1 year old starting EW not sure if ready for 1 nap advice please

[lobs]

Hi our LO has been on easy since he was around 5 months but just in the last week he has been EW.  He does sometimes do this when teething but usually only for a few days he is now waking anywhere between 5am onwards here is his current routine with EW

5.10am - awake tried to get him back to sleep no success so started day with bottle feed 8 ounces
7.00am - solids breakfast
9.00am - nap for 1hr 20 minutes
10.20am - awake and snack
12.00pm - lunch solids
2.20pm - fell asleep in the car for 40 minutes
3.00pm - awake bottle
5.20pm- dinner solids (a little later than unsual normally 5pm)
6.45pm - bath, bottle and bed and asleep by 7.15pm

I am finding it really difficult to fit naps in without making the day really long.  He woke from his morning nap himself and wouldn't resettle.
Really need to get him waking after 6am again as we work shifts and often I don't get in till after 12am and then have our LO all the next day before going to work again at night when the whole process starts again for another day.

Any advice would be great,  when he was waking after 6am we were finding that he did manage 4hrs A time but he is not quite managing that now and don't know what to do about the overtired and how to catch up do I let him nap for as long as he wants currently he has been asleep for 1hr 30 minutes what happens if he falls asleep in the car in the afternoon really late as the he doesn't seem to want to go to bed or ready for bed until 4 hours has lapsed from his hap. 

[*Becky*]

Hi there,
Sorry to hear things are rough right now. How does your lo respond to early bedtimes? that is what I would suggest tbh at this point. If he is up at 5am I would aim to try having him asleep by 6.30pm latest, ideally 6pm. I think there are a couple of issues going on here. the first thing that jumps out at me is that 3pm-7.15pm is quite long after a 40 min sleep at this age, particularly if he has been up since 5am. I would have aimed to have him asleep by 6.30pm at the latest.
I also think it may be worth trying a short am nap i.e. 30 mins and a longer pm nap but you will need to get him out of the OT loop first.
Is there anyway you can get him back to sleep at 5am when he wakes?
becky x

[lobs]

Thanks for the reply Becky no have tried to get him back to sleep at 5am but he just wont have it.  The only thing I find with trying to put him to bed earlier is that he wont go down if there isnt a 4 hour A time between his nap and bedtime which is my problem really as he has to be really tired before he will go down for a nap or bedtime I really am unsure what to do should I try and get him out of being OT by letting him sleep longer at nap times?

[*Becky*]

yes I would imagine the waking after 1.20 is more than likely OT.
I would def let him sleep longer at naptimes but what I would do is switch the naps around i.e. aim for a shorter am nap and then a longer pm nap. so maybe a 40/45 min nap in the morning and then let him sleep as long as he likes later. So something like..
A - 5am
S - 8.30-9.15am
S - 1 - 2.30/3pm
Bedtime - 6.30/7pm
If he short naps for the pm nap i really would have him in bed around 6/6.30pm.
how does that look?
the other option is to let him have a longer am nap but if he is prone to EW's this can end up reinforcing them.
Becky x

[lobs]

Thanks Becky I was wondering if I was reinforcing his early waking by letting have longer naps in the morning will try reversing it around this morning he woke

Will definately try the short am nap long pm nap though and see if it does the trick. 

Thanks again 

[*Becky*]

it helped us. I was very loathe to cut the am nap as my DS always napped best in the am but he then started sleeping better in the afternoon. good luck - keep me posted x