Early Morning Wakings

[LuvMyLO]

Hello. I'm not sure if this is where I should ask about this but my question is in regards to early morning wakings. My daughter Aria used to sleep 7pm- 6 or 630am but for the past month she wakes up at either 5 or 530. I always leave her in her crib till 6 because she will usually just talk or play till I come in but she rarely goes back to sleep. Aria is 7 months old. She takes two naps during the day. She has been a Catnapper since she was little but I have worked with her a lot and usually she will take 1 1hr nap and 1 2hr nap but sometimes still has bad nap days. She is on a three hr wake time schedule so her first nap is at 9 am and next is sometime between 1 and 2 depending on length of first nap. I can't tell if she is waking early because she is overtired or if I should move her bedtime later because she has enough sleep? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank u!

Tianna

[Haribo2012]

Hi, just a couple of questions....is she teething? How late is BT?
Ideally at this age you would still be having 2 long naps and a 12.5/13 hour day do to rule out OT I'd do BT no later than 13 hours from WU if you get 2 good 1.5 naps and 12 hours if naps are short...don't be afraid of EBT, at this age I did a few 5.30 BT if the day was getting too long.

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!!

[LuvMyLO]

Thank you for your response. Her bedtime is 7 pm. She is definitely super tired at 7. We barely make it thru the bedtime routine sometimes and she is out. She is still hit or miss on naps. Today her first was 1hr 30 but the second was only 45 minutes. I am nervous about making the bedtime too early cause I don't want to shift her whole schedule earlier. But we had actually tried 730 for a bit because we want to shift her day a little later but it backfired and she woke at 5 am. What would u suggest? If we put her down earlier can we eventually try to shift her schedule so she goes to bed 730 or 8 and wakes up closer to 630 or 7?

[LuvMyLO]

Oh and she is teething but it feels like she has been teething for months now so I'm not sure if it effecting sleep or not. She does sleep thru the night.

[Haribo2012]

It could be that BT is too late on that short 2nd nap and that is causing the EW. Often LO do better on an EBT and sleep longer.  You could try it for a couple of days I know it's scary but sometimes it really does work wonders and see if you get a good 12 hour night and then she'd be better rested to start the day. I know now my LO at 22 months will often have a better nights sleep if we do EBT on a bad nap day.
Can you post your EAS?

[LuvMyLO]

Sure. Aria has had reflux since birth and it got very bad a month or two ago and she ended up in the er cause she was losing weight. She was also born premature at only 4 lbs 8 oz. Just wanted to give you a little background. After she was in the er she was put on a feeding schedule and we unfortunately had to abound on a little bit of the eas routine. So this is where we r at:
6 am(she wakes at 5 or 530 lately and talks till we get her):wake/bottle
630 or 7: solids
9: bottle then nap
10 or 1030: wake(sometimes wakes at 930)
1130: solids
1 or 130: bottle the nap
230 or 3: wake(sometimes wakes at 2)
4:bottle
530:solids
700:bedtime

We've had to feed her small amounts of food every two-three hours to help her major reflux problems.

How early do u think I should move the bedtime? How many days should I try it to see if it helps? If she wakes earlier or the same time should I go back to original bedtime?

[Haribo2012]

Wow sounds like you've had it tough hun.
Is reflux under control now? I've no experience with reflux so can't help on that but can ask someone whose got experience to look if you need it!?
Teeth are a nightmare aren't they I tend to medicate if I can see the tooth shape or have lots of whinging and chewing.

I'd say if you get a 30 min second nap then being BT earlier by 30 mins hold for a few days see what happens. If second nap is good 1.5 then go for normal BT. Sometimes LO can get an OT build up and a few early nights can help get back on track. x