Early wakings have destroyed our routine... Please help :(

[emzi]

Hi all,

This week my partner and I have taken the week off work to spend some quality time with my DD. However, we have been having serious EWs that are causing disturbances to all 3 of us. Current routine looks like this:
4.30-5.30- Up for the day- cries is still tired but refuses to go back to sleep
10.30-11- wants to nap (previously this was 12pm)
11.30- lunch
6.30- bedtime (totally exhausted by this point)

Previously my DD has woken anytime between 6-7 and made it until 12pm for a nap. Last week I did an EBT of 5.45pm and she slept until 6.30pm. I've gradually tried to move BT earlier this week without success and would really appreciate any ideas that people have, our relaxing week as a family is slowly being destroyed.
She doesn't seem to be teething and is generally well so don't think this is to blame. I'm anyone can help I will be forever in your debt!

[barbaraz78]

Hi. Sorry for this difficult time. Could it be the 18 month sleep regression? Is she undergoing a developmental leap? This could affect sleep.
The other thing is: how long did she nap before and how long now? If the nap is short, she could be ot.

[emzi]

Hiya, thanks for the reply. Don't know what it is tbh. She has never been a good daytime sleeper, usually 1 hour max. This has been anywhere from 40 mins to 1.5 hours recently.
Is there an advice how long a 17 month old should be awake in the day? For example with today's early waking of 5.30am and an hours sleep at dinner, should she be asleep by 5.30pm tonight?

[barbaraz78]

Not sure about it. According to me this nap could be to short and her day too long for such a short nap. At her age, childred often nap for 2 h. It is possible that her nap was too early and she doesn't have enough A time for doing a long nap??? I would try and work keeping A time at least 5.5 h. If she wants to sleep before, you can do a catnap in the morning (like 15-20 mins) and attempt another nap later. This is what I would try, especially because she's quite young and could manage two naps. You can also try the very ebt but given the experience with ew I would be a little worried about it because it could encourage the ew too. In the long term, I would work to extend the first A time and hopefully the nap length.

[barbaraz78]

When did she go to one nap?

[emzi]

Thanks Barbara she has been at one nap for a few months now. I am determined to keep her awake until after lunchtime today. By that point she will of been awake for 6.5 hours and hopefully a have a decent nap. Any idea what bt I could try? I've tied everything but I'm thinking if she does 6.5 hours am should pm not match or will that cause OT?
Thanks for all the advice

[barbaraz78]

I think if she sleeps 2 h for nap, you could try 5 h A in the evening, putting her down at 7.

[emzi]

She slept for 1hr 40 mins so obviously needed it. Will try 5 hours this afternoon and see how we go

[clairebear79]

I agree with Barbara that she probably needs a longer A in the AM, but the key thing really is to get her nap back to post lunchtime.  While she naps so early in the day, she will need to go to bed early at night & the early starts will continue. 

However, I would be wary of pushing her too far in one go - its quite a jump to keep her up til after lunch when she's been napping at 10.30am IYSWIM?  She might just end up OT.  If you think she can handle it, then go for it & stick with a post lunchtime nap for a good week or so, battle on through any OT & see what happens.  Otherwise if she is sensitive to OT, perhaps push the nap later by 15mins at a time, until it is after lunch.  If it helps, at 16/17 months we had to do something very similar to combat EW (he was waking at 5am & napping at 11am) & within a few weeks we settled on this:

Up:    7.00ish
Nap: 12.30-2.30
BT:     7.30pm

Hope her night goes ok.

[emzi]

Thanks for this. We pushed the nap to after lunch one morning when she got up at 5.30am. She was exhausted but slept until 1.45pm. Bedtime for 7.20pm and slept until 7.30am... I was astounded!! Last night toook a slight turn where she cried at 5.15am but I think she fell back to sleep until 6.45am.
Im plodding along!

[emzi]

Hi All, Just wanted to update this and see if antone can help us again.
We seemed to of sorted the EW's with a slightly later BT and pushing nap back to after lunch. We had 4-5 really good days last week when we were all off together of 6.30am starts.
My DD went back to Nursery on Monday and since then its all gone a bit wonky again.
Its looking like this:
6-7am- Up for the day
12pm-1.45pm- Nap
7.00-7.15pm- Asleep but restless sleep

Then at 1am on the dot my DD is waking up hysterical, ive tried going back to WI/WO and that doesnt work, I pick her up and she pushes me away. Do you think she could be O/T from all the activity at Nursery and actually could do with a slightly earlier BT?
Im thinking of trying a 6.30pm BT tonight and could do with any suggestions people have?

[barbaraz78]

They look night terrors to me, especially if she pushes you away. If they are, she is actually in a sleepy state. For us, night terrors were usually associated to ot, os or to some change in life, such as nursery or holiday, so they could be related to nursery. You can try with earlier bt. If they are night terrors there is not much you can do when they happen. What do you think?

[emzi]

Thanks I thought they may be night terrors. She puts her arms up to me for me to pick her up but then pushes me away. She seems totally awake but is screraming like someone is hurting her. What do you mean by os? I think she may be overtired (ot) but also my partner has been away looking after his mum since Monday as she is unwell. Maybe she is missing him also?

[barbaraz78]

Os=overstimulated
It can be a combination of all the changes. It can also be developmental.
I know that they seem awake (with open eyes) during nt. They reccomend not to wake the kid because they are not conscious and they don't remember them, so it is more traumatic for you than for her. For us, nt were with screaming nad F couldn't be calmed down by us. The more we tried to speak to him, the louder he screamed. It is thought.
Hugs for that!

[emzi]

Thanks for that, yeah you may be right there. What did you do? Did you just leave him after you had checked on him?