Hi there,
This also happened with us at this exact age. For us it was the beginning of needing to transition to 1 nap. It can take a few months to transition some only weeks. When they wake that early and then go back to sleep at 9am which is needed obviously because they are shattered, that first nap almost becomes an extension of their night sleep. So if you add that 1.5 hours from his 1st nap to his night sleep wake up of 5:30am that would bring him to 7am kwim? Then of course he is sleeping later in the afternoon and that pushes his day later and even though he has had 2 naps, if you think about it 5:30am to 7:30pm is a long haul for a LO. (It would be a long day for me LOL!)
I also got in the habit of some AP. Not bringing him to our room, but I would go in his room and lay him with me on the futon in there in hopes to get him more sleep. It worked at first too. This created a monster as he started waking earlier and earlier looking for me and then eventually wouldn't go back to sleep. So then I lost my nice independent sleeper so when he had NW's which he started having as well due to too much day sleep and sometimes OT cycle, he lost his ability to fall back asleep on his own. it was all a viscous cycle.
So, I decided with the help of some fine ladies on here to nip this thing.
I did these things:
I gave him a small bedtime snack so I knew hunger was not an issue for early wake ups.
I shortened his a.m nap, (30 mins) yes woke him
then I could put him to nap in p.m earlier and put him to bed earlier.
I stopped going in his room in the a.m or staying with him as he was falling asleep
I gave him homeopathic and traditional pain meds for teething as required (yes, this is also a factor at this age with their 1st yr molars) all at the same time so this can effect naps/sleep too.
Once I had a 6am wake up, I went for it. I kept him up all morning the best I could playing and keeping him distracted and then put him to nap at 12pm hoping for a 2 hour nap or more. Bedtime was at 7pm.
It took a while to settle, but it made life easier. We had some OT cycles when his 1 long nap was not long enough and we dealt with it as it came. Sometimes if I felt he was way to OT I gave him a short a.m nap to break the cycle.
Some people transition the other way. Let them nap really long in the a.m at around 10:30-11am and then do a short catnap late in the afternoon.
Please see this sticky for support, it really helped us at the time.
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=143940.0HTH,
Aisling x
