Sleep Issues

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Bob Sears

I have a question regarding my 17-month-old son's sleep cycles. For a few months now my son has been waking up between 4 and 5 AM each morning. This is very early for him. He used to wake between 6 and 7 AM. I am still breastfeeding him. When wakes up, he wants to nurse, so I bring him into our bed. After he's done, he becomes really restless, thrashing his legs around and crying some. This lasts for one to two hours until he finally falls into a deep sleep before waking for the day. My husband and I don't know what to do. I really feel bad for him because I know he's still tired, but he can't settle back to sleep. This happens every morning. Any advice on how I can help him sleep in a little longer would be great.

Sleep issues are often tough to tackle over the Internet. One suggestion I have would be to let him sleep with you all night, so that when he wakes up at 4 AM you might be able to shush him back to sleep before he fully wakens. He will then get to the point where he stops waking like that and sleeps all the way through the night. Then it's back to his own bed (if you can)!

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