17 mo waking early from nap and NWs, how do i help her get back to sleep

[deckchariot]

If she seems to get tired after 5 hrs of A time, have you thought about doing the long nap then and then offering a catnap to help her make it til bedtime?  So if she's up at 6, put her down at 11 for a nap and let her sleep.  Then offer a catnap later on if she needs it to make it to bedtime.  You may actually then want to move bedtime a wee bit later to squeeze in that catnap.  So if she naps from 11 - 12:30, offer a pm catnap at 3:30 or 4 (just for 30 min) then do bedtime at 7:30.  Do you think that would work?

[hdgmom]

I was doing a long am nap at the begining of this whole ordeal, that's when she started skipping her pm cat nap altogether. I don't think she would take a catnap in the afternoon.  Lately I have been putting her down at noon and she will sleep 1.5-2+ hrs, so she wakes at 2:00-2:30 or later and bedtime is still at 7pm. This past week she has been having trouble settling to sleep at bedtime and she has been waking at 5:30am every morning. I still need a tweak I think, any other thoughts? One night I got her into bed at 7:30 and she went right to sleep and slept till past 6am, is it possible she needs just a few more minutes of A time in the evening, or is she OT?

Thanks again for your thoughts.

[deckchariot]

My initial guess was OT, but given the night she went to bed later and woke up later, maybe she does need some more A time.  If she's going down at noon for her nap and napping close to 2 hrs, that's about right for her age, so I'd just go with one nap, and if it's gets shorter, I'd even extend that A time a bit.  If she can go til 7:30 for bedtime, I'd try it and see what that does with your wake ups.  Every child is different, and she may just have a "natural" bedtime around 7:30, so that results in a better night sleep for her.

[hdgmom]

I know she is OT, and probably has been OT for quite some time now, I just don't know how to get her out of the OT cycle. She did well the next couple of days after my last post but for the past 2 weeks she has been up at 5am. I have adjusted her routine because she just can't make it to noon for her nap, she gets very cranky. She is down for her nap at 11:00ish, sometimes sooner. She sleeps for 1.75 hours, give or take and is up around 1:00. I have tried to get her a cat nap, she seems to get tired after 3.5hrs A time but she won't sleep, she just plays in her crib. Her attitude is ok in the afternoon and evening (she doesn't get cranky like she does in the am) and bedtime is still as early as possible, 7:00ish and she is usually asleep by 7:30. She has been waking in the night which she didn't used to do. I have tried putting her down for nap at 10/10:30 but she sleeps for only 1 hour and still won't take a catnap in the afternoon. She is very cranky which is also unusual for her and it pains me to see her so miserable.

I don't know why she started waking at 5am. When she wakes early from sleep I have tried wi/wo, singing "Twinkle twinkle", standing by the door, laying on the floor and none of these strategies seem to help her get back to sleep, she just plays, she doesn't cry or fuss at all. I think she needs to go back to 2 naps for a while but I doubt she thinks she needs to go back to 2 naps.

As always thank you for your thoughts.

[deckchariot]

{{{{{hugs}}}}} Have you tried offering the catnap at 3 hrs of A time rather than 3.5?  Or even trying it at 3.75/4?  You really just want 20-30 min to help her make it til bedtime (if you can get her to go down at 5 and sleep til 5:30 that's awesome).  If the catnap is late enough, you may actually need to push bedtime out a wee bit (til 8 instead of 7:30).  If she doesn't take a pm catnap and the earliest you can get her to bed is 7, she's OT by then, which is why she fights sleep and wakes early.  So, if you can't get her to bed earlier than that, and she's up from nap #1 at 1, I'd try the catnap either earlier or later.  If that doesn't work, I'd do an am catnap (say at 10 for just 30 min), and then do the pm nap at a later (more like a 1 nap routine time) time.  Does that make sense?