EW back again, 16 month old - and I'm back at work argh!!!

[EloysH]

Help!

Jarrah has been waking around 5:30am for the past 2 weeks or more.  Early bedtime doesn't work he just wakes earlier cause he won't sleep more than 11 hours at night. At the mo he's only sleeping 10.5 hours.

He has been on one nap since 10 months old. We've been operating on this routine below (without the EW) since he was about 12 monthls old. So it has been very stable. He's an independelt sleeper.

We've had EW's in the past but we were also implementing early bedtime... the EW magically went away after daylight savings kicked in and the routine moved forward an hour.

Wake 6:30am  (for the past few weeks 5:30am)
Nap: 11:00am  (now is tired buy 10:00am - 10:30am)
Bed: 7pm  (now tired by 5:30 - 6pm, alot of distraction required)

We have been trying hard to give him two naps but it's not working. He's tired enough by 5:30pm though, but we have thought this is too late for  nap.  I really feel the need to do something about these EW's as we have been waiting for them to go away, thinking when he got his teeth he'd stop waking.  But we've ridden through one molar and are at a slight lull in the teething (got a lump waiting for molar 2), and the EW's are still here.

What do you think of this crazy plan:
Wake 5:30am
Nap when tired say 10:00am
Nap 5:30pm when tired (wake him up 45 mins later)
Bedtime 8:00pm

I an hoping the later bedtime will force him to sleep in.  In the past we've only tried it for one day and given up as he woke at 5:30am and was sooooo OT we felt sorry for him.  What if we do this for 3 days and see what happens?  What will I do if he wakes at 5:30am for 3 days and is soooo OT?

[*Natasha*]

How long is he napping for?

[EloysH]

For the past month he  has been napping 1.5 hours, occasionally 2 hours.  So usually he gets 11 hours at night and 1.5 - 2 hours in the day.

But now since EW, its 10 hours at night and 1.5 hours in the day.

[*Natasha*]

Teething?
Any new milestones like walking?
Have you tried WI/WO to get him to go back to sleep when waking early?

[EloysH]

Teething - yes but not cutting a tooth, just waiting for a lump to come down..  see post  below for details

no miletones, been walking for months and talking is progressing along nothing major

yes tried Wi/WO  he just becomes genuinely awake and hysterical, we try for 20 mins or so.  Most of the time he has done a poo so we get himn up.  poo.  A few times he has fallen back to sleep for 15 mins or so.

[EloysH]

so I am also thinking of just pushing his routine out by half an hour to see if I can shirt the wake-up time.  The only problem with this is it does not allow him to catch up on OT sleep (unless he makes it up with a long daytime nap).

[sherry lynn]

Eloys - I think that idea is a lot better than the catnap idea. He probably won't take the catnap anyways. And I started having issues of the second nap robbing from the nighttime sleep, regardless of how long the second nap was. I think pushing that nap forward might help. Before the whole nap craziness did he used to have a bedtime of 7:30?

[Julie C]

When our DD just turned 16 months, we also had EW like this. This is what worked for us.

Not letting her nap until 12:30 (ok the first day we cheated, and let her snooze for about 20 mins in the car at around 10am because she had gotten up at 5am. We woke her up and then put her down for a real nap at about 12:45. She slept 1. 5 hours).

Moving her bedtime to 7:30 (from 7pm). She was really tired, but it worked like magic on the second day.

We got about 3 weeks of wonderful sleep -- until she got sick. BLAH!!! (It never ends!!!)

[EloysH]

Sher, Julie thanks, thats the feedback I need.  So today I put him down at 12pm and he was soo OT, only slept 1 hour. Will see if I can keep him up till 7:30pm.

Yes Sher, I agree pn the afternoon nap thing too.  Catnaps have never owrked for us anyway, so I was a bit dubious about it and there's no way I want the night time sleep robbeed, he's not getting enough as is! Bedtime has always been 7pm.   So maybe time to move later.

Juile: awesome to hear that this worked for you too. Was DD getting less night time sleep when the EW's started?  In hindsight what do you think was going on?

[sherry lynn]

Eloise - is Jarah spirited, I'm thinking he is. I'm having trouble remembering though.

[EloysH]

Hi Sher,

jarrah is y  but very intense. 

So we had 6:30am wake-up today!   I moved everything half hour later, nap and bedtime and he's slept in!  He also only had a one hour nap so I think that helped, he caught on on that lost sleep.


Watch this space.  Will see what happens tomorrow.

[EloysH]

Sher, that was supposed to read y"  (as in the book's definition) not messy!!

[~Natalie~]

Eloise, I meant to pop on here earlier in the week and then we had sleep issues and my brain melted down 

I like your idea of pushing the nap back instead of doing the nap and catnap.  I am glad it is working out well so far.  I know Angela pushed the nap back as well because Z wasn't sleeping very well either.  She found that even if she didn't take a long nap at least it was late enough in the day to get her to bed time, kwim?

[sherry lynn]

Eloise for some reason it won't let you say that word, I'm been trying to figure out a way to get it to print but I give up. I know what word you are trying to say from the spirited board.
I'm so so so so so pleased to hear that it worked. I was so worried that he would be OT that he would still wake up early. I am also proud to announce that we also got a 6:30 wake up this morning. First one in quite a while. Lyle was OT tonight though. Woke very briefly 30 minutes after going down tonight. So I hope this isn't all catching up with him. But things are much better than they were.
So he did 11 hours last night?
What are you going to limit his daytime sleep to?

[EloysH]

Natalie: thanks for popping in. Yeah IKWYM on the later nap. We got a ways to go to push it later, I am thinking cause Jarrah has been on one nap for so many months, that I will need to keep pushing it a later later every month or two or else we'll be stauck with ealry wakings again.

SherryLyn: wierd about the word not being allowed!     Yay on the 6;30am wake-up.  Awesome, to wake with dawn as opposed to night time eh!
So Jarrah did 11 hours last night.      I won't cut the naps unless I have to, I will wait to see.  I have found his naps are overall shorter these days,  today 1.5 hours from 12pm. 

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.