14 Month Old 5.30am Waking!

[AN190781]

Hi,

I have a 14 Month old DS, he's very spirited and sleep has always been an issue as he gets overtired very easily.

We have recently moved to one nap a day, as he was waking early in the morning.   But despite the one nap a day, he's still waking early.

Our routine is currently:

5.30am - Awake
6.30am - Breakfast always hungry when he wakes
8.30am - Toast or snack
10.00am- Snack
11.45 am- lunch
12.00pm - Nap
2.00pm-Awake
4.00pm - 4.30 PM Dinner if at nursery 5.00pm if at home
6.00pm - Bath
6.30pm - Cup of milk and yoghurt if nursery day
7.00pm - Bed, normally asleep within 15 minutes


Some nights he will sleep through until 5.30am then he wakes and will not go back down, other days we will have a few night wakings and still a 5.30am wake.
At breakfast time he is still rubbing is eyes some mornings so I know he is still tired.  I think some of the night wakins are due to ot.

Please any help would be appreciated, I feel shattered, but it's worse seeing your little one is tired all the time and he's becoming quite clingy and emotional with it.

Many thanks

[*Becky*]

yes sounds OT to me.
Are there are teeth coming through??

I would bring the nap forward to more like 11am ,let him sleep for 2 hours and then have him in bed for 6pm and see if that helps. Try it for a day or two and let me know.

Essentially I think the A time to his nap is too long.

If you suspect teeth I would medicate at the first NWing.

Keep me posted xx

xx

[AN190781]

Many thanks for replying.

Yes there is more teeth coming, he went to bed at 6.45am tonight as he was poorly with a temperature and a cold. I'm sure its from the teeth again.

He's at nursery 4 days a week and I find it hard to get his routine the same at home and nursery.   Hopefully if I speak to them they can try putting him down at 11 and he'll have a good nap.  If he get's into this routine and it works, will he eventually start sleeping longer at night?

I keep questioning myself as to if he's ready for one nap yet, but we seem to be on the right track so I want to stick with it really.

Hopefully if he's feeling better tomorrow we can try the new routine.

Many thanks will keep you posted x

[stardust599]

Your routine looks very similar to ours, my LO is slightly older at almost 17 months and I know until recently a 2hour nap wouldn't have been enough for her until the past few weeks and would have caused an OT loop.  We also have an EW!  My LO is also poorly with teeth and a cold so hopefully this is just a phase for us both.  I will be following your thread and if I find anything that works I will let you know! x

[*Becky*]

when my lo was this age he was still on 2 naps and that was mainly to do with his teething which caused him to get OT very easily. See how he does for the next day or two and we can always try a 2 naps day if you think he is not coping.

[AN190781]

Stardust599 - Yes I read your post yesterday and it sounded a lot like what we are going through.  I find it so hard to read when he his ot or ut.  It is also very difficult when you are at work and have other people looking after your little one, my ds is at nursery and they just don't seem to put him down early enough, it's like when he goes there he gets second wind and starts again! if he has two naps there, he doesn't have them until later in the morning, then later in the afternoon, they then let him sleep until 4.00pm, in which case then I get confused as to what time to put him to bed!  Any suggestions you have please let me know.  Oh by the way congratulations on your pregnancy, you are so brave!  Just remember apparently you never have two babies the same, so you may well get your textbook boy!

Becky - Last night was another bad night, has has a really bad cold and a fever, I was up every couple of hours.  I was expecting him to sleep early at nursery, but no he didn't sleep until 12.05pm, despite being up all night and early again this morning.  He had a two hour nap, but I tried him with an early night at 6.15pm and it took nearly half an hour of babbling to himself until he went to sleep.  I know tonight will be another bad night as well as being ill being ot too!  Tomorrow is my day off, so I'm thinking of putting him down at 11.00am as you said, or should i try two naps if he is really ot?  I'm so confused.

Thanks for your help

[*Becky*]

I would see how he is and how the night is. If he is very tired tomorrow then yes I would try 2 naps but otherwise go for 11am.

[AN190781]

Hi Becky,

We had another rough night, high temperature and difficulty breathing due to cold.  Plus I think there is something developmental as he is babbling a lot at night too.
If we go for two naps, what would be the best time so it doesn't eat into his bedtime sleep?  If he has a later nap what is the best time for bed so he's not ut?

Many thanks I'm so confused with it x

[*Becky*]

If he is sick then it is a case of going with him to a certain extent. I would watch his cues mainly. What time did he wake today?

[AN190781]

At 4.30am I went into him to settle him, but he wouldn't settle and he was burning up again.  So we gave him calpol and popped downstairs to cool down  bit.  I then went back in his room and he slept on me for a bit, i tried putting him in his cot, but he woke, by this time it was 6.45am.  So we were up for the day, i tried him at 8.30am but he wouldn't go off.  Now finally at 10.55 he has gone after being completely shattered but trying to fight it.  Besides him being ill, I think we have a severe case of OT in the mix too.  Last week from Weds-Sun was one nap a day and I'm really doubting it now?  If he woke up at 7.00am in the morning, he could probably do one nap a day easy, compared to what he's been doing.

Thanks again for your support

[*Becky*]

I know it is hard but while he is ill i would just do what you can to get through. There is no point trying to stick to a routine if they have a temperature etc. Keep me posted on how he does.

[AN190781]

 Hi,

Well he's still very snotty but temp has gone down now, He was up at 5.00am after going to bed at 5.45pm last night as he was tired after only managing one nap yesterday.  So I suppose he didn't do too bad, except for waking up at 12.00am ready for the day!  Luckily I managed to settle him back.

He had two naps at nursery today at my request, one at 9.45am - 10.50am the other at 3.30pm - 4.15pm!  So he was not ready for bed at 7.00pm and has just been banging around in his cot for a while now!  So he's had two naps but neither of any great significance.  I think we really have to go to one nap now, but i'm not sure how? Especially with nursery.  I'm so hoping that the clocks going forward on Sunday will help us. 6.30am seems so much more reasonable then 5.30am, it also means that he could go until lunchtime for his nap better.

Any ideas please?

[stardust599]

I think he will wake early tomorrow due to the short A time but not to worry as he has had 2 good naps (okay not great for 1 nap but plenty overall) today and we won't have to worry about any OT build up.  You never know, he may surprise you and sleep to a reasonable time in the morning.

If he is well tomorrow, with no temp or excessive tiredness I would go for a nap around 11.30am to kick off the 1nap day.  Give him a light lunch beforehand.

Or there is always the alternative of moving tomorrow and Saturday's whole day and starting at 5.30am as this will shift an hour on Sunday with the clocks change.

Say -

Friday 5.30am wake, 11am-1pm nap, 6.00pm Bed
Saturday 5.30am wake, 11am-1pm nap, 6.00pm Bed
Sunday 6.30am wake (wld be 5.30 but +1hr due to clock moving overnight), 12pm-2pm nap, 7.00pm Bed - this is the same as the routine you were on last week except we will hopefully have broken the EW cycle, we know he needs the extra sleep as he is still excessively tired in the morning.

If this works you can try moving your day forward in 15min increments each 3-7 days by leaving LO in cot 15mins longer in morning and pushing all meals and naptime and bedtime 15mins later.

What time do they usually put LOs down for a nap at nursery?

You will have to adjust the above to suit your LO's normal A and nap times, I have just gone with what my LO was doing at 14months.  My LO actually needed longer than 2hours nap or would get into an OT and EW cycle.  We did 6.30am wake, 11.30-2pm nap, 7pm bed and it worked for a while but the EW has come back over the past 3 weeks and we are having to tweak and increase our A now.

If he doesn't work and he gets OT too easily  we may need to go back to 2 naps and it could be an idea for you to cap the morning nap allowing you to start the afternoon nap at a reasonable time?

Hope that helps a bit, I'm still learning the ropes and just sharing my experience!

[AN190781]

Thank you Stardust599 that is very helpful.  I guess I'll have to wait and see what time he wakes tomorrow and plan the day from there, but you have certainly given me some good options. 

Fingers crossed for a good night for both of us!

[*Becky*]

If he is well tomorrow, with no temp or excessive tiredness I would go for a nap around 11.30am to kick off the 1nap day.  Give him a light lunch beforehand.

I agree. I think it would be worth trying one nap for a few days to see how he handles it. Only if he is 100% well though. xx