4am EW could this be from dropping to one nap?

[aidenmc]

After lots of failed pm naps, short naps and general nap resistance, I decided to try one nap closer to midday for ds who is just about 11mo. We have done 2 days and got naps of 1hr25 and 1hr15. This morning, after a decent night for him (BT at 6:45), DS decided he wanted to get up at 4:16 (woke at 3:56, resettled by 4:08, up again at 4:16). I sat by his crib till about 5:40 but there was no way he was going to go back to sleep and he was just crying and crying. We normally have a 5/5:30 wake time. We have never had an EW this early.

Could it be the naps? We have been sleep training for about a month now and ds has become an excellent sleep resister. I am wondering if he is just massively OT, but because his world is so exciting right now, we don't see many signs till it's sleep time.

Before we started sleep training we usually had a 10.5hr night (give or take) and a couple of naps of 1-1.5 hours, occasionally one of over 2 hours. He was resisting the afternoon nap then but with my AP tricks I always managed to get him down.

[Tweakster]

It sounds OT to me.  One nap for 11 mths is pretty rough.  You need a super super early bedtime to combat it.  Or offer 2 naps on alternate days for a while.  Is he teething too just now?

[aidenmc]

Yes, he's had his 4 top teeth coming through for the last 3 weeks. We are waiting on 1 of them. They are moving pretty slowly. I am medicating but also wondering whether this has been affecting his sleep more generally.

What would you suggest as an A time after a 1hr 20 nap this morning? He woke at 10. He used to be happy with 3.5 hours, and would tolerate slightly longer in the morning after an especially EW. I just feel like I am getting the timing wrong all the times these days.

[Tweakster]

1 hr 20 nap can go either way, be OT or UT.  But for sanity sake, let's call it OT since he was up at crazy o'clock.  I'd probably give him a slightly shorter PM A time before nap.  If you get a restorative nap in the PM I'd try for his regular bedtime but if not, I'd do a 6 p.m. bedtime.  11 hrs would put you to 5 a.m. which isn't grand but much better than 4!

Is he AP resistant?  I'd use AP at a 4:16 waking.  Rocking, bottle in bed, anything?

[aidenmc]

I tried a BF and could probably have patted and walked him. Problem is I am trying to break him of these props. He's so persistent and we end up in a cycle where he won't go to sleep in his crib but will conk on the boob when I BF him later. The tricky part this morning was that he was wide awake, ready to play. I feel like in order to get him to sleep at all these days I have to AP him as he seems to be very good at resisting sleep at certain times. Bedtime isn't too bad. He will fall asleep in his crib after his BF in 20-40 minutes. Morning nap is usually easier than afternoon but I can't seem to count on anything right now...

[aidenmc]

So we are really struggling to get 2 naps. 2 days ago he took about 1hr15 in the morning and refused the pm nap despite 1.5 hrs trying. Catnapped for 15 minutes in the stroller at 4:30 which I think might have been a mistake. He was unsettled for the first half of the night (although it could have been gas related). Yesterday he refused the morning nap after a 5:25 wakeup. He ended up sleeping from 12:25-1:10. Bedtime at 6 and he had a pretty good night (only 3 NWs, which we haven't had since about 2mo, although the 3:30 one he was fairly wakeful for about 45 minutes).

It seems that the timing has to be just perfect or he will fight it. I do know that teething is still a  bother. They look pretty sore and this morning he was chewing the crib rail and cried out, then seemed to fall on his soother and same. 

So...I really don't know whether to just keep offering an am and pm nap or try to establish one nap at the same time each day. He is not sleeping past about 1hr15-20 at most these days, regardless of when he naps.