12 month old early wakings - for a month now!

[ashleycp]

My 12 month old (just turned 1) has been waking early for a month now. We have tried everything, but nothing seems to work! I don't think she is ready for a 2:1 transition because she usually takes both naps and wants to take them. She has only ever skipped a nap once or twice while traveling. I wonder if she is OT bc she wakes up crying, but I have tried early bedtimes as well as long naps, but neither work. Oh, and she isn't getting any teeth and doesn't seem to be doing anything else that would be keeping her up.

Here is her normal schedule:
5:00: Up
6:00: Nurse
7:00: Breakfast
9:30 or 10:00: Nap
10:30 or 11:00: Up (this nap we cap at 45 min to 1 hr. If she sleeps longer, she will resist the PM nap)
11:00: Milk
12:00 Lunch
2:30: Nap (this can be as early as 2:00 or as late as 3:00, depending on her morning)
4:15: Up
6:00: Dinner
7:30: Sleep (we've tried moving this to 6:30 and to 8:00, but neither work)

She sleeps all night and doesn't wake up, just wakes super early! any tips or ideas?

[Truly Blessed]

Hello honey,

There are a couple of things that pop out looking at her routine. First of all her day is very long at 14.5 hours, which obviously makes her night short too. Most LO would be looking at a day of 13 hours maximum at her age. Secondly her morning A time is also quite long for a 2 nap routine. Usually when a LO goes to a 1 nap routine you would be looking to push the morning A time to 5 hours and your DD is already doing 4.5 or 5 hours.

With all the above in mind if she were my little girl I would be looking at going to 1 nap provided she isn't tired being pushed through that long morning. Does she handle it okay  If so I would keep her morning to 5 hours maximum and then let her have a nice long uncapped nap. Then BT will be around 5.5/6 hours later so her day would look like this:

WU 5 am

Nap 10.00 uncapped.

WU from nap hopefully at least 2 hours later at 12.00 hopefully later.

BT 5.5/6 hours after waking from nap so 6.00/6.30

I should imagine that she will pull some nice long CU nights once she is adjusted to this routine, and then WU and the day will naturally shift later.

If you keep those 2 naps at the length they are her day is always going to be too long causing OT and day sleep robbing night IMHO. I think you would have to look at shortening both A times Hun.

Hope this helps, what do you think 

BTW my little boy went to 1 nap at 12 months for exactly the same reason 

Vicki.x.

[ashleycp]

Thank you for the reply. I tried to do 2 naps all weekend and today, but it just isn't working. I'm going to try to make the 2:1 transition. It just seems like she is too young! Maybe I should shorten her A time in the morning? Do you think that would help?

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Honey,

Maybe I should shorten her A time in the morning? Do you think that would help?

It might work, but because DD is used to a long A time in the morning she will most likely be UT if you try and put her down sooner. Especially if she handles the long morning well....does she 

x.

[ashleycp]

She does. She's definitely tired by her nap, but she isn't too fussy.

So, today she woke up at 5:00, but I made her stay in her crib until 6. She fussed a little and then went back to sleep for 20 min and then fussed and then went back to sleep. She took a nap at 10:00a until 11:30, but wouldn't take an afternoon nap so I put her down at 6:00. Maybe I should have pushed her morning nap and had her only do one? It's so confusing.

Thanks, again!

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya Hun,

To be honest I think it should be a really simple transition. Put her down for her nap at 5 hours and let her nap as long as she wants (she wants to sleep longer anyway) and then decide BT depending on how long her nap is.

 

Vicki.x.

[ashleycp]

I tried to do only one nap yesterday, but she only napped 1.5 hours from 11 to 12:30. I couldn't get home early enough to put her down early so she went down at her normal time of 7pm. I know that's too long A time.

This morning she woke at 4:30am! If I waited 5 hours after that, her first nap would have been 9:30. I let her take a quick nap at 8:30am because she had to go to nursery at 9am. What should I normally do in that situation? Two naps?

She has been waking at 4:30 or 5 for over a month now. Should I try W2S while I'm making this transition?

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya Hun,

Believe it or not a 1.5 hour nap isn't too bad when making the 2-1 transition, because it usually takes several days or even weeks for things to fall into place. Having said that is is essential to be able to achieve early BT, which I know can be tricky but it really is necessary. Some people offer a cat nap later in the day of just 15/20 mins to get the LO through to BT if EBT isn't possible, but IME that can sometimes just make the day too long perpetuating OT.

This morning she woke at 4:30am!

WRT this ^ you really need to treat a wake up at this time as a night waking not an early waking. Keep her in the cot until at least 6 am to try and teach her that she needs to resettle when waking early instead of expecting you to get her up. It is hard, I know because I've BTDT but she will never achieve a 1 nap routine unless you do. Even on a 5 hour am A time her nap would be 9.30 and best will in the world she sleeps 2.5 hour nap you're still looking at awake at midday and then Bt would have to be 5pm. I have actually done that when Sam made the transition (a 5pm BT I mean) and that is when he started to tack on and do long nights, but you can't rely on her nap being a good one.

Should I try W2S while I'm making this transition?

Yes, I think that is a great idea  .

How did today go 

Vicki.x.