11 Month Old & Early Morning (4:40 AM) Wake-ups

Your daughters schedule should look a little like this for a 11 month old.

6:30 - 7:00 - wake up
10:00 - 10:45 -morning nap - possibly transission out of this by 1 yrs old
1:00 - 3:00 - afternoon nap
8:00 - 8:30 -bed time

You can see she will still be sleeping for the same amount of hours you just need to move than around a little bit. Try to keep her up a little longer each night and it will slowly change her schedule

Good luck!

I haven't tried this myself, but my good friend has done this with her son and it worked-

He was waking around 4 am every night. She or her DH started waking up 45 minutes to an hour before that and going and rubbing his back. The goal was to make him stir without totally waking him up. The idea is that it would reset his sleep, and that he'd sleep through the 4am wake up time. They did this for a few days, then he started sleeping though on his own. I believe they got this trick from the Baby Whisperer.

Like I said, I didn't try it myself (I would have if I'd known about it). But it seems easy enough to give it a try for a couple of nights.

Best advice- work to keep her up more during the day. She is getting enough sleep with all of the naps so she needs less at night. If you transition her to shorter naps or one less, she will likely sleep later in the morning to make up for it. Sounds like she really needs one less nap to give you 2 more am hours asleep! Good luck!

Have you tried nursing her back to sleep? Often when my ten month old wakes up around this time, she is hungry, so I nurse her and she goes back to sleep.

I would try shortening her morning nap to 45 minutes. Then move her afternoon nap to 1:00 to 3:00. That way she will be awake for more than 2 hours before going to bed for the night.

Hi J.,
As others have suggested, I'd put your daughter down later in the evening, around 8 or 8:30. At 4:40 when she wakes up, put her back in her crib after giving her a feeding and changing her diaper (if you do those things, I'm assuming you do). You can teach her to fall back asleep, and after you've taught her to fall asleep you can also teach her not to wake up at 4 to eat in the first place...

It will take time and discipline so good luck!

UGH! My DD did this too - for weeks on end.

What worked for us what getting her down to one nap, and putting her to bed a little later - 8pm.
It took at least a month for this to work, so don't expect it to work overnight.

I aimed for a 12:30 nap time. When she was waking at 4:30 am her nap was at 9:30, so every day I moved it up 10-15 min. til we got til 12:30. I did the same with her bedtime - moving it up 10-15 min til we got to 8pm.

Now, with that being said, while you are getting the schedule set, your daughter will still need two naps. Let the second one be shorter and shorter.

For instance, have her nap at 9:15 - 11:00, then her second nap will be at 3:45, wake her at 4:45, put her to bed at 7:45. Do this for 3 days.
Then have her nap 9:30-11:15, put her down at 4:00, wake her at 4:45. put her to bed at 8:00pm.
Do that for 3 days.

You can then move her am nap up 30 min - 10:00-11:30, nap from 4:15-4:45, bed at 8pm.

Keep shortening the afternoon nap - once it is only 15 min long, after 3 or 4 days, keep her awake til bedtime.

A lot of days my LO would refuse a second nap so it was a car ride or a walk in the stroller.

Good luck - be consistent, give it the time it needs to sort the schedule out, and it will work! GOOD LUCK!

Oh my gosh I have to completely disagree with several of the posts. I do not think she is getting too much sleep at all!!! I think that's actually almost too little sleep for an 11 month old! I think many many babies today are sleep deprived and it contributes to all the increases in learning disabilities etc (not that that has anything to do with you or your baby, I'm just saying)

I think you can do a couple of things. I found my little one at that age could only go a max of about 2.5 - 3 hrs awake before getting overtired. I just looked back at my diary from when my daughter was 11 months old and here is what she did:

7:00 nurse
8:30-9 ish eat (8 tbsp cereal & 3-4 oz formula, 3-4 prunes, trial food, 1/3 banana, some yogurt, cheerios)
around 9 or 9:45 – expressed milk before putting down for NAP (duration 1.5 – 2.5 hrs) and when she gets up
12:30-1 ish eat (carrots, broccoli, peas, chick peas or kidney beans, pears, couple cheerios, some yogurt, macaroni)
around 2-3 or so NAP (1-2 hrs) offer milk first and when she gets up
6:30 eat (veggies & fruit, 3-4 tbsp yogurt, some cheerios)
8:00 nurse to sleep or before bed

So she was totalling 13-14 hrs a day.

I think the best idea is exactly what one of the early posts said - the baby whisperer calls it wake to sleep - you go in just before you know she's going to wake up and disturb her ever so slightly so that she'll go back to sleep. I'v e never tried it but it makes good sense. The other thing is the food - if she's hungry she won't sleep through so maybe have a good look at her food/milk consumption and make sure she's getting enough to eat & drink? The other thing is to try to get the afternoon nap a little earlier if possible. Although that doesn't seem like it's the problem if she falls asleep easily at 7:30.

I think it's too early to move to one nap especially since she's still doing well with two. Mine did two naps until she was at least 15 months old or so.

best of luck!!!

Ok, I really dont think it is about how much sleep she is getting, my daughter did the same, I dont know if you are for crying it out, but I did it with my daughter. She was waking at 430 and then I just didnt go in and get her, she cried for 1 hour, tehn fell back asleep until 630. the next morning I didnt get her, she cried for 15 min, then on the 3 morning she didnt get up until 630 am...She has been great after that until now. She wakes becasue she knows you will get her. It will not hurt her to try it. It will work, it is just hard to let her cry. I promise, i did it everytime with my daughter with sleep training. She nows sleeps 730-8am....If you are not a fan of cry it out, then no hard feelings on me...It works for us...Good luck.