5.30am wakings and random nap times!!

[Kaeli]

I am exhausted, my 15 month old is waking at 5.30am every morning and has been for over a week now.  Before that she would wake at 5.30am maybe once or twice a week.

Her napping is a little bit all over the place.

At home she will generally have 1.5hrs between 9.30/10am - 11/11.30am and sometimes a short nap in the afternoon, though this is rarer and rarer.

At nursery though she will sleep at random times (I am told that it will take about 1 hour for her to drop off - not crying just chatting to teddy!)

It can be morning or afternoon, 30mins, 45 mins...she once did 1.5 hours!


I feel like we should start a strong routine with naps that I can instruct nursery to stick to (they follow our lead, but the cots are in the same room as the playing...so not great and disturbing for G who is used to a quiet dark room)

Thing is when should the nap be?  am or pm?  How can I stop the 5.30am wakings.....am tired!!


thanks

[Alison_3]

Hi Kaeli-
Well I wish I had an answer for you, but I can only tell you that I know exactly what you are feeling!  Today my almost 1 year old woke up at 4:00 a.m.!!  He eventually went back to sleep and woke up at 5:05.  All week long it has been 5:00-5:15.  Some mornings he'll sleep until 6:00, but more and more it is 5:00 a.m.  He doesn't nap well either...

I am so exhausted and I don't know what to do!  I am dreading the time change next weekend! 

I can't wait to hear the advice you receive.

[LisaM]

I also am no help but am having the same problem with my 17 month old dd - she is waking about 5.30am every day for a week now, as well as screaming when I leave the room after putting her in her cot at night so its all going a bit wrong!!  I too am absolutely dreading the time change - do NOT want to be getting up at 4.30am each day!

[Alison_3]

update ladies...4:30 this morning!!!!!

HELP!

[kellyann]

Hi...I'm in the same boat as you all. My 15 month old twins have been waking up at 4:45am for a week. Their naps are really off also. We were on 1 nap but now we are back to 2.   I'm not sure if it is teething but I'm so tired.  Lisa my boys have also started screaming when I lay them down for bed at night.  They used to go into their cribs with no problem.  I hope someone has some advice for us.

[Kaeli]

I hate to say it, but the silence from any would be advisors and all of the advice I have read online does not look hopeful.

'Put them to bed earlier'
'Put them to bed later'
'Less naps'
'More naps'

The advice is all so conflicting.  The one thing I am trying is to make the morning nap later so it isn't just an extension of nighttime sleep.  Also I have stopped bfing in the morning as I used ot bring her into bed with me as I think this made the early mornings a habit as getting into bed with Mummy and Daddy and being bf is nice!

Still happening though.  I am going to give it until the weekend then I may try wake to sleep - but am convinced that she will wake at 4.30am then (

Kaeli xx

[iggy's_mummy]

...we are in the middle of the crazy times that are the transition between two naps to one... plus all the teething. (Iggy is 14months now)

its such a strange rocky time. I keep thinking of how Tracy describes it as riding a mechanical bull, so very true.

We have figured a lot of it has to do with the naps.

Iggy sleeps better and longer if he has two naps in the day. For a while he was going for one long one (and it was really hard to push him to one some days), but then he had chicken pox and some teeth came down.

Tricky thing is that he is at nursery for 2.5 days a week. they push him to one nap from 12noon, and he never goes past 1hr 15min... so i always know he will be restless after nursery, and will probably wake early the day after too.

and once he wakes at 4-5.30am then i KNOW he needs two naps... but nursery will still push him to one!

when he wakes at 4-5.30am though DH will go in and pat/ssh or read books quietly in a darkened room until 6am (he often goes back down if whe woke before 5am)... come 6am then I come in and we have big cuddles and all the lights come on and its out of bed and curtains open. we make a big deal about it NOW being time to get up.

we also stopped all BFing and cuddles in the morning in mummy and daddy's bed.

for a while we never thought it would work but he is begining to wake at 6.15am again, and its just fine with me.

my advice is to NOT blame yourself too much. we were consistent with PD and bed routines etc and trusted ourselves and so not too much accidental parenting happened (chicken pox was tough though!)

softly

[sacmommy]

I wish I could help you through this rough time. I think it's really hard for some kids when they go from 2 to 1 nap. My dd did the transition very early (around 13-14 months). It was rough for about 2 weeks (short naps, early wakings), then improved. For quite awhile after that she had early wakings (we always loved the days when she took 2 naps because then she woke up later!)

For your peace of mind, I would at least say it's a phase. Your dd will get back in her groove once she's established a solid 1-midday nap. Honestly, I love the 1 nap much better as it's longer and you only have 1 nap to plan around, so I really encouraged it. Once it's a go, your dd will return to a better nighttime schedule, rising later, etc. I would just try to avoic as many bad habits as possible!

[Katet]

I've jsut scaneed the posts, but I would say if you have 5.30am waking & your lo is still on 2 naps & over 12mo It is time to move to one nap about 5 hours after the "ideal" wakeup time.
We did that with our now 2yo when he started 5am wakeups & it took awhile &  was really hard work but we suddenly got later wakeups (7-7.30am).
What is happening is an early nap is robbing from the last night sleep cycle.

HTH

[Kaeli]

Thanks for that, it is nice to hear someone have a definite opinion on what should be done! 

Yesterday was awful, 4.30am and screaming for 1.5 hours until she finally dropped off in our bed.  I am also having the issue of not feeding in the mornings now and to be honest I probably would have relented in the past and breast-fed her to get some more sleep.  I am proud I didn't relent!

This morning she woke at 4am!  Screaming again, but only took 15 mins to resettle - in her cot.  Then we had sleep until 6.47am! 

I have been shifting her days to only one nap as I thought this could be the problem, and yesterday she slept in the afternoon only (at nursery) and today I am going to try the same.  She is already tired though (at 9.15am) so it may have to be a late morning rather than after lunch.  I suppose it is a long process and I am just going to have to shift the naps later rather than suddenly change to afternoon only!

Any tips on doing this?  My main concern is fitting food in.  Should I give her a snack then put her down and have lunch later?  Then as the nap gets later have lunch before the nap?

I feel so much more hopeful when there is a potential plan!

Thanks.

[elfin]

Hello,

I feel for you as we have dealt with early wakings on and off for months now.  I definitely agree that moving to one nap will help.  When we did the transition we pretty much went cold turkey and just moved to a time in between the am and pm naps.  So for us it was around 11-11:30.  I like you, found him to get tired at around his usual am nap time, so I would always offer a snack to give him some energy, and I would also try and get him outside for a bit of fresh air as this also seemed to energize him.  As for his lunch, I would feed him before he went down, and although somedays he wouldn't eat much I would just compensate with a big snack once he woke from his nap. 

It is a big transition for them, but just stay consistent so she has the opportunity to adjust to the new nap time.

I hope this helps somewhat, and if you have anymore questions let me know!

[Katet]

I was pretty much going to say the same as Carrie.
I used to (sometimes still do) give Aiden a big morning tea (or 2 of them) so as not to worry too much if the nap was before lunch. then I would offer a big snack as soon as he woke & another an hour or so later... I think he sometimes had about 5 snacks (mostly fruit, cheese/crackers & toast) through out the days when we transitioned.
To tide him over to the later nap time, I would read stories & do things like take him outside. He also LOVES trains & buses, so I used to take him to the railways station & we would sit there & watch them for ages...he didn't notice he was tired when he was waiting for trains & buses... I was also 8/9mo preg at the time so it worked well for me.

[Kaeli]

Thanks for all the advice.  It is a tough time as she is learning to walk as well and teething (molars and eyeteeth) and we are weaning her from the breast so all in all a pretty big and transitional time.

Yesterday was a bit better.  She woke at 4am and I resettled her in her cot within 15 mins - so that was fine, then woke at 6..45am.  Then I stretched her morning up time to 10.30am and she only slept time 11.15 (always been a 45 minuter!)  Then refused lunch.  We went out in the pushchair and she wouldn't sleep.  Then refused dinner!  Bed at 7pm as normal - by this time very tired and crying at the slightest thing.  Breastfeed then bed.

She was v unsettled and cried out a few times and finally woke and wouldn't go back down a couple of hours later.  She was grasping her mouth and sobbing, so I gave her some Calprofen and brought her down for a bit.  I was concerned she was hungry also so (very naughty!) gave her some milk from a cup and a small biscuit.  She ate and drank sitting on the sofa with me.  Then I took her upstairs and she went straight to sleep without a peep through until 7.20am!  Heaven! 

Was it the drugs though?

There is hope!

Kaeli xx

[Kaeli]

Well this morning it was 4.30am since the clocks went back.  I went into her and laid her down and went back to bed and she screamed and screamed for 18 minutes.  DH told me NOT to go into her but I did and she had a dirty nappy, so by this time it is 5.15am and she is well and truly awake so we get up - I am here at 5.26am with cup of coffee in hand.

What is it about that time?  She went to bed at her nirmal time as per the 'new' time yesterday, just hope it will actually shift.

ANY ADVICE?

She has got two molars over the last two days, so that would explain some of the rattiness and unsettledness, but this 5.30am (now 4.30am) seems so entrenched.....there are no external noises and I am now 100% sure it isn't anything external because it has stayed at the same time since the clocks have changed.

5.30am was bad enough, but 4.30am.

Yuck.

[Aquilegia]

Hi,

re. the lunch timing thing...

my DD moved to 1 nap around 12 months.  We don't have a regular time - but I have a "rule" that if she's not totally tired by 11:30am we'll start lunch and 11:45am and nap will probably start by 1pm.  If she's tired earlier than that (earliest is 10:30am usually) then lunch occurs when she wakes up. 

This doesn't make it easy to schedule my day, but seems to be working!  DD is 15 months now, and I am hoping that a regular nap time will be established by about 18months.  Having said that, it can be convenient to "manipulate" her naps! 

BTW, DD sleeps 7pm - 7am at night and generally does one 1 1/4 to 2 hour nap per day.

Regards,