sudden early wakings

[Ruggie]

Hi there

15 month old Angel/Textbook  DS schedule used to look like this:

6:00- 6:30 wakes, change, quick play and breakfast
8:00     snack
9:30     nap (1.5 hr)
11:00   wakes
11:30   lunch
2:00     bottle
3:00    snack
3:30    nap (1.5hr)
5:00 wakes
5:45 dinner
7:30 bath & bottle & songs
8:00 asleep

total nap 3 hours and 10- 10.5 hr sleep

BUT (yes here is the problem) for the last 7 days he has been waking at 5:30 whining/crying. He used to wakes and talks to himself until we come in.
This makes the day time nap a hit and miss affairs, since he would go down at 8:30 instead and sometime would make up for his early waking by napping for 2-3 hours in the morning. He still naps for 1.5 in the afternoon and still go down at the same time in the evening.

We initially tried to pat, sooth him back to sleep (no joy). In the last 3 days, DH just walk in and tell him its still sleep time and walk out. DS would stop whining and talks to himself or remain quiet and then cry again in about 10 minutes or so.

He is clearly not ready to start the day at 5:30 am (neither are we ). Not only is he crying when he wakes, he is also very touchy/grumpy and more prone to meltdowns until his morning nap.

Any suggestion as to why this may start out of the blue and how to overcome it? There has been no dramatic changes around us in the last 2 weeks, and no obvious noise at that time in the morning.

[jessica and emilys mummy]

The first thing I would try is an earlier bedtime.Start by reducing it by 15 mins per
week and ideally getting down to about 7pm.
Also the bath may be stimulating him.We found that if i gave dd a bath in the
evening,she'd be a bit hyper and wouldn't sleep,but if we bathed her in the
morning or afternoon she was fine.
HTH let us know

[Ruggie]

We used to start his bath at 7 and he is out by 7:30. (Last 2 month) He started fighting sleep and would talk for ages until 8, so we gradually shifted to the current schedule. So you think I should move back?

[Katet]

For me that was the sign I had to start moving to one nap a day. The day sleep was sstarting to "rob" from night. & at 15months & an angel/textbook, he is right on "textbook timing"

What I did was limit the morning one to 1 hour & bring the afternoon one earlier & then delay the morning by 15mins & cut it back to 45, then delay another 15mins & cut back to 1/2 hour. Also with the ealy wakeups I did every thing in my power to keep trying to get him back to sleep & did not allow him to compensate by an earlier nap time... it was 9.30am, even though he would really want one at 8.30am.

it took about 6 weeks, but by the end we had 2.5-3hour mid day naps & 11-11.5 hours overnight... I was getting almost an hour longer sleep from him & that was great as I got it all down pat about 3 weeks before ds#2 arrived.

[Ruggie]

Thanks  Kate

I think I will have to do that given that my #2 is due in 49 day, who says I am counting
Can you give me an example of how the new schedule would look like....do I eventually give him lunch before nap?

[Katet]

this is your routine
6:00- 6:30 wakes, change, quick play and breakfast
8:00     snack
9:30     nap (1.5 hr)
11:00   wakes
11:30   lunch
2:00     bottle
3:00    snack
3:30    nap (1.5hr)
5:00 wakes
5:45 dinner
7:30 bath & bottle & songs
8:00 asleep

My guess is wakeup will eventually be maybe 1/2 -1 hour later,
So what I 'd be looking at is
Breakfast 7am
snack 9 am (to help ward off that first nap)
Lunch 11am
Nap 12- 2.3/3pm
Bottle & snack after wakign
Dinner 5.30
Bed 7/7.30pm... you will find you need the earlier bedtime, but the later mornings won't happen as quickly, took us about a month to 'catch up'
HTH

[Carmela's Mom]

I agree with Kate.  I think your toddler is showing signs of needing only one nap a day.  This process was very difficult and it took A LONG time to get it down.  There are so many ways to go about it.  Some push back the nap until after lunch and some do it more slowly.  What I did was slowly push back Carmela's first nap back to 10 a.m.  She'd only nap for 1 hour and 15 mins at first so I'd put her in again at 4 for a 30 minute catnap.  She'd be in bed for the night at 6-6:30.  Every few days I'd push the morning nap back 15 minutes until we hit 11 a.m.  When we hit 11 a.m. to begin the nap, she stopped taking the second nap but I still used that for some quiet time.  When her nap was at 11, her lunch was after.  Slowly we worked it to lunch at 11:30 and then nap at 12:00.....bedtime then moved to 7 p.m.

Good luck!!!!!!!