All of a Sudden - Early wake time (5-6am)???? Any ideas?

[alyssa1]

The naps are just getting worse.  Yesterday he went down at 11:30am and did not get to sleep until 11:55am after going in to reassure him that it was nap time and I (my husband) would see him soon.  He only slept until 12:25 and woke up screaming.  My husband decided to calm him down in his room and put him back in his crib and told him that it was still nap time.  He did this 2 more times and then after 1.5 hours he brought him out of his room.  Needless to say the rest of the day he was so completely overtired it was a mess.  We put him to bed at 7pm and he slept through until 6:20am (good) .  But what do we do about this nap problem?  We are so confused.  He won't stay alseep for longer than 40 min. for his 1 and only nap - what a mess.  Any advice??? We are lost.

[imsmum]

The one nap transition is so tough!  If your lo is waking after 40 minutes for his nap it is likely from overtiredness.  There's really a few things you can do:

1.  Keep things as they are and try doing Pd or w2sleep for the nap;
2 move the bedtime super early--you can either keep the nap the same or try moving it earlier.

I think regardless of what you choose a super early bedtime is a must at this stage. when my lo was tranistioning we often did a 6:30 bedtime--I think basically whenever his normal naptime was move it forward an hour.   You may find that this causes a longer sleep and your lo may stop waking during his nap.

My Bella--sounds like you're lo is also in the process of transitioning to 1 nap as well!

[Florencia]

Allysa, you said you were going to try a loong wind down. How did it go? if you put him to bed at 11:30 and he went off at 11:55 i'd say he didn't take that long to fall asleep (only 25 mins, when 20 mins is average for textbook kids). Of course, the goal here is that he's off within 5/10 mins but we have to take baby steps and  go day by day.

Are you sure he's not in pain? hungry? hot? yesterday my lo woke up super upset (and early GRR) from his nap and he was sweating and very umconfortable. I had not noticed that is getting warmer and warmer and his room was like an oven when i walked in

We just have to persevere with the pd till he manages to lenghten his nap. I found that some kids get more wounded up with the walk in/walk out thing and you just have to remain there while the nap is restless and then when you're sure he's off, walk out. By reinforcing him that you'll be around when he needs it, he'll be less likely to wake up. But it's a gradual process with some setbacks. You'll make it, im sure, just take each day at a time.

Let me know if you notice any progress with the long wind down. Good luck!