Started 2:1 transition but still waking early?

[laurak2015]

I posted a few months ago now regarding my little boys (now 13months) habit of waking up early in the morning (around 5am!). It was suggested he could be ready for the 2:1 nap transition so over the past couple of months we have been slowly changing his sleep in the day. He has done really well and now has a 30-45min nap in the morning around 9:45/10am and then upto 2 hours at 1:30pm. He had one day where he skipped a morning nap and slept for 2hrs 15mins in the afternoon! It seemed to be working and he started waking more towards 6am/6:30am and occasionally 7am! However this only lasted a week and he has gone back to waking at 5:30am! It's not too bad as he will stay in his cot but it will be difficult to drop the am nap before he extends his wake up. Any ideas?

[creations]

Sounds like he might need either a shorter am nap (which should discourage the EW) or to drop it, move the afternoon nap earlier and let if be as long as he will take.
Some people find they can reduce the short nap down to 20 mins, then 10 mins, then have quiet time instead.  The afternoon nap needs to gradually move earlier if you do this.

[Buntybear]

Hi, I would have thought you cut drop that 1st nap now and go to one long nap? We did that around 12 months - that is a common time to do it 

[laurak2015]

Thanks, I was thinking that might be the case but he is so tired by 10am, I'm not sure how ready he is to drop the am nap yet. I always have to wake him at 10:30am, he would happily sleep for 90mins in the morning!

[creations]

It's a bit of a trap though to keep putting him down for a nap at 10am.  He's tired by 10am because he's waking at 5.30am, the answer for him not to be tired at 10am is to wake later than 5.30...but for that to happen his nap needs to come later.  If you move one (the nap) he will settle into the routine and move the other (the WU).
As BB has said, you could just drop the morning nap.  He'll take several days to get used to it but overall he'll likely be better rested by waking later in the morning.
What time does he go to bed for the night?

[laurak2015]

He's in bed for 7pm.

I probably just need to spend a couple of days in with him (he would fall asleep in the car!) and have a go at either shortening or cutting the nap.

[Buntybear]

If you want to keep the morning nap you could push BT later? The day can get quite long before you go to one nap. 13 hour days, 11 ur nights are not uncommon. That might encourage a later WU.

[laurak2015]

Ok so over the past week, he has been doing really well and either dropping the am nap or having a quick 10 mins catnap.  He was starting to wake at 6:15-6:45 which was great. However the last two days he has woken at 5:30am again and Im a bit stumped. Yesterday, I thought it may have been OT from day before as he didnt sleep much due to us going out for the day and had more catnaps than one lunchtime one, however today, I have no idea (granted the clocks have gone forward but he doesnt know that and there is a blackout blind in his room). We dont need to go to him at 5:30 but he is awake! Any ideas?

[creations]

Is the 5.30am new time?  So it would have been a 4.30am NW if the clocks had not changed??
It's always a bit confusing and unsettling when the times change. I would focus on getting his routine back on track by moving all meal times and any other habitual routine bits which guide him as to what time of day it is (such as bath routine etc).
If things don't settle again in another few days I would really think about dropping that 10 min CN and going directly to one nap, it can be tricky for a little while as they settle into it but often the sleep is better overall once it's gone.

[laurak2015]

Sorry I meant 5:30am old time so 6:30am new time. For that day it did help a little as it meant he was ready for bed at 7pm!

We've not had a great couple of days with sleep: 5:30am wake ups (including today) but to be fair he has had a lot going on. He's learning to walk and talk, had his jabs on Wednesday, has a tooth coming through and we've had a couple of days out so naps are always tricker as he doesn't sleep quite a well out and about. He's also struggled with some really hard poos this week one of which was the reason he woke early.

I tried to have a normal day with him yesterday but by 11am, he was having some quiet time and cuddle on me and just fell asleep (he rarely does that if ever!). I let him have 15mins and he went to sleep at 1pm and slept for 2hrs 15 (well I woke him at 3:15pm)

Today and tomorrow we will be out for the whole day so naps may not quite work out especially as he woke at 5:30am this morning. I'm hoping it is just everything going on and next week we can have a normal day and he can go back to waking at 6:30am. One day he even woke at 7am!!!

[creations]

My DS was always very tired after the jabs so his routine would go off track for at least 1 or 2 days with needing to nap longer.

yes, sounds like there's heaps going on. Good luck for next week then.