What do you mean by early naps reinforcing Early wake up?

[zoem]

I've posted a few times over the past months on the night waking board and the advice I got seems to have helped as most nights my 5 month old is only waking twice (which is good-trust me!!).
Sometimes we have him wake at5/5:30 am and I've see on some posts advice that says don't put them down early for a nap as it reinforces the early wake up. So, if he wakes at 5, I would usually put him for a nap at 7am to fall in line with his 2hr A...is this reinforcing the EW?if so, when should I put him down for the first nap?
Thanks

[newkidontheblock]

Hi there. Basically, if your baby has woken up early, chances are that they will start showing sleepy signs earlier than usual - that is, they might not be able to do the entire A time as usual. But if you put them down, they tack it on to their night sleep and you'll get an under tired nap. So basically, you stretch the time by keeping things low key, walking around etc and put them down after their normal A time. That being said, if you are having an issue with EWs, maybe stretching his A time might do the trick. At 5 months, most babies are on approximately 2.5 A. Not all, of course..it varies from baby to baby.

[jessmum46]

If you put baby down at an appropriate A time after WU, it should not reinforce the EW.  However, if you put LO down after too short an A time, and allow a long nap, that will reinforce the early starts.  I would agree you probably need to start increasing from 2h now if EWs are starting to creep in.  This is the age when the 3-2 transition starts to hit and EWs are a very common sign that things need changing x

[zoem]

Thanks girls. So what you're saying is as long as I keep the A time as per usual I won't reinforce the EW?
He woke today at 5am. I put him to sleep by 8am ( I understood not giving an early nap to mean extending the A time in the morning). He woke after 45 mins but was very easy to put back down and he slept a total of 1.5 hrs. He seemed overtired for the rest of the day though but had another 1.5 hr nap later in the day. I've never got him to take two 1.5 hr naps before. He usually has one long nap in the morning and the others are 45 mins. Thinking about it, those 45 min ones are probably down to UT as he is always ready to wake and get up.  Maybe I do need to increase the a time.
He also wakes between bedtime and dream feed a couple of times. It's easy to get him back to sleep but maybe that's due to too short A times too?

[jessmum46]

Sorry just to clarify - as long as you do an APPROPRIATE A time first thing, it won't reinforce the EW.  Problem is his normal 2h A time is I think too short now, so if you do put him down at his *normal* A time of 2h that may well cause the EWs to continue.  I would do as you have been and extend that A time.  10 mins or so every few days should do it xx

[zoem]

Yes I think you're right. Last night he woke up at 8:30 and it took me two hours to get him to sleep. Then we had the same at 4am.Definitely undertired. He's not five months yet-got a few days to go but he seems to be advanced with his A times as we keep having these issues every so often. I need to remember to start extending the A time every month or so!
Will start on 10 mins extra today and work to 2.5 hrs.
Thanks all for the comments x