EW at 17 months.. is there anything we can do??

[Spamelina]

So I've posted on here a couple of times, first for help with the 2-1 nap transition and then again for advice on separation anxiety.. and I'm pleased to say we've managed to get past both stages, our son now has one solid nap a day and goes to bed beautifully, self settling really well.. hurrah!

However we still have an issue with very early morning wakening, today it was 4.50am  . I'm not sure if there is anything we can do about it, or do I just have to resign myself to going to bed at 9pm every night for the foreseeable future?!  I don't want to complain as apart from the EW he goes down for his nap really well, goes to bed easily and sleeps soundly all night.  I just wonder if he's getting enough total sleep and it would be bliss if he could just get to say, 6am! 

Currently his routine looks like this -

Wake up - between 4.50/5.15 am (wakes up screaming and gets very angry until you get him up)
Nap - approx 11am (1.5-2 hours - usually pretty tired by this time as he's awake so early)
Bedtime - 7pm (again usually quite tired but awake when I put him down and he goes to sleep himself)

He does have quite long awake periods during the day but I don't really want to go back to 2 naps as I was struggling to fit them in and he didn't have any consistency in his routine.  We've tried leaving him the morning but he will scream loudly for ages and I don't want to risk waking his brother, I've tried giving him milk but whilst that might settle him for 10 mins or so he's then awake again screaming to her out..  I've tried sitting with him and patting to try and re-settle him.. but nothing seems to work.  Today I even thought I'd try 'wake to sleep' and I went in at 4.15am and roused him slightly so he moved and went back into a deep sleep.. didn't work, he was awake again at 4.50!

He's happy and awake when we get him out of bed.. so do I just resign myself to the fact that he's had enough sleep and this is just his awake time?? Or are there any tweaks I could make to his routine to try and push him a little later in the morning?

Thanks!
Pam

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, looking at your day I'd say you need to try and push that first nap later so that your day is more balanced as his awake time before bed is very long. If he handles awake time well I'd jump with 30 mins and make nap 11.30 other 15 mins increase hold for 3-4 days then increase again.

I don't think you need to go back to 2 naps but sometimes adding a micro nap can just help push the day.

My DS2 is 17 months and we mostly do WU 6.15/6.45 nap 12-2 BT 7pm but some days he will have micro nap 10 mins at 9.45 and Nap 12.30/12.45 BT 7.30 the second is normally if I have to somewhere in the morning or he's catching up after 3 days of nursery.

[Spamelina]

Thank you!

I will try that.. he does get quite tired by 11 but if we can get him out of the house and keep him occupied then he's not too bad.  Yesterday he inadvertently had 2 naps as he only slept an hour at 11 in the car and then had another 30 mins at about 2pm also in the car, and this morning although he woke briefly at 5 he went back to sleep again until 5.30, which he never normally does!  So guess having that little later sleep made a difference.

I was perhaps going to try bringing his bedtime forward for a while as well, to see if that helps.. maybe to 6.15/30 if he's been awake for a long time beforehand.  Do you think that might help?

[Haribo2012]

Yes definitely EBT works great for some LO so it's worth a try see if you can get more hours in during the night so if he EW he will be in a better place to push his nap later x