8mth Old Waking Early and Sleeping Erratically during the day - any advice?

[LittleMan]

Hi
Ds is 8 months old and until the new year was sleeping 7.30-7.30 then having 2 x 1hr or so naps a day! He was ill on and off for over 3 weeks with ear infections, the last one i had to wake him at 5am to give him antibiotics - groan! Since about a week ago he has been so much better much more himself, much more chatty and active but now waking early and not sleeping well during the day. He wakes anywhere between 5.30 and 6.30 (not bad for some of you out there i know but unusual for him!) and then can sleep for anywhere between 1 hour and 3 hours during the day - i have always let him lead the daytime sleeps really, but as long as he was getting roughly a couple of hours things were ok. Waking early is leaving him tired in the mornings so I am pretty sure he can do with more sleep but due to activities we do, it is just not possible to do the same thing everyday, i.e a short morning sleep and then longer afternoon one, so I do wonder if he is a bit messed around and not sure what to do. I try to get him to nap around 9.30/10.00 for around and hour, then again at 1.30/2 for roughly the same time when at home. Also, when I see he is tired, I put him to bed but then he messes around for ages, and i usually have to go and 'rescue' him a couple of times before he finally drops off - this can take ages sometimes!
Guess what I am asking is what can I expect at this age? Is one longer daytime sleep at lunch better now rather than a morning and afternoon one? Routine generally 7am - Bottle, 8-8.30am - Breakfast, 9.30/10 - sleep, 11/11.30am - Snack, 12.30ish - Lunch, 1.30/2 - sleep, 3.30ish - Milk, 5.30ish - Dinner, 6.30 - bath, 7.00 - Milk and bed.
We have taken the decision to leave him in the mornings, going in once to tell him that it is sleepytime, then when it is time for milk we go in and make a bit show of opening the blinds in his room and in the rest of the house and saying 'now it's daytime'.
Any suggestions anyone? Sorry now i've read this back i've realised its really long!

[fifiandtheflowertots]

No advice but i will watch this thread. Ive got a simalar problem with my ds who is 9 month. He used to go from 7-6 which was fantastic but he's started waking up at 4.30 for no reason. Theres been no change in his routine.
Dp dropped his dream feed the night before last and he did sleep until 6 again so i dont know if the dream feed has been disturbing his sleep or not. Will stop the dream feed for now and see if it does make a difference

[fizzbuzz]

Dd is like this ALL the time, completely random. She is 7 months old. I would go with the flow, and be guided by him, it may settle down.

[becksmummy]

my dd is 7 months and is doing the same thing, used to wake 6.30/7am but now wakes anywhere between 3.30am and 5am but wont go back to sleep in her cot and makes too much noise to just leave her so she ends up in bed with us until time to get up. Hope it is just a phase but will watch this thread for any suggestions!

[fifiandtheflowertots]

Do you currently do a dream feed?
Ive dropped the dream feeds now for 3 nights and ds has slept much longer, i even had to get him up this morning at 6.45 to go to the babysitters.

[LittleMan]

Hi All
Seems a common thing then! No we got rid of the dream feed before Christmas as we decided that it was being disruptive and as ds was on 3 good meals a day it was no longer necessary. We gradually weaned him off it but removing and ounce every 3 days, he was a bit funny the first night he didn't have any but we persisted and he slept through from then on until he got the ear infections.
Day time sleep is affected too, this morning he crashed out for an hour or so, but this afternoon messed around, finally fell asleep but only for 25mins. Sister-in-law was looking after him as it's my birthday so having hair done, and she left him for a bit but he got quite vocal in the end so she got him out! He went to sleep ok tonight, but very restless so think it's going to be another early one tonight. Decided to try and have 3 days of a stricter routine, sleep at 10am, sleep at 1.30/2am and no more than 2 hours a day to see if that helps things, can't really think what else to do!
Any more advice greatly appreciated!!

[fifiandtheflowertots]

Ive tried to keep ds to strict sleep times but ive just gone back to work and when other people are looking after him they tend not to stick to it as much as i do.
I dont know what happened last night but ds woke up at 3.20 and wouldnt go back to sleep, but nothing had changed with his routine yesterday. I hope that it was just a one off as we've had 3 nights of 6-6.30 wakings