Nearly 16 month old EW and naps

[Spamelina]

Hello, so this is my first time posting on here so please bear with me!  I'm looking for some advice on early wakening and naps for my nearly 16 month old DS.  It's only been within the last couple of months that he's consistently started sleeping right through (yay!) but he's still waking up at about 5am every day and I'm just not sure where we are going wrong!  He usually babbles happily for about 40 mins, which then escalates into v loud crying until we give in and get him up.  We've tried leaving him but that just results in wakening his 3.5 year old brother (who needs his sleep and loves it!). I know I need to try and change his naps somehow but not sure how?!.  At the moment he usually sleeps for about an hour in the morning (10-11) and hour in the afternoon (2.30-3.30ish)...  I think that in truth he's probably ready to try and move to 1 nap a day but how do I do that when he's wakening so early? Should he be napping earlier in the morning for less time, then earlier in the afternoon for longer?  If I left him them sometimes he would sleep for 2 hours in the morning but then he's a nightmare to get to nap in the afternoon and is awake far too long before bed time.  Should his bedtime be earlier than 7?  One day we put him down at 6.30 (as her only slept 1 hour all day at nursery) and he didn't wake up until 5.40am.  We also tried going cold turkey to one nap a day a few weeks ago but he would only sleep 1.5 hours and just started waking up overnight.  We are going on holiday in a couple of weeks time so I really don't want to mess up his night sleeping!  Any advice appreciated as we didn't have this at all with his big brother.. he's always slept lots and was still taking 2 naps when he was 2 and sleeping 12 hours a night, ha, ha 

[ginger428]

Hi and welcome to BW!

Here is a great article for overall info and options on the 2-1 nap transition.
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=163278.0

I was in the exact situation and at first, I gave DS (dear son) a 15 min catnap at 9:00 to get him to a decent nap time wo losing it since he woke so early. I drove him to do this bc I knew he would wake when I stopped the car.  You could apop (accidental prop on purpose) this nap in a sling, stroller, etc... or see if he'll sleep for 15 min in his crib. Then I gave his pm nap at 11:30pm and BT (bedtime) at 6:30. Every few days or even a week later, I would move the pm time later by 15 mins. And moved the cn later too. When his wake up time finally moved toward 6am, I dropped the cn and put him down at 11 or so for one nap. Some babies extend to 2-3 hrs, others stay around 1-1.5 hrs. DS had shorter naps so once we got to 1 nap, we switched the cn to the evening around 4:30/5:00, then BT AT 7:00/7:30. Once his wake ups were consistent, I moved the one nap later by 15 mins. Every few days. So 11:15, 11:30, until we got to about 12:30.

This is messy transition for kiddos like ours so expect some back amd forth from 2 and 1 nap. Some days when he wakes early, do the former 2 naps.

Hang in there! You all will get through it. Love that your first loves sleep. They are ao preciously different aren't they?

[Spamelina]

Thank you so much for your reply!  Yes, we were very spoilt with DS1.. they are like chalk and cheese, in every single way!  . This advice is great, I will definitely try it.. do you know roughly how long the transition took to just one nap? (most of the time, I appreciate there will still be some 2 nap days for a while).  I'm thinking it probably makes sense to wait until we are back from holiday to start, as we do have a sort of routine going at the moment and I'd like to try and keep that whilst we are away so we can at least plan days out etc, we'll just put up with the early mornings..  then I'll tackle it properly once we return!

I'm not quite sure how we will handle the nursery days.. he's there Tue/Wed from 9-5.30, and there's no way he will sleep as soon as he arrives!  Maybe I'll start on a Thur and see how we go 

I will keep you posted on how it goes!

Thx, Pam

[ginger428]

My pleasure!

Maybe on nursery days, you can ask them to put him down at his usual morning nap time, just to wake after 15-20 mins?

Best wishes!!