Early waking following dropping morning nap - help please!

[RDelaney]

Hi, my 16 month old DS has recently dropped his morning nap. It was getting to the stage where he would finally got to sleep about 10am, sleep for about 40 mins and then refuse another nap all day. I cut out his morning nap and he now has about 2 to 2 1/2 hours from 1pm every day. However, this dropping of the morning nap seems to have coincided with a switch from a 7am wake up to a 6am wake up. Now this is not a problem per se, but he's tired when he wakes up, but if he sleeps in the morning he only sleeps for 40 mins then refuses to sleep again in the day. Ideally I'd like to push his wake up to 7am but have no clue how to go about it!
His routine (he's been an EASY baby since about 6 weeks!) is:
6am - wake up and milk (sometimes 5 oz sometimes one sip!)
8am - breakfast
10am - small snack
12 noon - lunch
1pm - nap usually for 2 - 2 1/2 hours
3 ish (or when he wakes) small snack
5pm - tea
He also has plenty of water throughout the day.
6.15 - start wind down with some naked run around time upstairs followed by bath and milk. Bizarrely (sp?) the sleep issues have also coincided with a massive increase in milk intake here - usually 15-18 oz but has been as high as 24oz  (any clues?!)
The milk thing takes a while just because he takes so much so he actually falls asleep between 7.30 and 8.
Is this too late do you think? Should I start wind down earlier to take account of that so he's asleep earlier - do you think that would help?
Any ideas much appreciated.
Ruth & Alex xx

[dkjokisch]

You might need to adjust bedtime earlier for a while until his body adjusts to the one nap day schedule.  If he's tired upon waking, that's a big clue he's not getting enough sleep.

Not sure on the milk intake??  That's alot for right before bed.

[momofclaire]

I would certainly be putting him to bed earlier.  His body needs time to adjust to the one nap.  I would move his nap up as well.  6 hours is a lot of A time in the morning.  I would have him napping by 12:00 and in bed sleeping no later than 6:30 at night.
That does seem like a lot of milk to be drinking right before bed. Is there any way to up the amount he drinks during the day.  He could be growing and need more milk but that much before bed seems to be a bit much.
Myia

[RDelaney]

Thanks, that's helpful. I tried giving him some milk mid-afternoon today, but it just meant he didn't eat much tea! I have actually tried a slightly earlier bedtime. Touch wood - he's asleep now (just) (7pm) but at least that's a bit earlier than usual.
If he's napping from 12 noon, what time should I be doing lunch? He has breakfast at 8.
TIA
Ruth x

[Layla]

Ruth, you could try something like this:

6am - wakes & some milk
7.30 - breakfast
9-9.30 - snack
11.30 - lunch
12-2pm - nap
2.30 - snack
5pm - dinner
6.30/7pm - bed & asleep by 7ish

The av is 11hrs at night & 2hr nap. Lunch we do about 30mins before nap & then I give mine milk just after lunch/before nap in a sippy cup... so you could try that . That is alot of milk before bed.... a huge wet nappy in the morning & an active digestive & urinary system at night.

Try to shift it so that she has milk spread throughout the day & about 5oz before bed

[momofclaire]

Some people do lunch before nap and some after, whatever works best for you. You can do breakfast right after milk or around 7:00 if you think that will help.  I have been giving Claire her milk with meals since about a year.  Have you tried that?

[RDelaney]

AARRRGGHH - 7pm sleep last night led to 5am wake up this morning! 
He's had milk this morning and some more with his breakfast so will do a 12noon nap today (which is late anyway due to early wake up!) and see how we go. I'm going to see if he'll have 40 mins nap now as he's been yawning since he woke up!  Thanks guys.
Ruth x

[RDelaney]

Update! Well, he finally went to sleep at 9.10. I allowed him 20 mins cat nap. He went to sleep on our bed which wasn't great but it's the first time he's done that so am not too bothered.
Went down at 12 noon for his nap. He's still asleep (now 2.28pm) but his sleep's been disturbed and I've had to go in once to get him back to sleep.
Will get him up at 3 and go from there. Will report back soon!
Ruth x

[dkjokisch]

When we switched to one nap, we skipped the AM snack and did lunch early at 11am.  She had a large snack at 2/3pm upon waking and dinner at 5:30pm.

[SallyDom]

We had sleep problems with Dominic for a while (5 long hard months actually!) and he went through a stage of drinking loads of milk just before bed too. His record was 19oz I think. I put it down to the fact that he was waking in the night, and waking early in the morning, as well as rubbish napping, so he was using more energy in the time he spent awake. Now our problems are sorted he is back to his usual 10oz before bed.

Since getting Dom's routine sorted (he is also 16 months and we moved him to 1 nap 4 weeks ago) we usually:
7-7.30am - wake
8am - breakfast
9am - milk
11.45-12pm - lunch
12.30 - nap
2pm - wake (sometimes upto 2 hours sleep but not always), milk
4pm - snack
5.45pm - dinner
7-7.30 - bedtime (depending on what time woke from nap, always do bath, songs, milk in bedroom routine)

Dom usually sleeps 11-12 hours at night now, it's really lovely!

Just thought I'd post our routine as someone who is also new to 1 nap.
HTH
Sal
x

[Layla]

Ruth, I found after the transition to 1 nap, the catnap didn't do anything good for us anymore. It would reinforcet he early wake ups so even if he's waking at 5 in the morning (as yesterday), I think its still better to put him down for 1 nap rather than split his sleep into 2 naps. His body has adjusted to sleeping once a day & then when we try to offer another nap in to "catch up", it throws things off.... So on those days when he wakes early, do an earlier nap (say around 11-1pm) & an earlier bedtime.

[momofclaire]

I agree with Layla. When I finally got on board with the one nap and stuck with it things went much smoother for us.

[SallyDom]

Yup 1 nap is miles better than 2, I've got in to a new routine too, when Dom goes to sleep, cos I know he's gonna have such a long nap I usually have a nap too. Fantastic! I use the excuse that I am pregnant and need the rest but to be honest even if I wasn't I'd probably still go to bed!
Hope everything's going ok
Sal
x