10 month old EW habit!

[smahalik]

DS has struggled with sleep his whole first 10 months of life, but is finally STTN (most nights)! When he had multiple NWs, he would sleep until 6:30 or 7 AM b/c he was up so many times through the night. However, now that he's STTN, he's up at 5 AM sharp every morning!! He will go back down if I rock him (pretty easily), but I'm trying to get him to go back down on his own and am really struggling. Although he wakes up happy and chatting at 5 AM, I'm sure he's not getting enough sleep! Here's his EASY:

Wake: 5 AM (APOP or stay with him until 6 AM when I let him get up)
Nap 1: 9:30 - 10:30 AM (I treat it as though he's up at 6, hoping this will help)
Nap 2: 2:15 - 3:15 PM
BT: 7:15 PM

I think his days are pretty good! We don't have too much trouble with naps (anymore) and he usually sleeps 1 - 1.25 hours each nap (rarely more). I can't think of any way to tweak his daytime that would help the EW.
Soooo...I've been trying to get him to go back down on his own. If he stands or sits up, I do PD. Otherwise, if he lays and cries/fusses, I just pat him occasionally and stand with him. But the past few morning, he cries the whole time from 5 - 6 and just can't (won't?) go back to sleep!! The last two days, I got him up b/c he was wet and I changed him and gave him teething tablets (just in case). What else should I be doing?? He screams bloody murder if I just leave him there from 5 -6 (even if I'm there with him)!!

[Erin M]

I think you're probably in the very early stages of heading towards 1 nap -- you can have a read of this and see what you think: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=145285.0

He could also need a longer A time until bed -- you might try to do this by capping his AM nap so it's shorter, thus putting him down earlier for his second nap, and lengthening his A time until bed.  With ds, I tend to get EWs when he's napped too late in the day. 

[smahalik]

Thanks! I've read a lot about the transition and have been slowly working toward it, but sometimes he still does 2 1 hour naps. However, yesterday he had a 1 hour morning nap and only a 30 minute afternoon nap and STILL woke at 4:45 AM!! He finally went back down at 6 AM (just the time I usually let him get up, of course:() and slept until 6:45 AM. He really tends to sleep longer in the mornings, so was thinking I would try a longer morning nap and a shorter afternoon nap. Guess maybe I can try that for a few days. Should I still try to get him to go back to sleep when he has an EW? Or just let him get up?

[smahalik]

Oh yeah, and DS' other problem is that he still needs a long A time even after a short nap!! So that makes the 2-to-1 transition really hard!!

[Erin M]

I always tried to get mine back to sleep when they woke early (even if it was in bed with me), but that was my own personal preference -- some moms find it easier to get them up -- as long as it doesn't turn into the "new" wake up time, you should be ok.  Although if he does get back to sleep, it has the possibility of shortening your day a bit and making the transition a little bit easier. 

Those long A time do make the transition difficult.  What if you work on pushing that AM nap out as far as you possibly can and then just do an early BT instead of even bothering with a second nap?  He's on the young side for 1 nap, but not unheard of -- did he drop the cat nap early too? 

[smahalik]

Thank you!! I think I'm going to try the AM capped nap and earlier PM nap first. He just seems so young for 1 nap! I think today I'm going to try:

Wake: 6:00 AM (it was 5, but I rocked until 6)
Nap 1: 9:30-10:00
Nap 2: 1-2:30 (not sure if he'll go down after only 3 hours, but I'll try)
BT: 7:00 or 7:30

What do you think about this??

[Erin M]

Sounds like a good plan!  You can always try capping the first nap further if he won't go to sleep -- I think when my dd1 was in the stages of nap dropping I used to take her on a walk/drive for that first nap just to get a quick one in there and have a nicer wake up.  Let me know how it goes. 

[smahalik]

OK, so I don't think things are going so great:( The first day was pretty good, with a 30 minute morning nap, a 60 minute afternoon nap, then slept from 7-5:45 (but with a short waking at 11 pm b/c of teeth). The second was the same naps, but slept only from 7 - 5 (like usual EW). The third day (today) is a bad nap day and may cause me to change my plan. Here's today so far:

6 AM - Wake (after sleeping in bed with me from 5 - 6:15)
9:45 - 10:15 - Nap 1
1:30 - 2:00 - Nap 2 (hard to put down, definitely UT, woke after 30 minutes screaming and wouldn't go back to sleep)

I'll probably try to put him to bed around 6:30. What do you think? I just don't think this 2 nap day is working. There just doesn't seem to be enough A time for him without making his day go from 6 AM - 8 PM. ??

[Erin M]

I'd maybe try even shorter for the first nap, like 20 minutes or so.  That might get you a good second nap.  The stupidly long day is a definite sign of the 2-1 though he is young for it.  We were on those 2 annoying short naps forever with ds, so just keep pushing on the best you can!

[smahalik]

OK, thanks!! He STILL woke at 5 AM this morning (then in bed with me until 6:15), so the longer A time before bed doesn't seem to be working yet:(
Today, he refused his first nap (which he's never done) at 10:15 AM and I gave up and decided to try for a 1 nap day. I laid him down at 11:30, so we'll see how it goes with that and an early BT!
It wouldn't be so hard if it weren't for my DS1 (3.5 years) and having to work around his schedule!!

[Erin M]

It is hard with more than one, trying to sort everyone's routines out!  My poor ds was forever falling asleep in the car at all the wrong times.  How did your 1 nap day go?  Sometimes you just have to push them the rest of the way there -- though he might go back and forth for some time before finally landing on 2 naps for good!

[smahalik]

It was a DISASTER (so far)!! He went down at 11:30 (still acting like he wasn't tired) and then woke up screaming at 12:00 and would NOT go back to sleep! He acted OK, but a little fussy the rest of the afternoon. He went to bed at 6:00 and I'm curious to see how the night goes!! Don't know what I'll do tomorrow:(

[Erin M]

Ugh, totally OT I'm sure.  I've got my fingers crossed for you for tonight!

[smahalik]

So that night went pretty much like all the rest of them (although a little more night sleep due to only 30 minute nap). He slept from 6 PM - 5 AM and was wide awake. This definitely seems to have become a habit waking, as he's up at 5:00 on the dot (give or take 2 minutes) every day, no matter what time he went down. So, I started thinking I'll go back to 2 naps (for a while) and try W2S at 4 AM.
Yesterday he had two naps totaling 1.5 hours (30 minutes morning, 1 hour afternoon). This morning he woke ON HIS OWN at 4 AM:( I gave him teething medicine and it took me ~1 hour to get him back to sleep. He woke again for the day 20 minutes later.
I just don't know what to do now:(

[Erin M]

Hmmm, let me get a few more eyes on this,especially for the naps.