Why are we having early wakings???

[Atomic1010]

Hi
My little guy (13 months old)was waking up between 6 and 7 am each day which was fine. However, for the past two weeks he has been waking anywhere between 4.45 and 5.30 am, and it's a killer! I've tried a couple of times to get him back to sleep by giving a breastfeed in the dark but no joy. He is just too awake.

I've read about W2S but I am nervous about trying it as I can just see I do it at 4am and regret it as he won't go back to sleep and I am up even earlier. We have tried leaving him when he wakes but after a few minutes he gets quite upset. We have tried putting to bed earlier and later but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

He started nursery last week and was there for 2 full days. On both days he had only two 40 min naps, normally he has two for 1hr 20mins. And on the nights after nursery he woke earlier than he would have done despite slightly earlier bedtime (by 30mins).

I don't understand why he is waking so early all of a sudden.  I think he is teething so perhaps that is a factor.  But perhaps it's a phase I have to ride out but would be grateful for any advice or to hear of others' similar experiences.

[Buttonbobs]

Hugs, there is so much going on at this age.

It might be he is slightly UT as a result of really needing to head towards one nap rather than two. An indicator of this would be that his EWs are cheerful. He might well be OT by the end of the day though. Have you read:
From 2 to 1 nap transition (10-12m and older)

Does any of that sound familiar?

It could be teething, are you noticing any other signs of teething at all?

[Atomic1010]

Thanks for your reply. Since I posted we have had a molar through and I suspect another is on the way as there is a lot of finger chewing going on.  He isn't cheerful when he wakes at 4.30 he is often quite grumpy.  At nursery he has been doing one nap for an hour rather than the two at home (too much entertainment at nursery and no sleep room) and he is OT when he gets home but he still wakes early the next day.

I read the post on the 2-1 transition and you could be right, the approaches it mentioned sound good but I'm not sure how easy it will be to try them given he is at nursery 3 days a week and his sleep is all over the place but might be worth a try!

From reading other posts on this forum it seems EW is a common problem at this age.

[Buttonbobs]

When Dd started nursery she was on two naps but nursery would only enable one nap. She struggled with short naps and OT for a while but once she started doing a nap at home at around the same time as she was out down for a nap at nursery things evened out. For some LOs switching between 2 nap days and 1 nap days may lead to an increase in EWs.

You could medicate to check if it is teething that's waking him.