22 weeks early morning waking

[Jm2450]

We have kind of fallen into the baby whisperer routine naturally. I used the book to do pupd to teach him to self settle at 4 months and he now goes down happily for naps and night sleep. Until a few weeks ago, all naps were 30-45 mins and he was waking once or twice in the night to feed (ebf). In the last month, he has slept through from 6.30/7pm most nights (with the occasional night of one feed) which has been amazing. His awake time has increased to about 2 hours (I think -although sleepy signs are less obvious). I was in this group because of the self settling method but noticed LO has started to take naps in BW routine (2 x 11 1/4-1 3-4 hr naps and a catnap). The problem we now seem to be facing is emw which is throwing all of his naps off. He is waking at 5am (happy and chatting) and is awake for about an hour in the crib ( we are trying to leave him as he is not crying) until 6ish when he may fall asleep for 30 mins and we then start our day. Should I still be starting nap 1 at 9am if he wakes this early? Really difficult to work our exactly when he is waking as he chats/is quiet/chats etc. Because everything is pushed back, I struggle to keep him up past 6.30pm in the evening so this is bedtime most nights. Any ideas how to change his routine to combat emw or at least push it to 6am which is a more respectable start? Feeds are all over the place and not in the routine as he tends to feed every 2 hours or so x

[Martini~]

Hi Honey, so could you post your routine right now? At 5mo some kiddos will reach a moment of transition from 3 to 2 naps but generally most of them would need some increase in A times. 2h is very fine for 4mo, 3h is more appropriate for 6mo so you could be somewhere in between. You EMW can be both UT/OT however I  would say rather UT as he has a reasonable day length and probably getting some good sleep.

Will be waiting for your routine so we could tweak something!

[Jm2450]

Thank you!!! 
Like I say, I have fallen into the BW as kind of let my LO do his own thing and then when re-reading the book (which I used for self settling) realised that he almost fits BW in terms of sleep. Feeds are all over the place. Just started weaning with fruit/veg and he seems to be hungry all day long!

Wakeup 6am today!! This is when we get up, lights on, blinds open etc etc. Often wakes up at 5am/5.30am chatting and may go back to sleep for a bit.

S-8.20-10

S-12.15-1.55

These first two naps are about 3 hours total but can vary in length from 1 1/4 hour to 1 3/4 hours.

S-4.15-4.45

BT-6.40 (absolutely bushed so cannot keep him up any longer).

Went a month without night feeds (ebf) but had fed at 4am the past 2 nights.

Thanks in advance for any help!!! I'm a newbie to this but love the BW book so keen to get into it x

[Martini~]

Thanks for the routine:). So generally yes, I would say it's time to push the morning nap or cap it. Tracy doesn't propose detailed routines for 6mo+ babies, she is rather suggesting following baby needs. We here are more strict, haha:) or rather more concentrated on A times and amount of sleep kiddos have - mostlly because if people write here, it's because they HAVE some problems with sleep mainly.

So... there are two options you may go and it's your choice how to tackle it:1
1. Push the morning nap and make morning A longer. I would go for 8:30/8:40 in one go, no more. Then push the afternoon nap by 15-20min. I would still keep the catnap, but probably a tad later. BT can be 2h after catnap or earlier if you think he needs it. The problem with that routine which I had is around 3.5h of daytime sleep. With 12h day it may be too much. No matter how much I pushed the morning nap, I couldn't get 11.5h nights  with 3.5h naps. So I ...
2. Started capping morning nap. So I stopped pushing but capped it at 45' and then even 30'. I kept 3 naps routine for a longer spell thanks to that but overall daytime sleep was max 2:45/3:00. My DS nights improved immediately.

Many mammas have great success on working on 3h of A and 2x1.5h naps + 13h days. We never had it here:) but it's your decision made of your son how to proceed further! HTH

[Jm2450]

Thank you so much for your time and help. Really appreciate it. If you capped the first nap, did you find awake time after it decreased by a lot? We really struggled with 45 minute naps from months 2-4 but no emw so maybe it's time to cap that nap. I feel like he only needs 14.5-15 hours sleep in 24. I will let you know how it goes. Absolute star for your suggestions x

[Martini~]

I don't remember frankly speaking but hmm I think I just tried different A times until we finally had the routine which was working.

If you decide on capping naps you may go for a routine:
7am WU
Nap at 9:15 till 10 so 45min
Nap at 12:00/12:15 till 2/2:15 so aim for 2h
Nap arounf 4:30/5pm
BT at 7/7:30

And later when his A times are longer:
7am WU
Nap at 9:30 for 30min
Nap at 1pm for 2h
BT at 7pm

[Jm2450]

He woke at 5.20 this morning and only then dozed for the odd 5 minutes and we got up at 6. Managed to get to 8.30 relatively easily for morning nap which I capped at 1 hour today so not too much change at once for him (baby steps). He was desperate for lunchtime nap by 11.30 so he went down at 11.35 and is still down now. Will try and push catnap out a bit if he sleeps for a decent time for this nap. It's much easier to have a big nap over lunchtime and am and pm catnaps as those can be on the go so only ties me to the house at lunchtime but we'll see how it goes over the next week or so for emw. I had a feeling the long early first nap was probably the culprit so feel positive that I'm trying to change this! Thank you for all your help! Do you think the clock change will help? Maybe 6am-6.30 wakinfa instead of 5am or is this wishful thinking?!

[Martini~]

Of course the clock change will help. If you want, just stick to old hours which will result in a new acceptable times of WU for you:). Yes I also liked two catnaps and nice lunchtime nap routine at that age. It enabled me to do a lot of things during day and only be at home around 1-3pm.

Keeping fingers crossed for you and keep us posted!