routine help needed. Early wake ups and very short second nap

[HettyO]

Received some great advice previously and I'm  back for more.

My little boy is now nearly 8 months and has started waking early 5.30 and only taking 30mins fo his afternoon nap. I know his routine clearly needs altering I'm just not sure where to start and would really appreciate some outside in put.

The last week our routine has looked like this....

WU 5.30/6
E 6 bf
A
E 7.30ish breakfast
A
S 8/8.30 for a minimum of 1 hour
E 12 lunch
A
S 1/2 for just 30ish minutes
E bf when he wakes from nap
A
E 4
A
E 6.15/6.30
S 6.45/7

No night waking before EW.

I realise I've made a mistake by reinforcing the EW by feeding him in the hope he'd go back to sleep. We used to have aNW around 3.30/4 where he'd feed for 5 min and go back to sleep and then wake for the day at 7 so this wasn't in my mind an unreasonable hope.

I'm ecstatic he's effectively going through but I can't keep starting the day this early (6.30 would be great).

There may be some teething, this has been on and off for the last 4 weeks so now not sure if it's my imagination. He's generally happy, though clearly tired by the end of the day and ready for bed. He goes down for his first nap without a murmur but we've had battles with his afternoona nap a few of the days, yet today he was fine and stI'll only sslept for 30mins. He was bit unhappy being left at bedtime today too. This was the first time we've had trouble with bed since adopting EASY.

Sorry for so much info.

ANY ADVICE/SUGGESTIONS WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECIVEVED!

[HettyO]

Extra note: last night we had a wake up at 12!!! Not had this in a very long time. Tried to jist offer water,  gave calpol etc but he was distraught everytime you put him down which is very unlike him. Neefless to say i ooffered a feed  but still took took him a while to settle. He was eventually asleep again after 1.5hours. Does this sound like teeth maybe? He then woke again at 4. This used to be his old night feed time So II'd guess he has a sleep cucle end about then.I was so tired I offered the feed straight away but I was able to cut this off after onlu 30mins when I put him back in cot awske.he thankfully slept through then till old WU time 7.

Maybe we can get back on track today.

[Palmira78]

Hey HeetyO, congratulations regarding your little sleeping through the night. For sure now and again you will have nights like last night but you are in the right track. The most difficult thing to accomplish you have already made it!. My elder son took 18 months to do that, but that is another story...
Now the only thing is fine tuning, since I guess tomorrow Saturday you will not be so happy to start the day at 5:30...
Some babies only need 11 hours of sleeping in the night, so have you considered aiming for BT at 7 or 7:15 pm? Perhaps you can add 5 or 10 minutes extra every day, and see what happens. I guess ideally you would be happy with 7:30 pm to 7:00 am. What do you think?

[HettyO]

Will definitely aim for a later bedtime. Should be easier to accomplish today  as his afternoon nap will
be later, I've only just put him down for this (2 o'clock). I was subconsciously already aiming for a later bedtime as planning to lengthen his A times, for which the end result would be a longer second nap (hopefully) and therefore we can delay bedtime . Problem was he had an UT nap this morning so been thrown out slightly. Persevering though. I realise it's a case of trial and error.

I'll update after the weekend

[HettyO]

*update*

Well the disruption at night must have been teething/growth related as he seems to have sorted himself out. We're now back to old WU for the day, two rouhly even naps of an hour (sometimes a hour amd a half) and the one night wake up. After a fair bit of meddling his routine seems to have settled into this pattern.

WU  7
E 7.30 bf
A
E 8.30 breakfast
A
S 10-11
A
E 12 lunch
A
S 2.15-3.15
E 3.15 bf
A
E 4.30  dinner
A
E 6.30
BT 7

We're back to one night wake up c. 4

Pushing back bedtime didn't work for us but extending his awake time in the morning did. He's gone from 2.30 ours to 3.15.

He seems very happy to have reduced his nap time and is sleeping better at night I feel. Even in this heat he's managing ok.

If he continues to lengthen his A time do you think I might end up switching to one nap sooner than later?  I don't see how I'll fit it all in otherwise.