This really made me feel better. Thank you! Our normal wind down routine is to take her to the nursery when I start to see her rubbing her eyes. I then swaddle her, tell her sweetly that it is time for sleep, close the shades, turn on the humidifier, kiss her on the forehead, and place her in her crib. She's whimpers for less than five minutes and then conks out. In my opinion, I think she is pretty good about going down tired. So if the 45 minute nap is considered OK at this age, maybe I should count my blessings! And yes I would love to get away from an early wake up time. I feel the easy fix would be to give her the pacifier at 5:30 but I was worried that it would welcome that bad habit back in, and that I would end up having to go in a number of times to replug it in between 530 and 7am.. At the same time though, I know in just a few weeks she will have the ability to pick up and put the pacifier back in her self. So in that respect maybe it's not such a bad thing to consider. I'm not sure! I have nothing against pacifiers. I only want to make sure that she sleeps without too much help. If I let her have the pacifier at 5:30 in the morning, which she then expect it when she wakes up from nap's? That is what I want to avoid. Can you tell me what options you would recommend?