OP, my baby is nearly the same age (11 months) and is on almost exactly the schedule you mention at his daycare (also an in-home). At daycare, they only allow morning naps to go about 30 minutes, so he's down at 9, up at 9:30, down at 12 or 12:30, up at 2:30. He melts down nearly every night around 6:30 and we have him in bed by 7. He sleep through the night and is up by 5:30ish am. I nurse him, put him back in crib, and he sleeps for another hour, usually.

This is just how babies this age are (this is my second child and first was almost the same). Embrace the early wakeup, as others have mentioned. My big kid (nearly 5) is asleep by 7:30 and awake by 6 a.m (and still naps in p.m., though that will end with kindergarten). He knows now to stay in bed looking at books, but some kids are just early risers and fighting it doesn't work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guys, guys, guys! OP here. We didn't do a sleep study. We took him for a 15 minute consult with a sleep clinic. It cost us a whopping $30 copay. Some people pay $600 for a sleep consultant who has no qualifications other than they maybe set up a website and have a kid or two themselves. Take it easy, folks. We just want to get our kid on an optimal schedule and sought out some professional advice to help us get there.

There is no "optimal schedule"! And in a group care setting, you're never going to get optimal anyway.

NP but yes there is an optimal schedule. I don't think OP is wrong. I wish more people had schedules. I see a lot of over tired, cranky babies everywhere. Their parents say they don't sleep and just shrug their shoulders about it. Sleep is important and critical to brain development.

Every baby is different. This could be this baby's optimal (natural) schedule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When our kids went thru the 5am wakeup time, we just pulled them into our bed and they promptly fell back asleep until 7am.

This didn't work for me. Baby cooed, grunted and tried to pick my nose for two hours.

Us too. Lots of face smacking, poking our eyes, exploring your face with tiny little fingers. Bringing the 5am wake up into our bed just meant both parents were awake at 5am. With our first, we quickly figured out taking turns getting up with her was the best way through it. She's 2.5 now, with a 6 month old little brother, and the entire house is generally up by 6am latest. It's just how we roll. 9am breakfast dates are our favorite!

We just didn't let baby leave her bed until 7am. She caught on super quickly that that was the official wakeup time. Sometimes I still hear her coo in her crib before 7am, but she won't cry until 7am because she doesn't think we're coming to get her.

12:30 is probably when all the other kids go down for their one nap of the day--and the only time your provider gets a break.

And, within a few months, your own child will be down to one nap a day. This phase isn't going to last forever.

How is it abnormal for a toddler to wake up at 5 anyway? Annoying to parents, sure, but well within the range of normal.

Anonymous wrote:Guys, guys, guys! OP here. We didn't do a sleep study. We took him for a 15 minute consult with a sleep clinic. It cost us a whopping $30 copay. Some people pay $600 for a sleep consultant who has no qualifications other than they maybe set up a website and have a kid or two themselves. Take it easy, folks. We just want to get our kid on an optimal schedule and sought out some professional advice to help us get there.

There is no guarantee that your baby is going to follow YOUR preferred schedule. Babies laugh in the face of schedules

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When our kids went thru the 5am wakeup time, we just pulled them into our bed and they promptly fell back asleep until 7am.

This didn't work for me. Baby cooed, grunted and tried to pick my nose for two hours.

Us too. Lots of face smacking, poking our eyes, exploring your face with tiny little fingers. Bringing the 5am wake up into our bed just meant both parents were awake at 5am. With our first, we quickly figured out taking turns getting up with her was the best way through it. She's 2.5 now, with a 6 month old little brother, and the entire house is generally up by 6am latest. It's just how we roll. 9am breakfast dates are our favorite!

Honestly, it's the 8 pm bedtime that's the problem. Try moving it up.

Regardless of what your daycare does now, your kid is going to go to one nap a day pretty soon and so whatever situation you have now is going to change in a few months. This is definitely one of hose "just wait, it will pass" kind of problems.

My son is 11 months and wakes up a 5, but I nurse him then and then he sleeps two more hours. Also, day care naps are a mess, some days he barely sleeps, others its 3 hours, there's nothing to do about it.

I'm not understanding why you are concerned about a 5am wake up. It's morning. I don't have young children anymore and I don't work outside the home. I am up by about 5:30 every morning because it's morning. If you are tired, can you go to bed a little earlier?

Daycares operate on their own schedules. Kids nap at nap time. As a parent, you just have to accept that most daycares are not going to work around your individual preference.

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I came here for a reality check, and I got one, so thank you for that. I'm not being facetious, this is my first baby in daycare (I was home with my older child until she was 19mos), so I'm not always 100% sure what expectations are realistic and which are not. So hearing others' experiences is helpful. The side of snark is less appreciated, but whatever.

I say this with 0 snark: First, I am sorry you have an early riser. That sucks. 2nd I hope you have not shown your frustration at your provider and if you have, an apology would be go a long way.

I hate to tell you this but I have friends whose kids still wake up at 5am well into the elementary years. They're just early risers. The bright side (to them) is that they are in bed by 7pm.

Anonymous wrote:Guys, guys, guys! OP here. We didn't do a sleep study. We took him for a 15 minute consult with a sleep clinic. It cost us a whopping $30 copay. Some people pay $600 for a sleep consultant who has no qualifications other than they maybe set up a website and have a kid or two themselves. Take it easy, folks. We just want to get our kid on an optimal schedule and sought out some professional advice to help us get there.

You want YOUR kid on an optimal schedule. That schedule is clearly not optimal for his care provider. So your options are to work with the non-optimal schedule or find another care provider who is able to provide the individualized attention that will facilitate the optimal schedule.

OP again. I came here for a reality check, and I got one, so thank you for that. I'm not being facetious, this is my first baby in daycare (I was home with my older child until she was 19mos), so I'm not always 100% sure what expectations are realistic and which are not. So hearing others' experiences is helpful. The side of snark is less appreciated, but whatever.

Anonymous wrote:When our kids went thru the 5am wakeup time, we just pulled them into our bed and they promptly fell back asleep until 7am.

This didn't work for me. Baby cooed, grunted and tried to pick my nose for two hours.