13 month old EW - HELP!!

[Albertalady]

My son is just about 13 months old and we are on month #4 of early wakings.  He easily transitioned to one nap just before 12 months, which was great because that's what they do at his daycare and so it helped with his adjustment when he started. I was hoping that going to one nap and then starting daycare would help him start to sleep in a bit more in the morning, but he still wakes up at between 4:45am-5:15am EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  Both my husband and I are back at work and it is destroying us to be up so early!  Here is a typical day:

5:00am wake up
5:30am bottle
6:30am breakfast
7:15am out the door to daycare

8:30 snack
11:00 lunch
11:45-2:15 nap

2:30 snack
5:00 dinner
6:30 bedtime snack/milk as part of bed time routine
7:00 in bed, usually asleep within 10 mins

We aren't able to adjust his nap or dinner because of our work schedules. He had some shorter naps when he first started daycare (only an hour) but that was to be expected. He routinely sleeps for 2 hours now mid-day.

One suggestion given to us is that he may be overtired and therefore not really putting himself to sleep (i.e. he just has to close his eyes and he falls asleep within 30 seconds)...so when he wakes up at 5am he doesn't actually know how to put himself back to sleep.  It was suggested that we shorten our bedtime routine so that it isn't as soothing and he needs to do ab it more work on his own.  Any thoughts on that?

Is it too early to start using a gro clock? Any suggestions on what else we can do?  We did try moving his bedtime earlier for a few nights and it didn't seem to make a difference. I feel like 10 hours (and sometimes he only sleeps 9.5 hours) isn't enough for this age! HELP!

[ZacsMumme]

His day is really too long is there any way you can try to get him to sleep earlier at bt? - 6-6.30 for a week and see if his night time sleep extends. So you will still get the same WU probably to start with, but his overall night sleep will increase.

If this works, then you can work on the EW and nap timing yk?

Another option is to try w2s at 4am (or approx 1 hr before EW). This can help break habitual wakings.

Does he settle himself to sleep at naps and at bt?

Hugs EW are tough x

[Albertalady]

He settles himself at nap times when he wakes up early (ie. less than 2 hours) and he'll settle himself in the early evening if he wakes up before 2am. After 2am he usually needs a bit of help.  We will try early bed times for a week to see if that helps at all. Thanks for the suggestion!

[ZacsMumme]

Good luck. If he can settle himself as you mention then I doubt the issue is his inability to settle himself

[cath~]

So he gets 10hrs night sleep + 2-2.5hrs nap?  12-12.5hrs is lower than average but for a few LOs it is enough.

How much sleep did he used to get per day before the EWs or moving to one nap? Have you seen a drop in total sleep?  Does he seem tired in his behaviour (eg irritable)?

Also, is his room completely dark? Do you use blackout blinds?  Could he be waking early due to the sun?