EW earlier and earlier, help

[Baidare]

Hello. My LO used to wake up for the day at 6am, then gradualy it got earlier, 5:30 then 5am, now for last couple of days he is waking up at 4am. And now is 4:30am and he is playing and talking with himself in the cot since 4am. Don't really know what to do pick him up and try to put him to sleep or let him play.  Tried before both didn't work, if I tried to put him back to sleep he would fight it for 2hrs and then fall asleep, when left to play, he would play for sometime and then cry.

He is 5,5months old. Always goes to bed for the nite at 8pm, nap time during the day is 3-4hrs.

Please help. 

[ZacsMumme]

(HUGS) hun - we went through this, EW are rubbish arent they.

Can you post your EASY. For us the problem was we needed an increase in A times - especially the first one as DS was tacking this onto his night sleep. In saying this, our EW this early (in the 4s) only lasted a few weeks max and DS was right at this age too. I suspect a touch of OT has crept in from UT too.

In the meantime whatever you do don't start the day i.e. get him up and start playing. Even if you are just in his room in the dark holding him or going in or out. If you let him think its the start of the day it will get harder. The earliest I would start the day ever was 5am and this was worst case.

[Baidare]

Our EASY if he wakes up at 5am would be something like this:

E:5am
A:5am
S:6am

E:8am
A:8am
S:10am

E:11am
A:11am
S:13pm

E:14:30pm
A:14:30pm
S:16:30pm

E:17:30 or 18:00pm
A:17:30 or 18:00pm
Bath: 19:00pm
E:20:00
S:20:00

I can see that the first A time is short 1 hour, and is more likely NW then EW. But how to get rid of it don't know. Before he used to last 2hrs, but now I try to soothe him so he would fall asleep, so it got down to one hour.

[ZacsMumme]

hun it definitely looks like that first S is stealing from his nights and your days are too long. Try to gently push it out to at least 2 hours and over time I think you will see progress. Try to do it very gently, so 10 mins or so early few days. Some days we went backwards but we got there in the end and it made a difference to EW. You may also find once you do this your naps will consolidate so you will end up with 1 longer AM nap, a longer PM nap and a CN before bed.

In the meantime his nights are too short and last A too long on a 1 hour nap, can you bring BT forward a bit to preserve his night sleep so maybe aim for something like this (it will take a week or two to get there)- I have missed out E

Wake 5 (or later as you push the As and give earlier BT hopefully wake up will get later)
S 7 (or later)
A 9 - 11.30 - on a longer nap he should be able to give you a longer A than 2 hours (again, slowly extend this as his nap gets better and later)
S 11.30
A 1.30 - 4.15 if he handles longer As as day goes on
S 4.15 - 5 (CN - can be shorter)
A 5 - 7
BT 7pm

Eventually I think your day will shift as he catches up on OT, sleeps more at night and consolidates his naps into 2 good naps, one CN and at a reasonable hour. I think you will really need to end up with your As longer than the above, but that is just a start. Have you had a look at the sample routines for a 6 month old as this is where you will want to head. http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164029.0

[Baidare]

Thanks we will try that and see how it goes.