12 month old wakes up earlier now

[Ryan&HollysMom]

hey folks. we were doing awesome until about a week or two ago. here's our routine: (before the earlier wakeups)
7:30 awake and bottle (6-9 oz)
8:30 breakfast
10:30 - 12 nap
12:15 lunch
2:45 snack and bottle (3-7 oz)
3:00 - 4:30 nap
5:45 dinner and bottle (3-5 oz)
7:30 bed

a while ago he started waking up at 7ish. also, he hed trouble falling asleep at 3 pm, so i thought maybe he's sleeping too much now in the daytime, so moved his nap in the pm to 3:30 and tried for only about 45-60 min. well, now he goes to sleep at 3:30, that's fine, but i have to routinely wake him at 4:30 and then he's really sleepy and grumpy. the morning nap is great, actually now both of them he goes down without a peep.
it's just the mornings that have been getting earlier. the last few days he's woken up anywhere between 6:30 and 7.
i get woken up by the birds around 5:30/6, and i wonder if that's a problem for him, too? i thought of turning on the soundmachine, but i know that he doesn't like it that much (it kinda wakes him up too).
any thoughts? does this sound like he might be ready for 1 nap? (he really LOVES going to sleep at 10:30). should i put him to bed later or earlier at night? (he goes down very well at 7:30...)
also, he has on occasion slept from 3:30/45 til almost 5, at which point he goes to bed at 7:45 sometimes.

[Layla]

I think it might have to do with the 2-1 transition. There are several ways of doing this:

You could either limit the morning nap right down to 30mins to protect the afternoon nap. In this case your schedule would look something like this:

7am - wake for the day
10.30am - morning nap (30mins only)
2.30pm - afternoon nap (this one should be longer 1.5hrs)
7.30-8pm - bedtime

If you are finding that though even with the shorter morning nap, he is still taking a short pm nap or fighting it, you could slowly try to push him morning nap until you get him taking it at 12pm (so don't wake him up in the morning but keep pushing it every 3-4 days by adding 15-20mins to his A times). If you push the morning nap bring the bedtime forward so that he doesn't get overtired. Some try to pffer a catnap in the late afternoon to tie them over till bedtime but alot of babies refuse to sleep then in which case you would make bedtime around 6.30pm (the latest).

My lo is going through the transition at the moment & I am having to wake her up every single morning at 30mins (used to 45) in order for her to take a better afternoon nap.

Ultimately you want him taking a nap about 5.5hrs from the time he wakes and go to bed about 5.5 hrs from the time he wakes from his nap....

Good luck & let me know how it goes
Layla

[Ryan&HollysMom]

layla, thanks for the advice.
i'm just not sure whether he's ready for 1 nap. today (and pretty much every day) if we're at home he'll crawl to his bed and pull his blanket out and suck his thumb and lay on the floor. if we're out and about, sometimes he'll make it til 11, cause he's distracted.
yesterday he took a really long morning nap (2 1/2 hours) which was unusual. i wasn't home in the morning, so i don't know exactly what MIL and FIL did to tire him out so much (he had been awake at 6:30am). then we were playing outside and he took a nap from 4:15-4:55 and went to bed at 7:45 and lo and behold he slept til 7:30 again this morning.
maybe a good solution would be making the morning nap a bit later, maybe 11 and work to make it later from that, and having a catnap in the pm?
he's always been a great sleeper and just at 11 months went to 2 naps, so making the switch right now seems very soon for him.
the thing is that i just had to switch from 3 to 3:30 pm for the 2nd nap and he's been going down without a fight, and i always have to wake him if i want it to be shorter than 90 min...
to go to 5.5 hrs without sleep seems like too much as right now he's awake for about 3.5 to 4. that's a loooooong stretch...

[Layla]

I agree that he is not ready for 1 nap... just yet  . But he is in the middle of the transition and its a bit of a case where 1 nap is not enough and 2 is too many. I believe that by letting him as long as he wants to in the morning can be a cause of the earlier wake ups. The morning nap can rob them of night sleep and thats why I suggested cutting it short and make the afternoon nap longer. For some doing it the other way around has worked as well but if you are finding that he is waking earlier and earlier in the morning, try to cut his nap down to maybe an hour to start with (& bring the afternoon nap forward). I wouldn't push the 2nd nap any further cause thats too close to bedtime and you might have some issued at night. If you are comfortable pushing him to 11am and think he would be able to handle it, then give it a try. He might fight the 2nd nap though, in which case, you might have to do an early bedtime (like 6.30pm).

[Ryan&HollysMom]

hmm, lots to think about. thank you layla. do you think that if i tried pushing him later in the morning and a short pm nap and ran into problems (you suggested it works for some, and it's kinda still what my gut tells me to do...) that i could go back and do it with the short nap in the AM and the long one in the pm? or am i stuck once i move into one direction?
scary propositions, i really really dislike change. felt this way since our first perfect EASY routine... 

[Layla]

I know what you mean about change. Totally understand where you are coming from. That was me talking about a week ago.... I was contemplating on pushing Jasmine's A time from 3hrs in the morning to 5hrs and offering her 1 nap cause she was not doing too well on 2 and the 1st 2 days she did GREAT!!! Took 2hr naps but then on the 3rd day took a crappy 1hr15min nap and was dead tired by bedtime. It was back to 2 naps.... so I do think that its a matter of playing around a bit (as scary as it seems) to find the right combination until they go to 1 nap. You know some do really well on a long morning nap and short catnap so if you are happy with that (other than the earlier wake up) then let it be. Try 11am and short catnap but if the catnap is too late in the afternoon he might be fighting it and you dont want his catnap starting at 4.30, iykwim... cause thats too close to bedtime, so in that case I would forget the catnap and go for an early bedtime. He might actually surprise you and sleep in later....

With time you might be able to push him to 12 and there will no longer be a need for a 2nd nap. Some actually do transition to 1 nap quiet well. Whatever you do, if you see signs towards overtiredness, nightwakings or even earlier wake ups, re-asses and take a step back.

I don't think you are stuck into one direction. With Isabella, I tried something similar to Jasmine and pushed her to 1 nap. She also did well for about 3 days and then bombed out and when I went back to 2 naps, she sliped back into her old routine... but I did have to do the wake up at 30mins in the morning to get a longer afternoon nap out of her....

[Ryan&HollysMom]

again, thanks so much for the clarification.
the last 2 mornings ryan slept til 7:30 again. he took an 11 am nap for 2 hours (i woke him cause we had to go somewhere) and went back down for number 2 at 4 without a fight. so i'm super happy. let's see what happens after a few days of this. i'll keep you posted.
claudia

[Layla]

Good to hear he is back to waking up at his usual time  !!!!