Early morning waking driving me crazy! Please help! 14mo

[LRS431]

Please offer me some advice! Any advice! I really don't know what to do about this.
My 14 month old daughter has been waking between 4.45am and 5.15am for the last three weeks. I have been treating it like a night waking and I go in, lay her down and pat her bottom. However, after 30 mins of this she's still awake, and cries if I stop! If she happens to fall back asleep she will remake within 5 minutes.
Since she has been small, in the mornings I bring her into my bed for cuddles and her morning nursing. I never used to let her come before 6am but now it's more like 5.30 cause I can't get her back to sleep. After this nursing we get up. I'm wondering if this nursing has now become a problem and that's why she's waking so early?
Or perhaps it's a routine issue? I moved her to one sleep really early (at 11 months). This was suggested by someone on here. I can't remember who it was but I thank you soooooo much. Since 4 months old my daughter would only do 30 min sleeps despite trying every single thing we could. After changing to one sleep she now has a sleep at 12 - 2.30. Bedtime at night is between 7 and 7.30. She goes to sleep independently and doesn't usually wak until 4.45/5.
Any advice would be appreciated,
Thank you

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Have you tried wake to sleep at all? I was thinking either it is habitual or maybe the nap needs capping but she is pretty young yet to need a shorter nap so I don't think it is that.

[LRS431]

Thank you for your reply.  I have tried wake to sleep when she was younger during naps but have not tried it for early waking. Will give it a go, hopefully doesn't backfire! She has always been low sleep needs but gets very cranky if she naps less than 2 hours so I don't know!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yes I have only used it as a last resort as I worry about it backfiring! Hmm my DD3 is lsn but she was not a big napper at all. How much day sleep were you getting on two naps?

[LRS431]

On two naps she was only doing 30 mins for each nap, and lots of night waking, I suspect from over tiredness and habit. While she was in this horrible stage, around 6.30 was her wake up time.


She often still wakes during her nap, sometimes several times but I can usually resettle her and if not I put her in the pram.

[LRS431]

Yesterday she napped for only an hour and 45 minutes. But again this morning she was awake at 4.55am! Patted her back to sleep which took ages, then she woke again after 10 minutes of sleep. It's almost like she has had enough sleep at that stage. She went to bed at 6.30 so had been in bed almost 11 hours.... So I'm thinking a later bedtime? Or should I try wake to sleep?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

11 hours was a normal night when we still had a nap here...our bedtime was aways 8 pm so we got at 7 am wake. Now we get 11.5/12 with no nap but the odd time we get 12.5!

[LRS431]

So it's been about a month now. Have tried several things and nothing seems to help. Over the last few days we have come to the conclusion that she is hungry at this time. She eats a lot during the day so I don't know how to fix this.  Yesterday I fed her when she woke at 5.15 and she went right back to sleep for an hour. But I don't really want to start a 5am feeding habit. This morning I had hubby get her up at 5.30, after I had tried to resettle her for 30 minutes. Usually when she gets up after a milk feed she is happy. Today she hadn't had a feed and would not stop crying until I came out and fed her.  How do I fill her up so she can sleep longer

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

When is her last meal at night? Perhaps a small bedtime snack might help?