5.30am wakings and random nap times!!

[Alison_3]

Kaeli-  right there with you.  4:45 a.m.  I too feel that it doesn't matter what I do, my ds will get up between 5-5:30.  I've tried earlier bedtimes, later bedtimes, etc.  nothing seems to work!!  He is still on two naps because he gets up so early, I can't imagine one nap! 

I had to laugh when you mentioned coffee in hand.  That is the first thing I did at 4:45...big pot of coffee!


Hang in there!!

[Katet]

Alison the problem is you have the day naps robbing from the night sleep, so the night sleep is never going to get better with earlier or later bedtimes until you start cutting into the day sleep & get it down to 1 nap.

It seriously took 2 months (I know with others it has taken longer) to get aiden into a good 1nap routine. It is the hardest transition & I did it because 5.30am wakeups came into play & at 7months preg it was he!!

if you can post your routines I can give some suggestions on how to move naps to help those early wakeups

[Alison_3]

Katet-
My only problem is that he doesn't nap well either.  Today he slept 1.5 hours this morning.  That is the longest nap he has taken in over a month.  He was only taking two short naps in the morning and in the afternoon.   Our routine is a little crazy right now.  He has been sick for the last week and was refusing his bottle.  He doesn't want it all now so that is great, but we're working on mealtimes and snack times.  He doesn't want to drink a whole lot of milk from his sippy cup so I'm a little worried about that too. 

If I try to transition to one nap, do I just start keeping him up later in the morning?  His first nap is usually around 9:00 or 9:30 depends on how early he wakes up.  Then his afternoon nap is around 1:30-2:00 with a 7:30 bedtime. 

thanks for your advice!

[Katet]

Alison the fact he short naps is also a very good indicator he he ready for 1 nap, he only takes a long enough nap to tide him over. Yes getting the longer awake time is a challenge but so is starting the day at 5am :?

I would stretch the morning nap out by 30mins...when I was stretching Aiden's out I used to plan to be engaged in an activity that he would enjoy & be distracted by so he didn't notice he was tired... I spent lots of time at the railway station watching trains   also when it gets to 15mins before his (now nap time) give him a snack which will give him an energy boost & help through the extra awake time. I'd keep the pm nap at the same time as much as possible so eventually it adds on to the morning nap.

doing this I went from 2 x 40 -hour naps & early wakeups to a 7ish wake up & sometimes 2.5-3hour naps... just when I needed it when my ds#2 was born.

[Kaeli]

Hi

I totally agree, Georgia was having 2 45 min naps, sometimes the morning one would be 1.5hours....but this was getting less and less.

I basically stretched her morning awake time by more and more until about 11.15am this weekend......on Fri, sat and Sun she had a 2.5 hour nap.  She was tired by bedtime and the morning required a lot of entertainment, but it seemed to suit better.

Of course everything has gone wrong since then.  As she woke so early yesterday we went back to sleep which resulted in a 25 min nap at nursery and a really tired baby at bedtime.  Add in sore mouth (bright red cheeks) and you get screaming for an hour then wake up at 1am and would not sleep without me in the room.....so I slept on the floor last night.

I wonder if we are going through too much at once - learning to walk (just started standing independently), weaning from the breast, transitioning to one nap, teething (molars).  so i think we may have sep anxiety added into all this.

I may start another thread about that as am unsure how to handle it.

Good luck, but def start the move to one nap.  For starters it is lovely to have such a long stretch to get things done.


Kaeli x

[Alison_3]

ladies-  thanks so much for your advice.  I think I'll start this weekend.  That way my dh will be around to help entertain!    He has been really pleasant lately so hopefully this will work.  Plus he was up at 4:00 a.m. this morning.  I did get him to settle, but only until 5:10!

thanks again.  Let's hope this goes well...eventually!