Early wakings at 16mo? Sleep regression?

[N_Mom_S]

Hello there! My son turns 16mo tomorrow and this past week he's started to have early wakings 
Until now he was sleeping from 9:30pm to 10:00am, with a short stop in the middle for milk. Now he wakes up at around 6-7am, and he's not able to fully go back to sleep after that, even after milk. And even if he wakes up at 3am and we give him milk, he still wakes up at 6-7am again. He wakes up happy and chatty. Sometimes he stays in and out of sleep for a while until we decide it's time to take him out of the crib, sometimes we take him to sleep with us and he goes back to sleep until late again, after a long time awake.
His naps haven't been really affected yet, sometimes he wakes up crying but we manage to get him back to sleep easily.

Can this be the 18mo sleep regression? He's always had them early in the past, and he's breaking through canines, molars and who knows what else, he's always been early for that too.

Any tips before this gets out of control? We thought about capping the nap (currently 2-2h30) to see if it would help, but that may start a cycle of overtiredness...? Should we let him sleep as much as he wants for his nap (usually from 3pm to 5pm or so)?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!!

[jessmum46]

It could be regression certainly, or it could well be the teeth.  My two always woke early when teething, I think the discomfort tends to bother them more when they come into light sleep.  That said, whilst appreciating you are on a later routine, for most babies 6.30/7am is a pretty normal wake-up time and I just wonder if it might be a natural body rhythm to wake at that hour?  Does the room have blackouts?  The other thing to consider is the milk....at this age night feeds really aren't needed and I wonder if that could be perpetuating the waking?

Nap-wise I would probably just hold tight for now, I don't think 2-2h30 is excessive at 16 months.  The usual advice for teeth or regression tends to be to stick to normal routine as much as possible until the storm blows over so frustrating as it is I would probably just wait it out a while longer and see if it settles by itself.  You could always try a 'dream meds' (pain relief at about 3/4am) to see if that helps him sleep more soundly in the morning?

[N_Mom_S]

Thank you jessmum46!!

I'm a bit confused now since yesterday we had to cut his nap to 1h45 and last night he slept better... he still woke up early but he went back to sleep by himself, until late this morning.

Did your children also wake up happy even if it was teeth discomfort?

Regarding the later routine, we live in Spain and that's a normal routine here, he's always been perfectly fine with it for the last 2 months, so I guess that's not the issue, but thanks for the suggestion!

I also thought the same thing about the milk, we had to resort back to it some time ago when he stopped going back to sleep without it. But the fact is that some nights he goes without it (like last night) and he's fine, so I guess that's not the reason for the waking?

The room is quite dark but I'll try to make it even darker, to see if that's part of the issue. And I guess we'll just wait! I don't know what to do with his naps though, I guess I'll keep it to 2h and see what happens...

[jessmum46]

With teeth sometimes mine woke happy, sometimes not.  Hard to say I'm afraid!  How have the last couple of days been?

[N_Mom_S]

Well.. he's been waking up less early but still early for him (around 8pm) not going back to sleep. We haven't been giving him milk so that may be the reason, today it was obvious that he wanted milk because he woke up crying and still tired. I'm afraid he's a bit overtired because of that, so I guess I'll have to go back to long naps to compensate, and we'll see! Thanks 

[jessmum46]

I agree, it does sound like a bit of over tiredness now whatever the reason was to begin with.  Fingers crossed you are back on track soon