early wakings - almost night

[sinella]

Hi there - this is the first time I use a message board so please forgive me if I'm not in the right spot,,,,

I have a 13 1/2 month old son who always has had sleep issues (Dr. Sears didn't help). I finally got a hold of the baby whisperer books when he was 6 months and began PU/PD with  moderate successs at first. I recently needed to do the walk in/walk out. Presently my DS has a 1 hr to 1.5 hr nap in the morning around 9:00 am and another nap (sometimes up to 2 hr) at around 1:30 pm. However, when he is at daycare, we are lucky if he naps at all in the morning and 45 minutes to an hour  in the afternoon (he's at day care 3 x a week, and starting in March 4x/wk) He is asleep by 7:30 pm every night. He has occasional night walkings but usually all I need to do is lay him down. The big problem is that he thinks the start of the day is between 4:00 and 4:30 am. He literally wakes up happy as can be. We've tried walking in and out and a variety of other things including bottle and rocking. If we're lucky he falls asleep at 5:30 am and wakes at 7:00 am. There are many times when he won't go back to sleep. We've tried pushing back his sleep time and he still wakes at the same hour. The last couple of nights we tried wake to sleep at 3:30 am, which only resulted in him being awake at that hour and still taking to 5:30 am to fall asleep again.

I'm desperate. I return to work next week. I did everything possible to transition him slowly into the daycare - no sign of separation anxiety - but sleep remains an issue. Need help, advice and encouragement,,,'cause I recently found out Number 2 is on the way and you can imagine how much I need to sleep!!!!

[mari]

Hello Sinella,

Congratulations on Baby no 2.  I must admit that I am not an expert on early risers, but hopefully someone on this board will be able to help.  There is a support thread for early wakings.
If Alex wakes early it is usually because she is overtired and has gone to bed too late the previous evening.  Perhaps you could put the bedtime at 7pm and see if that helps. 

[sinella]

Hi Mari
  Thx for the reply and the note of congrats,,,unfortunately, we've tried that too (that is, putting him to bed earlier). Didn't work - sometimes resulted in even earlier wake times!! I will try to find that thread,,,somewhat technologically challenged. I can't believe I managed to post and reply. Putting in a photo of my early riser will be a whole other ball game.

Still looking for advice,,,

[mari]

Here is the thread.  From one techically challenged babywhisperer to another!!!!


https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65851.0

Hope you get some help and support here.

[imsmum]

How long have the early mornings been happening?  Given his age and the trouble he has been experiencing recently taking his morning nap at daycare it makes me wonder if he is not ready to go to one nap.  Early wakings can be a sign of that because they need more A time before nap--it seems like about 4.5 hourswhich with a normal wakeup of around 7 would put his nap time at 11:30--which is when many lo's start napping when they first transition to one nap.  I suspect the short afternoon nap at daycare is because he is in fact way overtired by the time they put him down--any chance they could put him down around 11 or 11:30 to see how he does? 

BW solves all your problems has a good section in it about transitioning to one nap.

[sinella]

I don't know how that would work. He has a solid 1.5 to 2 hr nap in the morning when he's at home. And I'm wondering how could he handle being awake from 5:00 am to 11:00 am??? As it is, he tends to fall asleep in the car on his way to the daycare - around 7:30 am - which is distastrous because he then sleeps a max of 15 minutes and then thinks he's done for the morning. Should I try putting him down at 11:30 first at home?? I'm going to have the convince the daycare that is the right time - it's the lunch hour. Also, wouldn't he be getting too little sleep ?(mind you that is happening now on his daycare days). Still desperate,, just didn't visit the board 'cause lots going on. I lost the second baby at nearly 12 weekes.

[Katet]

Sorry to hear about your loss
I agree I think given the total sleep he is getting in 24hours it looks like he really needs less day sleep & possibly 1 nap in the not too distant future.  Theoretically a 12mo needs around 13.5 -13.75 hours sleep but when they still nap 2x day that can tend to be lower as they don't get as tired
I'd look at a max of 30mins in the am & 1.5 -2 hours in the PM.  so offering 30mins at 9.30 & then the pm nap at around 12.30/1.
Then gradually move the am closer to 10am & lessen it to 20mins. If that doesn't improve the early wakings, then cut it to 10mins.

If he is sleeping that catnap in the car, maybe try giving him a snack to eat on the way, that helped with my ds#1.

It is hard to work out what to do, but I think you need to limit day sleep to 2-2.5 hours total as it is robbing the night sleep.