Early AM Riser 9 month old

[Nadine8]

My 9 month old son has been getting up really early (b/w 5-6) for the past 4 months.  He's grumpy after about an hour of waking up and goes down for a nap about 2-1/2 hours after that.  He usually takes a long 2 hour nap.  We put him down to bed b/w 7:30-8, so I don't think he's going to bed too early.  His crib is parked right next to our bed so whenever he's up so are we. I go to bed at the same time as him, but he still gets up 2x at night so I am still tired by the time his early wake up time arrives.  Some days I am able to put him back to sleep by nursing him, but most of the time I can't.  I have tried rocking him but he's a big boy now, weighing almost 25 pounds, and I just don't have the energy or strength at this hour to try to put him to sleep.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for all replies. 

[mamazee]

You're right that 7:30 to 8 isn't too early for bed for a baby, but I'd still personally try putting him to bed later to see if he sleeps later. I personally don't think it really matters what time a baby goes to bed so long as it's working for everyone in the house.

[cristeen]

What does his nap schedule look like, other than that morning one? 

You may need to adjust his bedtime, and it may take some tweaking to figure out.  Contrary to what you would think makes sense, we had to move my DS' bedtime to an earlier hour to get him to sleep later around that age.  If I put him down at 7, he would sleep until 7, but if he went down at 8, he'd get up by 6.  You just have to try a few times until you figure out what works.  Make adjustments in small increments (30 minutes), try it for a few days and then adjust again. 

I will say though that some kids are just like that.  My DS happens to be one of them.  Now that he's almost 2 1/2, I can count on one hand the number of times he's slept until 6 in the last month.  Doesn't matter what time he goes to bed. 

[Kadieladie]

I echo the call to try an earlier bedtime.  I know it doesn't make sense, but it worked for us too.  My daughter was getting up at 4-5 am.  Not acceptable.  We moved bedtime up an hour (in increments) and she sleeps till 6 now (at 10 months old).  And she still goes down for a morning nap about 2 hrs after she gets up.  I don't know that this is helpful, necessarily, but I just thought I'd chime in to say that this is our life too.