EW 10.5 months

[firstbaby2014]

Hi there
I posted here once before and it was really helpful & now I'm back with the same issue! My 10.5 month old girl has had EWs for the last couple of weeks, they've been getting earlier as the time goes on.
She has been a great sleeper from the beginning and generally goes down at night by 7pm and settles easily. She used to sleep straight through until 7.30am! Then it became 7 (which is still great!!) but now it's 5.30-6am. I'm starting back to work next week and feel panicked that I won't be able to keep a close eye on her sleep times plus starting with the minder will be another change that could throw it all off more. I know everyone has to do it but any suggestions would be great!

Routine:
Was waking 7.30am, breakfast at 8am followed by 5oz bottle 30 min later. Now waking much earlier (5.30 this morn) we try to leave her in cot as long as possible as she generally chats away, only starts crying after a while.. So up by 6.30-45am the last 2 wks. Breakfast now earlier around 7. Does tend to get tired & cranky sooner than ideal with the early WT, have been trying to hold her out 3 hrs until nap, but this has always been her shortest WT of the day.
Nap used to be at 9.30-45 for 1.5hr or a bit longer, but now needs it before 9.
Plays afterwards then eats around 12 and 5-6oz bottle 30-45min after.
WT between these naps is 3.5hr at the moment so usually naps again by 2pm (was 2.30-45pm) this nap can be 1hr/1.25hr but occasionally she wakes after only 45min. Always awake by 3.30 at latest and ready for bed by 7pm or sometimes we do EBT  if nap has been shorter in afternoon.

I know a lot of babies might wake this early but just wondering when she was so good if there is anything we can try to stretch it back even to nearer 7 or 6.30, just need that extra hour with going back to work. The need for early nap is going to clash with drop off to minder too and I want to avoid her being cranky arriving to minder so she doesn't start an association.

There have been a few changes lately, she's crawling mad and starting to pull up on things, possibly teething again, is in the middle of a big Wonder Week plus I know sleep can go crazy around this age....!!!! Also she has a bunny which she won't sleep without, if she loses it in middle of night de cries out but as soon as I hand it back to her she settles immediately.

Any thoughts much appreciated!!

[jessmum46]

I think you probably need to push her first wake time.  Until recently she was only doing 2h (7.30-9.30) which is very short if you are going to allow a full nap, and can encourage EWs.  Similarly allowing her to nap so early, before 9am will do the same.  I would go back to a 9.30am nap and don't allow her to go down before then, and aim to push it to more like 10/10.30am over the next week or two. She will become cranky and OT in the short term and you may need to shorten her second A time or offer an EBT to compensate, but to break the EW cycle it is sometimes what needs to happen.  If she is falling apart and has to go down earlier, don't let her go any earlier than 3h after WU as a minimum and I would be trying to push that a bit more to more like 3.5h if you can x

[firstbaby2014]

Thanks so much for your reply 
I was thinking that re pushing first WT but was finding it hard when she was waking so early.. as luck would have it after I posted, she slept a bit later the next morning and so I pushed her first nap to 10.30am the last two days  she napped until nearer 12 then went down 3-3.30 again and BT was 7.15-30 .. she woke at 7,30 both days!!  So hopefully we are back on track!

One other question, as her WTs increase more and that afternoon nap gets pushed later, do I just start to cap it?  Even if it is just 30-45 mins?  by 4PM?

Thanks again it is so helpful to post and browse here

[jessmum46]

It's up to you what route you take through the 2-1 (this is the early stages when the day is too short for two full naps).  You can keep the long morning nap, keep pushing the first A time and gradually cap the second nap shorter and shorter until it becomes a catnap, some people even go as short as 10-15 mins before dropping altogether.  You will probably find if you take that route you will at some point run into pm nap refusals though, so you may need some heavy AP to get the second nap in.  The other approach is to cap the first nap and aim for a longer pm nap, this runs less risk of second nap being refused but can take some experimenting to find the right times.  What would work best for you do you think?

[firstbaby2014]

Thanks for reply was waiting to see how another few days went.. It's been a bit hit & miss. The longer A times are definitely helping a bit, last weekend was much improved.. The new minder has been good to stretch them too but we've still had a couple of 5.30/6am WTs this week.. A couple of times she was wide awake so I changed her nappy (very wet) and that really helped, she went straight back til 7.30am. I don't mind doing that as soon as I hear her stir but don't want to reinforce the EW by doing it either??
In answer to your question, her morning nap is more dependable so Id say capping the afternoon one would be best. How long would you suggest for WT between PM nap and BT at present? It's probsbky been 3.5h this week as I'm back to work but I'm wondering is that too long when we are stretching the WTs too?
Thanks a million!

[jessmum46]

Kind of depends how long the afternoon nap is......are nights ok?

[firstbaby2014]

5am WU last 2 nights again, nappy changed, settled after one nappy change til 7 but on other morning didn't settle at all really bar maybe 20mins. Aside from that nights fine, she settles quickly at BT and doesn't stir til the 5am mark. Really want to get that 5am WU under control! Not sure if stretching her A time is working or not though

[jessmum46]

Is she settling back at the 5am waking?  Whats your routine been like last few days?

[firstbaby2014]

So the EW started over 2 weeks ago, then around 10 days ago I decided to try change her nappy as when i went in to look at her she was wiggling around.. that seemed to work and she settled quickly so for the last 10 days or so when she's woken (always around 5am) I've been changing her, she settles back immediately some nights but more often she is awake chatting for up to an hour (I leave the room as soon as I change her) she chats happily, this morning she chatted 5.15-6.10am then fell back asleep until 7.30am.  This was similar the last few days, except she spent the weekend with my in-laws as we are getting ready for a house move, so they 'couldn't leave her chatting so long' (!) so had her up by 6-6.30am

Since your first reply I've stretched her first A time to 3 hours or more; 7/7.30- 10/10.30 then she settles quickly and sleeps for 1h 15 approx then WT again of approx 3hr (a couple days last week she couldnt last that long) then a second nap of 1-1hr15 (occasionally only 45min); up by 4pm at very latest.  Then she is well ready for bed by 7pm.  Today her first nap was 10.30-11.50am then I went to put her down again at 15.05 and for the first time ever she really refused to nap, but she has 2 top teeth just come through so maybe that influenced her plus she is at the end of a Leap.
She eventually settled at 4pm in the buggy but I only let her sleep for 30min, she was a bit cranky on/off from 4.30pm (probably cos I woke her) until BT at 7pm.

So in summary her 2 naps combined total would be at least 2 hours up to 2.5h; BT is generally 7pm as she is dying to go to bed at that stage of the day. She will be 11 months in 10 days time.

Should I just persevere with stretching the A time or should we have seen an improvement by now?
Do you think changing her nappy is a bad idea, am I creating a habit at 5am and reinforcing the EW?

Thank you so much!!!

[jessmum46]

Unless she is really crying for you at 5am I would ignore her totally, changing a nappy would have totally woken mine and ruined any chance of them settling back quickly.  I think you need to keep pushing on with A time, 3h is still very short for her age (mine were both doing it at 6 months) and you are getting UT nap lengths.  Push on with the morning one first until that nap lengthens out to 1h30 plus x