EW starting to creep in....how do i prevent?

[Aly Mac]

Hey there!! Me again.

Ok, here is L's routine. 

6 wake up and bf
7.30/8 breakfast (depends on wake up)
9.15 - 10.45 nap
10.45 bf & snack
12.30 lunch
2.15-3.45 nap
3.45 bf & snack
5.15 dinner
5.45 bath
6.30 bf
7 asleep......


Now I know 6am is not really early, but it used to be 7, then 6.30 for a long while and now it's seems to be six, but I've noticed she is waking a little earlier each day eg: 5.50, 5.45. I figured part of it was her age, and only really needing 11hrs of sleep at night now. Have tried pushing her bedtime out a little, but makes no difference and don't want to push for OT.

What (if anything) can I do to prevent this getting any earlier?  I've looked through some advice on here, but it seems it's more for older toddlers and ones on one nap (she's nowhere near ready for this?).  Would pushing the first nap out later help?

She's only just got on this routine consistently after 45min naps, nw and ew.  It's heaven to finally have her napping 1.5hrs and having a decent bedtime.

[mum6791]

Hi Aly

My lo also had a lot of nw and ew and bad naps.  I does feel so good to have it fixed!  I don't think she is ready for only one nap, but maybe to start the transition to one nap.  You could start shortening her am nap by 15 min every couple of days and see how that affects the wakeup time.  In the meanwhile an early bedtime might help prevent OT.  I found I only needed to shorten her am nap by about 15 min and then things would be good for a few weeks.  Then after a few weeks I need to shorten it by about another 15 min.

I just got my lo sleeping without nw when she started the transition to one nap.  She still takes two, but we make sure the am one isn't too long.  There is always something to keep us on our toes!

[Aly Mac]

yeh I thought i would have to do that, but so hesitant as we only just in the last two weeks got her to take longer than 45mn naps consistently.  !!!!

will try and see how we go.

thanks

[mum6791]

I know how scary it is to shorten a nap you worked so hard to lengthen.  I found too that once I shortened the am nap a bit it took a while for the pm nap to be normal.  You could try shortening it by only 5 or 10 min at a time hoping this would have less affect on the pm nap.

You could just try an early bedtime for a few days and see if that works - leave the naps alone.  If the early bedtime doesn't help fix things I think you'll have to start playing with the naps - or accept ew!

[Aly Mac]

Yeh I know - crazy stuff hey.  (me being a nap mod and all too  )  As for early bedtime,we just changed from a 5.30 (thank god) so it is a big change, 7pm (that' the latest btw).  Might bring it forward a touch and see how we go there too.

thanks for your advice...

[Shdef]

I found that pushing bedtime forward takes a while to work, but it DOES work eventually. We travel a lot with time difference and would have went mental if it didn't work at all. It did usually take a couple of weeks or so...

To prevent OT, push bedtime forward very slightly though. 15 minutes or so. And then do that for a while until she actually wakes 15 minutes later. Then another 15 minutes or so... I found there is no quick fix for early waking, but you can fix it.

Just like engblom said, just wanted to confirm that it does work this way 

[Aly Mac]

Thanks for this post Steffi 

The EW are here big time...occasionally I get a 6.30 but normally 5 or 5.30 (never 6 for some reason lol).  And I never know what happened to make it work.  Been a while since I wrote down a log, so may start so I can see. 

I think to start with I pushed it out too much in one go and after a few days, she was really OT!!

so at the mo, this is her routine

5.30 wake
9.15- 10.30 nap (if I can make it later I do, but normally a 1hr15nap)
2-3 (sometimes this is 1.15.....but not often)
6 bf and bed (normally asleep by 6.30)

Her middle of the day A time is normally the longest, and some mornings she can do alonger first A time but others she is just soo tired by even 830...but of course early 1st nap, brings on teh EW too!!

Ok, so what do I do? push the bed time out another 15 so its 6.45? I did push it out a couple of days, but she woke even earlier, but maybe I wasn't patient enough!!!!!

Will try as 5.30 is not a good wake up time, not just for me of course, but for her and the rest of her day....

thanks
xxx