HELP - 13 month old waking 5-5.30

[scout71]

hi
my 13 month old daughter has been waking at about 5-5.30 for a few weeks now and we don't really know what to do. she's really tired when she wakes up and miserable and would probably go to sleep on us if we held her, but i don't want to create a bad habit. so then she's grouchy until morning nap, which is usually around 9 or 9.30. i'd really like to drop this nap now but there's no way i can when she's not sleeping enough in the night. she goes to bed around 7pm.
would be grateful for any help
thanks

[newmom7]

Hi there...I just wanted to say that I am in the same boat. Our son just turned 12 months and is doing the same thing, although some days I can get him to take 2 short naps. He is a chronic early waker too...today he was up at 4:50 a.m.  If I get lucky, the latest he will sleep is about 5:30a.m.  Our ds goes to bed around 6 or 6:30p.m. depending on how his naps were and what time he woke up from his p.m. nap. Putting him to bed later seems to result in the same wake up time too.  I would also like to get our son on a 1 nap schedule, but with early wakings like that, I am not sure how. Tracy says to fix it doing wake to sleep before trying 1 nap in one of her books, but I have never tried wake to sleep. I am too afraid he is too old to do that....as it is if he sees me in the a.m. he won't go back to sleep, no matter what time it is. Well, I should say if its 4a.m. or later he won't.

I wish I could help more but I don't have any answers either except to ask...is she teething? Is she walking yet or hitting any other major milestones? Could it be separation anxiety? Any other form of physical discomfort? Is something possibly waking her up outside?  The advice I have gotten is to try to make it as close to 9a.m. for nap #1 as possible (assuming lo got up at 5a.m.-4 hours A time max) then keep that nap short-45 min or so. Wake your lo up and put back down for nap #2 within 3 hours, then put her to bed early. The bedtime would depend on the length of her p.m. nap...if it was decent...say 1 hour and 15 min or more, then put her down 4 hours later max.  If less, maybe do 3 1/2 hours later. If she took a very very short p.m. nap then put her to bed after 3 hours.  This could mean her bedtime will be at like 5:30 p.m. I have done this...believe it or not it does not usually result in your lo waking at like 3:30 a.m. or something crazy like that. Worse case scenario she will still get up around 5 or so but at least you will start knocking out the overtired problem. I have done this several times and it works for the most part. You have to let them make up for the overtiredness before fixing the early wakes (my opinion) then once the early wakes are fixed, then try for 1 nap. Personally I have NO IDEA how I will ever get my son on 1 nap. We have struggled with early wakes and OT on and off since he has been born so I tend to think it is just my son's internal clock to some degree. Hang in there. Hope you get some good advice from some more experienced moms. 

[christine1414]

hello ladies, I have the same problem with my 13 month old ds. he has always started his day at about 5:30 am. with the time change coming I am really scared! that means we will be up at 4:30 every morning.ok, so you say put to bed earlier.he goes to sleep at 6:30 now and is already rubbing his eyes. his morning nap is at 9:00am for usually 45-1 hour.then his pm nap is at about 1pm for 60-90min.everyday is different. so when should i put him to bed? also how long do i put him to bed early before trying to puch things later? i will try anything at this point!! HELP

[scout71]

thanks for your responses ladies. i'm sorry you're having trouble too, but also glad it's not just me. have tried putting her to bed about 20 mins earlier this evening to see if it changes anything.
as far as hitting milestones, she isn't walking yet but close to it and is a lot more active than she used to be. she does have a cold at the moment too, but this has been going on for longer than that.
at the moment her am. nap is around 9ish for half an hour. i wake her and she's always in a really deep sleep (obviously making up for the lack of night time sleep) so i feel bad waking her but i know if i don't i'll pay for it later! then lunch nap is at around 1 and she never really sleeps past 2.15. bed is usually 7ish and i was trying to make it later thinking that might make her wake up later but it looks like from what you're saying that i should make it earlier. i'll give anything a go!
thanks again

[Layla]

Can you tell me what the daytime schedule looks like?

Layla

[scout71]

hi there
wake up 5-5.30, try and keep her in her room until at least 6. this morning i tried pick up put down, which i've never really had to do before but she was so hysterical whenever i put her down again.
milk between 6.30-7
breakfast 7.30-8
nap between 9/9.30 for no more than half an hour.
lunch at 12ish
nap at around 1. she sleeps till around 2/2.15
dinner between 5.30/5.45
bath between 6.30/6.45
bed between 7-7.30
am feeling really desperate and thinking that maybe we've caused problems by holding her when last ill or something.
thank you

[Layla]

Try putting her down for the night earlier... try 6.30pm for a few nights... chances are that she is overtired & needs to get caught up on some rest. By putting her to bed earlier, she will get more deep sleep & should wake up better rested. In about 3-4 days you can start working on pushing her morning nap to 9:30am, afternoon nap to 1.30pm & bedtime around 7pm.

Are you limiting the morning nap so that she can sleep longer in the afternoon? Jasmine's morning nap was 45mins for a very long time before I could cut it to 30mins. She used to get very overtired on 30mins.... I would try 45mins in the morning & afternoon nap no more than 3.5hrs later. So something like this:

5am - wakes
9-9:45 - morning nap
1-2:30 - afternoon nap
6.30 - bedtime

I really think the earlier bedtime will help you. Don't be scared of her waking up earlier. Its good that you are keeping her in the cot until 6am... hang in there... we went through 5am starts for a good 6 weeks & I was pulling my hair out...

Let me know what you think
Layla

[scout71]

thank you
that sounds really helpful, will give it a try tonight. yes, i've been giving her 1/2 hour in morning in the hope that it would make her lunchtime sleep longer as i thought if she had longer in the morning she wouldn't sleep at lunchtime, but that's obviously not the case!

[Layla]

I would go back to 45mins... she should still take the pm nap. We only really started cutting the monring nap to 30mins when Jasmine was about 15months or so & everytime I tried before that she would get overtired very quickly. But that is the exact theory.. leading up to dropping the morning nap & going down to 1 afternoon nap you do start by shortening it 

Let me know how it all goes

[scout71]

just to let you know that it's all going really well following your advice. have lengthened morning nap, which has lengthened afternoon nap on its own and now she's waking up at 6.30 instead of 5.30 - miracle! just hope it continues. thanks so much for your help!

[Layla]

Wow - I am really happy things are working out. I hope it stays like that