Help me banish EW for good! (or at least a few nights :) x)

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Hey my dd who is 17 months has been battling ew for about a year now .  Generally wake up is 5-5.30.  We were trying all combinations before Christmas but just don't seem to find something that works.  Monitering her she generally will only do 10 hours at night which makes it difficult to get a decent BT when she wakes so early.  She seems to do better on a shorter A time after nap.

We have recently come back from holiday, where she slept amazing.  We were getting around 3 hours nap (40min-1 hr am, 2hrs-2.30 pm) BT, 4-4.5 hours after nap, which was falling around 9pm (which is fine on holiday). She would then sleep 10 hours at night, again this was fine.  We have had just over a week of good sleeping now we are back, a huge part due to jetlag, with some cracking 14 hours nights .  Then its started to unravel, naps are back to being short, and EW have started. 

Whilst she has been waking later we have managed to do one nap which has been around 1hr 30 and BT around 7.30 which was fine, we then started waking at 6am, which was still ok, this morning was 4.30!!!!!

Im not really sure where to go from here, the routine we had on holiday was great but we have school runs that get in the way now we are back.  Just for the record, yesterday she had a 15 mins nap in car on way back from music class then had a 1hr 20 mins nap in the pm, but I had to wake her as doing school run , BT was 7.30 and she was def ready.

I know with holiday things may take a bit to settle down but need a plan xxx

Thank you, I have got used to my lie ins x

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

So what does the regular routine look like at home (ie wake up, naptimes etc)? I would for sure want to.give one nap days a try but if your lo has been ew for a year I kind of wonder if that is just their body clock setting?

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Hi,before we went away at Christmas we were trying to stick to one napbut things still didn't improve.  This is the pattern that emerges.
We tend to get 2 good days of night sleep/later wake ups and naps then WU gets earlier, nap shorter, then the next day we get a super early WU like 4.30, so we have to do a capped morning nap to get her through to her next nap.  This has been going on for a while, as I mentioned holiday was perfect due to having the time to let her sleep whenever she wants but back home school runs etc get in the way.  She definitely does better with a shorter A time in the pm, but has very rarely sleeps more than 10 hours at night regardless so my problem is getting to a 7.30-8pm BT without her getting OT.  EW have been going on for so long, 6am feels like a lie in!

Any help would be fab, sick off early mornings 

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Last two mornings 4.30starts  , anyone out there with some help.

[Katet]

I think you are kind of going to get the early WU if you keep trying to get her through the day with 2 naps. I know my DS1 didn't drop to 1 nap until really late & he was a HSN toddler, so he'd sleep 7.30- 6 at night (fit around my work) & do a cat nap in the car & a bigger nap at day care so it was really hard to get him to 1 nap, BUT once I did get him to 1 nap after I went on Mat leave for DS2 he started to sleep longer in the morning.

I'm guessing with the holiday she was more 'stimulated' & so more tired, where as at home there is a bit less going on so not as tired
So even if she wakes at 4.30, you've really got to  try & get her to around 11/12am for one nap  to get her to not play the catch up nap earlier in the day that means she steals from her night sleep because she's never quite as tired when it gets to sleep times.
I found with both my boys that at the transitional time between naps that if we had 2 naps the total sleep would be about 1 hour less than if it was night sleep & 1 nap, so it's really about riding out a few days of getting her to last that longer morning period, so she doesn't steal from night sleep for a morning catnap.

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Hi thanks, for getting back to me.  I hear what ur saying about the 2 naps, she only ends up doing 2 naps if she falls asleep in the car, its only ever around 10-15 mins, even then it doesn't help.  We managed to stick to 1 nap for around 2-3weeks before holidays and we ended up in such an OT cycle. 

What time would you offer naps?  We went through the same thing with my other daughter, she would never do more than 10 hours at night, so early BT were always a no no. 

Thanks again x

[MayaandEvasmommy]

We are now doing 9.5 hours at night

[Katet]

Sounds like the day sleeps are really stealing from the night time, so it's really a case of trying to work out how long you can get her to last before a single nap & then until bedtime

I know with my DS2 (low sleep needs) he really struggled because he was only able to do average A times, but was really low in his sleep needs & so a 23 hour day would have been ideal. I found that once or twice a week he pulled a 14hour night, but mostly he was 10 hours until he dropped to 9 & now at 10yo he sleeps around the same as DH & I do & less than his 12yo brother.

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Well we managed a longer night llast night, so wake up was at 6.15  , she had rubbish naps yesterday and 9.5 hours nights for a few nights so not sure if its catch up sleep.  Anyway I am going to give the 1 nap a go again, we got to 11.45 but she only slept 1hr 10 mins.  She has been pretty sleepy the past hour so we shall see what tonight brings.

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Feel like im losing the will 

Woke at 4am  managed to get her back to sleep at 5.45 she slept until 7.30am

Nap 12.3, she slept for 1hr 30mins and bedtime was 7.30pm

WU 6am, nap fell around 12pm as she was super sleepy, she only slept for 1hr.

Bedtime was 7pm and up at 5am!!!!!!

Anyone have any ideas , so fed up

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

So she has been an early waker since she was very small? Have her night always been on the shorter side? Have you ever tried a super early bedtime? Even if you got sleep from 6pm to 5 am and then did that for a couple of weeks and then slowly slowly shifted it later.

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Hi, up till 7 months she slept forever!!!! everyone used to laugh she was always asleep.  My other daughter never slept, so thought I had won the lottery with Eva .  It sort of just happened overnight, she cat napped through day more than had big chunks of sleep, but always did 12+ hours at night. She used to sleep 6.30 till 8am .

Yesterday we got an even shorter nap, 50 mins!!!! we got 5.15 wake up though. I do think she is on the lower scale of sleep but still think she needs more than she is having, its barely 11 hours in total, which seems too short.

Like I mentioned on holiday she gets more sleep, and I know she is probably a little more active however I think it is also due to she never gets OT.  She does still however tend to do 10hrs which I think is all she needs at night, but needs a little  more in day to get bedtime pushed out more.

I bought bedtime forward to last 2 nights to 7pm instead of 7.30 as she has literally been falling asleep.  If you go out and about she will fall asleep in car, she looks tired she has black bags under her eyes at least they match mine 

Thanks for taking the time to respond, been feeling a little lost this past week x

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Hi again, yes we have done early BT we still get 10 hours, so 4-4.30 starts instead x

[MayaandEvasmommy]

Well still early mornings and short naps .  Yesterday she came down with a sickness bug , so we got a slightly longer nap but still only 1hr 20.  Bedtime fell as normal but she woke around 8pm and was up for a few hours as she kept being sick .  She finally fell asleep but still woke at 5.15am .  I am just going to let her sleep today when she wants it.

x

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Aww poor girl! Fx she feels well soon! 

Hmm if she only ever does 10 hr nights then we.need to.work out how to tweak that nap.  I wonder if wake to sleep might work? To kind of rouse her and send her into another sleep cycle?