12 month old 530 wake up! Cannot break the cycle!! Help please!!

[Laineybobs]

Hi all
I posted on general sleep issues a month or so ago as my 11 month old was waking bang on half 5 every morning. I was advised to start capping naps which we did and he currently does 30-40 in morning and then 1-1hr 10 in afternoon so about 145-150 sleep a day and then sleeps 730-530 at night, with wake ups some nights but not all. When we started capping naps we had one or two nights when he slept until 6/615 but it's been 530 since. I'm totally stuck what to do!! 10hrs sleep a night and not even 2 in day doesn't seem enough! He always cries when be wakes at 530. Some mornings hubby can get him back to about 615/630 but in the whole he can't but we don't brjng him in to feed until 630.

His easy us currently:

Wake 530
E 615
A
S 1015
Y

E 11
A - lunch at 1230
S1415
Y

E 4 (snack)
A - dinner at 5/515
S 7/715
Y

I am at a loss as to what to do!!! I don't know if we are in an over tired loop and that's why we are getting the EW?? Please help! I'm a zombie at work and it's starting to affect our family life to!!!!

[cath~]

I'd cap his am nap a bit more - try 15 mins say and see if that helps. You might have to bring the pm nap a bit earlier then but hopefully he should still last til the same BT (I see his a time to BT is quite short ATM). He's probably ready to be on one nap pretty soon. His am A time is nearly 5 hrs.

[Laineybobs]

That would only bring him to 1hr 15 sleep in the day which seems far too little for someone so young?! I felt like he needed more sleep?!!!

[cath~]

Often LOs actually get more sleep when they drop a nap (eg 1-0, 2-1 or 3-2). With my dd1 I found in the 1-0 in particular if she had even a tiny nap her nights were much shorter than the amount of sleep she got from the nap.

A decrease in total sleep and/or being in an OT/UT loop is often a sign that a nap needs to be dropped  soon.

Which is to say , crazy as it might sound , the aim of capping and then dropping the am nap is to lengthen the pm nap and the night, mostly likely by more than the amount of sleep capped off the am nap.

Most people do find it works like this so I'd def give it a try IIWM.

[jnduff]

It was almost like I wrote this.  My LO is just 12 months and his schedule is very similar to yours.  He wakes at 5:15 or so every morning without fail!  Once or twice he has slept until 6:15 or later but only when he had a few night wakings.

He goes to bed at 7:15 and wakes at 5:15
I too have capped his morning nap and now he sleeps from 9:30-10 and then 1-3 in the afternoon.

I feel like someone so young needs more sleep and not sure what to change at this point.