15 Month Old Wakes up Early in the Morning

Sounds like he's getting enough sleep. If you want him sleeping later, you'll need to gradually keep him up later.

Kids use sleep to grow in. If he's not growing very fast anymore, his sleep needs will diminish until he is.

As much as it might suit parents, few kids go to bed early AND get up late... you generally only get one or the other.

Sometimes they go through this stage. Is he still not taking a nap. My 15 month old is down to one 2hr nap a day and sometimes it's only an hour and a half. I hope you get him back down to one 2 hr nap a day. Is he by any chance hungry? I always make sure my baby is full, diaper changed and put him down for a few mins to see if he'll rest or fall asleep w/i 15 mins. He generally will. His naptimes have changed several times so maybe you're putting him down at the wrong times? Try a few different things: making sure he's full, diaper changed, quiet room if he likes quiet, music playing if he likes that, different time of day, etc. good luck!

My twins are 15 months old and sometimes they have one nap days, and sometimes two. I found they were not ready for everyday to be a one nap day.

I try to workout away from home twice during the weekdays and they are in a very active daycare during that time, from 9 to 10:30 . I give them lunch before we leave because they fall asleep in the car on the way home about 11. They easily go into their cribs without waking at home.

It was a transition at first. They had to learn to sleep longer when taking one nap. Somedays it worked, others it didn't.

On days they took two naps they usually went to slept around 8:30 - 9 and 12:30 - 1:30. If I put them down after 2:00, they didn't sleep well at night.

At night they go down between 7 and 8, usually closer to 8 on a 2 nap day and 7:30 on a one nap day. They wake anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 am. When my daughter started to wake earlier we let her try and go back to sleep or brought her to our bed.

The thing I noticed most was that there was transition time making changes and just being flexible with my schedule & plans so they are not over tired. We put a swing in the backyard which helped to give me something to do with them late afternoons and early evenings when they were more tired. =)

Most kids that age do not take 2 naps so you should count yourself lucky that you had such a good run. lol As for the waking up early they do say that if you put your kids to bed earlier they tend to sleep in a little later. I know it sounds backwards but sometimes kids don't sleep good because they are over tired and not getting enough sleep. So I would start moving his bed time to 8 or even 7:30 it will probably take a week or so to do. like the first night put him to bed at 8:15 instead of 8:30 and gradually move the bedtime up. See if that helps. Then I wouldn't put him down for a nap until about 1. it's far enough away from morning so he should be tired but not so close to bedtime that he won't be ready to sleep around 7:30 or 8. Give this a try and see if it helps.

You've heard this before, I'm sure: Sleep begets sleep. An overtired child will not fall asleep easily or stay asleep too long.
My advice (if you have the luxury of being home with him thru the day) is to forget that clock on the wall when he gets up. Feed him, and play, play play! Give him "lunch" when he seems to be at the very beginning of glazing over, change him and then put him down for a nap after lunch. Even if lunch is at 11:00 because he is getting up "early" (not sure what time is early could be 5:00 am or 6:30 a.m.) Once you get a feel for how many hours he'll be up before lunch/nap, start working backwards by ooching his bedtime earlier. I'm thinking 7 would be a good time to at least be in the tub then jammies....Also make sure he is full when he goes to bed. Kids wake up if they're hungry.
O. long nap would be good in the afternoon ideally after lunch til about 3 or 3:30 so he's sleepy by bathtime at 7-7:30...Good luck!

I agree with those that say one nap a day is good at this age. Also, as lots of people will advise you, sometimes putting your kid down earlier will actually help him sleep in a bit later. We do a 7pm bedtime, and can usually get him to sleep until 6am. Unfortunately, at this age, most toddlers are just earlier risers.

General tips: make sure the room is very dark, so early light doesn't wake him. Avoid cat naps in cars/strollers.

If you're just trying to extend the morning sleep by an hour or so, what eventually worked for us (when he'd wake up at 5), was to go in and turn on a dim light (like a nightlight) and give him a stack of board books. This usually held his interest for awhile. Sometimes he'd drift back to sleep, sometimes he'd play/protest for awhile, but gradually he started sleeping a bit later.

Good luck!

Make sure he has an active morning with a good amount of outdoor activities. Then wait and put him down for a nap shortly after he has his lunch... we find one p.m. is good for our daycare children. Sit quietly nearby until he falls asleep and gently wake him after two hours, if he sleeps that long. He is old enough for just the one nap a day, and this may help regulate his sleep pattern at night. Most children his age will resist a nap time during the day even though they probably need it. Don't make it a big power struggle, but firmly and gently help him to settle down long enough to fall asleep so that he gets the necessary body rest.

My 17 month old is an early riser and gets up 30 min to an hour earlier than my 3 yr old. As much as I hate to get up early, I do enjoy getting up with him for some quiet time in the morning. We get up, I get a cup of coffee and turn on some TV. I usually get him some dry cereal or fruit to snack on and afterwards he kind of buzzes around the house and plays quietly. It gives me time to wake up and think about the always crazy and chaotic day I have ahead of me :-)

He might be ready to drop to 1 nap a day. My daughter usually wakes around 7 and I will put her down around 12. I think if you put then down between 5-6 hours of being awake they usually take a 45 min - 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap. You can adjust the time depending how long he is sleeping. So if you put him down at 12:00 and only sleeps 45 min I would push it to 12:30 and see if he sleeps longer and usually 1:00 is the latest I will put my daughter down. If she goes down at 1:00 and naps for 1 1/2 hours then she should be tired around 7:30 - 8:00 pm.
In be beginning she had a hard time so I walked her around in her stroller and she was out :0) Hope this helps or something to think about.

The only thing I have to add is that when my daughter switched to one nap she actually had an easier time dropping the afternoon nap (which I guess is less common). She was still pretty tired in the morning around 10 and we had to gradually move the nap time by 15 minutes at a time over the course of a couple of weeks. Definitely follow the advice about an earlier bedtime - my daughter is 19 months and goes down at 7:30 or 8 and wakes at 7 or 7:30 ( a vast improvement from going down at 8:30 or 9 and waking at 4:45!!!). I highly recommend the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth so that you will know in advance how sleep patterns will be changing and can feel educated about how to ease the transitions. Good Luck!

He/She might be getting too much and is ready to transition to one nap a day.

I agree with Andrea. At about this age my younger daughter transitioned to one nap a day around 12:30. Bedtime was always 7:30 until 1st grade when it moved to 8pm. Make sure you're getting a really active morning in and eat lunch a little early-ish, or he'll start falling asleep in his plate! Nap from about 12:30pm to 2:30-3pm then up. If he sleeps past 3pm, go open his door and curtains to let some sun in to wake him. Make a little noise, tidy his room, whatever. Best if he wakes up gradually by himself and not abruptly, which will just get you a cranky little man! Have a little snack then back to an active day. Bed at 7:30pm. You don't say how early he's waking, but this routine should get him stretched out a little more in mornings. Keep in mind that he may just be an early riser. My older daughter's best was 6:30am. Nearly killed me! She's now 15yrs and while her friends are sleeping away half their day, she's bright and ready by 8 each morning. Your little guy may just be an early bird. :o)

I agree on switching him to 1 nap a day. I think we did ours around 12:30 back then and now 1 or 1:30. You may want to move his bed time up to 7 or 8 (probably 7) until he gets use to it. Our daughters schedule is in bed at 8 and up between 7 and 8. She naps from 1-4 most days. She's a sleeper though. Our daughter got in the habit of waking up at 6 and we started telling her it was still night night time and she had to go back to sleep. We would then leave her in there. She could talk, play or whatever, but could not get out of bed. She spent some mornings crying, but that went quickly. We also bought black out shades (actually black out fabric at the fabric store and screwed it into the wall) and a clock from One Step Ahead that you could program to change to green when it was time to get up. We have the clock set up in her room, but we've never used it for that but it seems like a great idea :O)
Best of luck,
C.

Your child probably does not need 2 naps.

Try to get him on a schedule so that he has really active play for at least and hour (hour and a half is best) mid morning. Then try to get him to nap by 12:30. Put up black out curtains in his room and a sound machine to block outside noise.

When he wakes up give him a snack and another hour to hour and a half really active play outside.. Quiet play, quiet dinner, quiet bath and bed by 7:30.. Again darkened room, sound machine story and then sleep..