Early morning waking for 12 month old

[LRS431]

Hi all,
My dd has just turned 12 months old. She's never been the best sleeper but we have recently used walk in walk out to get her night feelings from three hourly to one feeding a night.  However, she used to come into bed with me around 5.30am every morning and no matter what she still wakes at this time and cries until we get her up. This morning it was 5am. We do walk in walk out until 6am, at which time we get her up for the day. However we have been doing this almost a week and she continues to wake and will not return to sleep which puts her whole day out. She's never ever slept much in the day which means she has an early bedtime. No matter what I can't get her to sleep more in the day. I suspect the early bedtime could be the cause of the early wake ups but I'm not sure what to do as she gets so over tired by then.

Any ideas would be appreciated!
Our day
Wake up between 5 and 5.30 (stays in cot until 6)
9 nap (30 minutes, never ever can I get her to sleep longer)
1pm sleep (1 - 1.5 hours, usually with several wake ups where I have to resettle her)
6/6.15 bedtime

2am night feed

She falls asleep by herself now

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yes with a 6 pm bedtime and being on two naps a 5 am wake is not surprising really as that is an 11 hour night. Do you think the 2-1 might be coming as well? The second nap with wake ups sounds maybe undertired to me. Is she sttn other than that feed?

[LRS431]

She can do one nap quite easily if she wakes up at 7am. Just waking at 5 she needs two. But even on one nap she still wakes a lot during the nap. She's always been an awful napper. From 4 months until 11 months her naps were all 30 mins long, could not resettle her and tried everything to extend. It's only recently I have been able to resettle her during the afternoon nap.

Yep she sleeps all night now except for the 2am wake up.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Was she sleeping well at night even when she had short naps? My only thought is she might be a bit lower sleep needs and with and ebt the wake up is just her normal thing so the whole day would need to be shifted slowly along to get a later wake up.

[LRS431]

Thanks for the reply. She has never been a great sleeper, never slept through. The good news is the last few mornings she has gotten up at 6! So I'm happy with that but she has woken twice in the night for feeds 😓 I would really like to get her sleeping through as I feel these feeds are habits. Any advice on how to do this? I feel like she is LSN or maybe she has just gotten used to a small amount of day sleep. Today I'm trying her on one nap, she just seems way to young for this but the last week I haven't been able to get her down for a morning nap unless she's in the pram.

[KatyBee]

My son is LSN and at that age we were having the same difficulties with very early waking... and it was definitely caused by the 2 naps causing UT and there wasn't much I could do about it. I often alternated 1 & 2 nap days but it didn't help. Then finally at 13.5 mo I finally braved completely dropping to 1 nap and WOW! After a couple of slightly wobbly weeks (when I sometimes wondered if it was the right thing to have done so young) once it settled down the difference was amazing!!!! He slept through for 11 or more hours, so wake ups were always after 6am... My son was so much better rested & happy, was definitely the right thing for him.

I'm not sure he would have been ready to drop fully at 12mo, but I'm just saying that if your little one is indeed LSN then the 2-1 is probably just around the corner. So if you can manage your own expectations & deal with the EW for a bit longer, it'll all change before you know it. Hope that helps!

[LRS431]

Thank you so much for your reply and support. It's good to know she's not the only baby like this. All the baby's I know around her age are happily still taking two long naps!

Yesterday I attempted a one nap day as we had Playcentre in the morning so she was distracted. She woke at 6.30 am and went down when we got home at 12.30, she was very tired. Her nap was very fragmented with about 5 wake ups and resettles but she did stay in bed a total of 2.5 hours which is massive for her! I'm wondering if all the wake ups are from over tiredness or just her getting used to one nap? Even on two nap days she wakes many times during her nap and has to be resettled.

The great news is that last night she went to bed at 6.15pm and slept until 4am without a single wake! Her best sleep in about ten months. Then after a quick feed she resettled until 6.15,

Now I'm unsure if I should continue trying one nap for a few weeks or go back to two...

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Personally I would keep trying one for longer...but then I am biased as mine all were on one nap before 12 months! I would try a bit shorter A time in the morning when possible as I imagine she was a bit ot/os after a morning out.