sleep/bottles

jwebb0512

DS is 14 months and we are working on eliminating bottles. I have a question for you ladies who've been there done that.

1. DS used to wake up around 5am and have a bottle then go back to sleep for another two hours or so. Since we eliminated that bottle, he wakes up anywhere from 4:30 to 5:45 and refuses to go back to sleep. I've tried many unsuccessful times to rock him and we've let him CIO, but only for about 20 minutes. My problem is that the schedule we had going is now totally thrown off. He wants to nap at 8:30 or 9:00, but only for 45 minutes or so. Most generally, he takes another nap in the afternoon, but sometimes refuses. So, by 5:30, he's a total mess. I'm sure he's exhausted. He's asleep by 6:30 most nights. How do I get him back on track? Either sleeping later so he takes better naps or get him to nap better? Pushing bedtime is a possibility, but I'm not sure how since he's a total mess at 5:30. We have a white noise machine. I've been reading about nap deprivation being typical with early risers because they're overtired. It just occurred to me that daylight saving times starts Sunday, so that screws things up even more. Any advice would be appreciated!

hilsy85

If things don't get better with daylight savings, I would just treat any wakeup before 6am as a MOTN waking...that's what we had to do when LO was waking at 5/515. So I would do checks just like I would do if he had woken at 2am. Also, it might take longer than 20 minutes--I would give it more time, as long as he's not completely hysterical. 

You could also try an earlier bedtime (like asleep by 545, 6 latest) to see if that helps him catch uo on sleep.