Please tell me 5am isnt going to be his 'normal' wake up time!!

[**Clare**]

Arghhhhhh!!

So Finn is 16 months now, he has been waking at 5 am pretty much most mornings.  Yesterday he slept unil 6.

We are still on 2 naps, am finding it impossible to switch when hes up at 5! He's tired by half 8!!  His routine is different as he's with a childminder 3 days a week and she is often out and about and often has to wake him to do school or nursery pick ups or attend music/drama classes.  So he never really sleeps well there.  So when I pick him up at half 2 he is tired.  He will go back to bed at 3 and will sleep until 5 and then I wae him... cue late bedtime!!

We have managed 2 days this week with 1 nap.  If I can get him to 11 which isnt too hard when we're out and about he will then sleep for a few hours and then go to bed at 7, out of the 2 days we did one nap he woke one morning at 6 and the next at 5.

Any ideas what this maybe?? He's cut 6 teeth (4 back ones!! ) in the past few weeks that are still coming through but they dont seem to overly bother him.  He goes to sleep independently too.  He's also just learning to walk!! So lots going on.  Im happy to ignore him at 5 but he is in our room and he just shouts at us and throws his teddies and blankets out!!  Harvey's next door and I really cant risk him being woken up at 5 so we get up Well, when I say 'we' I mean DH

Im finding it hard to believe he's 16 months already and am completely clueless as to what his routine should look like!! I still think of him as a baby!!

[deckchariot]

I'm betting it's the 2 to 1 transition.  I know you tried one nap cold turkey, but that doesn't tend to work well with most bubs.  There are basically 2 approaches to the switch:
1) keep 1st nap at the same A time every day, but gradually shorten the length of it; at the same time, move pm nap earlier (by the same amount you shorten nap 1).  When nap 1 is <30 min, attempt to cut it out and just have 1 nap.
2) push morning A time later, allow your bub to sleep as long as they want in the am, then do a late pm catnap (can be a shorter A time than in the am, as you don't want them to take a full nap); eventually cut out pm catnap.

If he needs a longer A time before bed, then option #1 is generally better.  If he doesn't and HATES being woken from the am nap, option #2 may be better.  In both cases, you can offer an early bedtime if one/both of the naps is bad.

Whichever approach you choose - it's best to go gradually - so either cut 15 min off the am nap every 3-5 days or lengthen the am A time by 15 min every 3-5 days.  It also is helpful to know about how much day sleep is "optimal" for your ds and how much A time he needs (minimum) between his last nap and bedtime - that can help you plan out the day.

hth
michelle