and can be confusing. Perhaps you need to make some adjustments?
A reminding jingle the minute he wakes up! And make sure it is just that. a reminder that it's still night.

Try to disturb as little as possible. Music outside the room could help (or other sounds) to send the message that you're out there looking out for his interests. Listen to him. Do you really need to intervene? Use the jingle and try to refrain from going in to apply the physical tools as long as possible. Doing so usually only makes matters worse The less traffic the better.

Good luck,
Tina

[-Tilda-]

Hi Tina and thank you for your quick reply. At the moment our day looks like this:

6.00 wake up and milk
7.00 breakfast
8.30-9.30 nap
11.00 lunch
12.00-14.00 nap
14.00 milk and snack
16.30 dinner
19.00 pourrige
20.00 bedtime

We used to put him to bed at 20.40, but realized that he still wakes up at six if we put him to bed earlier. The ideal would be for him to sleep from 20.30 to 7.30 in order to get enough sleep.

Alvar has his own room and it is rather dark with the shades. I am thinking of buiyng still another curtain to see if that helps.

We only tried the one nap for a couple of days. I know that it was too short time but when he suddenly started to wake up 2 hours before he had used to it seemed to cruel to keep him awake. I realize now that we went to do that too quickly, we should have just shorten the first nap and do the shift little by little. But it is easy to say afterwards..

Regarding the mornings I think we have let wolves come in. When he wakes up, I say the jingle right away. I repeat it once every a couple of minute. He cries quite softly the first ten minutes but then he comes louder and louder. I wait for about 20 minutes and then go and pick him up. I think we have now done this for too long time and he doesn't wake up happy anymore. I don't go to the room before I go and pick him up.

It is uncomfortable for the parents to wake up so early but the most important thing would be of course for Alvar to get enought sleep per day..

[-Tilda-]

Hi again Tina,

I have some very good news. Our son slept till 7 this morning!

We bought and installed the extra curtains last night but Alvar still woke up at 5.40. I then said just one jingle and put on some classical music. He cried for 8 minutes but then started to listen and fell asleep again for half an hour. Then I put the music back on and he took probably a couple of 5 min naps or at least was rather quiet until seven o'clock. We then decided that 7 is late enough to be our morning.

So thank you TIna for your good advice, you just gave our son and us maybe an extra 1-2 hours of sleep a night (hopefully this will work from now on ) and that's a big gift!

Just a couple of questions still. If I still need to use the music for some time now would it be better to shut it down once he has fallen asleep again or just leave it on? The music could also be useful once he will move napping to his room instead of the strolls where he now takes his naps..?

We now will change our schedule to look like this, how does it seem to you?

7.00 wake up and milk
8.00 breakfast
9.30-10.00 nap
11.00 lunch
12.30-14.30 nap (or longer if needed)
14.45 milk
16.30 dinner
19.00 porridge
20.00 bedtime

And thanks also for the power nap tip, I will use it especially when changing to one nap a day.

Kind regard,
Tilda

[TinasDag]

Hi & congrats on the great morning!
I would leave the music on even after he's gone back to sleep. Ingrid wakes up straight away if I turn of our tv or steroe... As long as it doesn't disturb the rest of the faily that is 8)
As for using the music when Alvar starts sleeping in his room during the day I'd say it's a great idea. You can actually turn it on when you've put him down for the nap and leave it on as long as you like. That gives him something to listen to as he goes to sleep, and as you've seen by your morning they usually forget any protests they might have thought about

The schedule looks ok,althought would suggest the following changes:
The morning nap from 9.30-9.50 (sleep cycles are usually 20 or 45 min)
Considering the morning nap comes rather late I wonder whether he will be tired enough to go to sleep at 12.30? Maybe postpone the mid-day nap to 13? Since you don't put him to bed until 20.00 I think it'd be ok to let him sleep until 15.00.

Here are some examples of schedules others have used:

example of schedule, boy 10 month
19:00-7:00 12h night
7:15 välling
9:15 Snack
10:00-11:30 1,5h Nap
11:45 Lunch
14:30-15:00 45 min Nap
15:15 Snack
Dinner 17:30
18:30 välling

Child 1 year
Night kl 20 – 7.30
Breakfast kl 8
Lunch kl 11.30
Nap kl 12.30 – 14.30 (2 tim)
Snack kl 15
Dinner kl 18.30
Bath play and formula (välling)19 – 20
Good night kl 20.

Just some thoughts
Tina

[-Tilda-]

Hi Tina,

Just wanted to give you a quick follow up. On your comment you were completely right on the schedule - Alvar was not tired enough at 12.30 so that didn't work. We decided that he was ready to change to one nap schedule. We have now done it for almost 2 weeks and it has worked very well. He now sleeps until 7 in the morning, takes his naps 11.30-14.00 and goes to bed at 8 in the evening.

So everything is going well, thanks again for your good advice!

Best regards,
-Tilda-

[TinasDag]

Awesome :thumbsup:
I'm glad everything's on track, keep up the good work!
Cutting down to one nap can be tricky but you seem to have a firm grip on the situation
=D> =D>
Tina