Advice for EWs? 8mo waking between 5-5:30 for the last month

[sarah_london]

My 8mo is pretty textbook and has been an independent sleeper since 4mo (shush pat). He's a great baby and I'm hesitant to complain. However, ever since he dropped the third nap he has been consistently waking between 5-5:30 which then in turn wakes our 6yo.

I know this can be a tricky problem to solve. We have tried w2s, moving bedtime up and trying to stretch the A times to move naps a bit later. Nothing seems to be working. Would be very grateful for suggestions!

To summarize our day:
5-5:30 wake up
8:30 - 10 nap
1- 2:30 or 3 nap
6:30-7 bedtime

Should I try to cap the morning naps? That's one thing I haven't done since I do believe sleep begets sleep and I don't want to create an overtired monster.

[Mackjack]

The first thing that strikes me is that his last A time could be too long? Looks like your first two A times are 3 hrs and the last is between 3.5 - 4 hrs so he could be going to bed OT which is a classic reason for EW. Have you tried an earlier BT?

[sarah_london]

Yes, as I said I have tried to move up bedtime and it did not seem to help. But I definitely agree his last A time is longer than the other two.

Is A time of 3 - 3.5 hours about right for a 8.5 mo?

[Mackjack]

Ah yes you did say that - sorry! I've been having A time probs with my 9 month old and apparently 3-4 hrs is about right (quote a wide range).

[Lindsay27]

I agree it could be a little bit of OT building up.  My DS was prone to EWs when he was OT...still is to this day.  Average A time for 8.5 months is about 3.5hrs so I think you are okay there.  I would be aiming for a 6:30 BT (asleep by 6:30) so I would do bath/wind down etc at 6pm or earlier.  Do you think you could try that for a few days?  It could take a bit of time to catch up a bit so I'd try to hold that for a week or so.

[jessmum46]

Just a different viewpoint, but does he STTN?  His total sleep is around 14.5h which is think is really quite good.  He could just be waking at that time because he's had enough sleep.  At the same age my DD had a 12h night but rarely slept more than 2-2.5h in the daytime, usually one nap of around 1.5h and a shorter nap.  I agree with bringing in BT to 6/6.30pm ie a 13h day max but I would also be tempted to limit his day sleep to about 3h in total in the first instance, possibly even a little less.  The other thing you'll probably need to do is to start shifting things later as you would for DST - it looks like the routine is pretty reasonable, it's just all a bit too early

[sarah_london]

Thanks for the advice! And yes, he does Sttn (other than the odd teething disruption).
The last 4 mornings have been 4:50! Getting worse...
I'm so scared of the upcoming time change, lol!

I will try to shift the naps later and perhaps cap them too. Quite honestly starting wind down at 6pm is tricky for us as we normally eat dinner then. It's much easier to adapt the schedule when there's only one child in the mix. But anyway, I will do my best.