I think I spoke too soon about the self-regulating!! He's still waking up early. He's better now though thankfully. I think another tooth may appear soon though...
I have to say, I have no idea if he's under or over tired. It's so hard to tell as he's happy most of the time whatever you do.
3 days ago, he did this:
WU: About 6:15 (although he'd woken before 5 and then played around for a bit before dozing off again. I got him up at 6:30am)
Nap: 9:30-10:30
Nap: 2:25-3:55
Bed: 7pm
BUT then he woke at around 5am the next morning. He'd woken from both those naps himself and I hoped that he might do more than a 10 hour night
For the past 2 days he's also woken early, around 5am. I was worried that he was OT by such a long A time in the morning (although I don't get him up until 6:30 as I keep hoping he'll go back down!) so I put him down 15 minutes earlier for his first nap both today and yesterday. Unfortunately, this resulted in him capping all his naps like this:
Nap 1: 9:15-10:20 (I was going to see if he'd go on and wake up nearer his usual 10:30 and so catch up on a bit of sleep, but he didn't!)
Nap 2: 2:15-3:30
Bed: 6:55pm (he played around before settling - he was in bed before 6:30pm)
Nap 1: 9:15-10:10
Nap 2: 2:05-3:20
Bed: 6:30/35pm (he did actually seem tired - rubbed eyes - but then got hiccups so took 10 minutes to get rid of these!)
So, both days ended up slightly short but with slightly less sleep. If he caps a nap at around 1 hour 15 is this UT? He usually does longer for this second nap, but that's with more A time before the first nap, so he's probably more tired. The ONLY time I've had any sleep cues from him was tonight, when he rubbed his eyes as I was putting his babygro on! He often rubs his eyes when I put him in his sleeping bag for naps, if he hasn't been doing so before, but for the past 2 days I've had none of this. He's woken happy and doesn't seem tired - but who knows!?
Even DH is at a bit of a loss and he's normally the one who makes suggestions about what to try next! We're not sure how he can't be OT with all this early morning waking but maybe it's his way of giving himself more awake time? But if it is, we're not sure what to do about it. The only thing we can think of is to cap the first nap shorter to see if this helps him sleep in a bit longer in the mornings. Like:
WU: 6:30 (we live in hope!)
Nap 1: 9:30-10:15
Nap 2: 1:55-3:25 (moved forward 15 minutes)
Bed: 6:30
But then he'd really have to do an 11.5 hour night or we'd be in danger of creeping earlier and earlier (and we haven't got the clocks to help us this time!).
Does that seem overly harsh, cutting the first nap to 45 mins? It would give him 2 hours and 15 minutes sleep, which isn't that much but if he did a 11.5 hour night it's about right I think.
To be honest, we have no idea any more!! Sorry to ramble on. Is there any good way of telling if they are OT or UT? Thanks so much!