Turning one year and waking up at 5.30am

[Sebastian's mum]

Sebastian is on a good routine and has slept through the nights since 7 months old but his wake ups have been getting earlier and earlier until they are now 5.30am.  His routine is as follows:

5.30am wake up
6.00am pick up
7.00am bottle
8.00am breakfast (he is eating solids well)
9.30am nap one
11 am snack (this has been stretching to 11.30 since his earlier wake ups)
1.30am lunch
3.00pm nap two
4.30pm bottle but switching to snack now.
6.30pm supper
7.30pm bed (after bath and bottle).

I have contemplated one nap but I don't think he is ready yet as his two naps are still going well.  I have thought about wake to sleep as I find myself waking up at 5am and then waiting for him to wake up!  I tried PU PD this morning but stopped after 15 minutes as it felt impossible at this time of the morning given he had so much sleep behind him.  I found PU PD works brilliantly in other cases.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated as we are travelling in a weeks time and he is going to have a lot of change so I would his sleep to be better by then.

[Katet]

How long are his day naps, at 1yo, they should be about an hour each, if you want to keep to 2 naps, but "I" think he is ready to move to 1 nap if he is only doing 10 hours overnight.

You could try delaying his first nap to about 10.30am to see if that helps & keep it to 30mins, otherwise, I'd say if you want to keep the 2 naps, then you are stuck with the early wake up, there are only so many hours they will sleep

I am very close to moving my almost 11mo to 1 nap as he is now waking at 5am & his awake time is about 4 hours

[Sebastian's mum]

They range from an hour to an hour and a half.  Today he was very tired so he had an hour and half each time and was cranky before his naps which he normally isn't.

How are you going to move to one nap i.e. what is the method?  Do you think I would be able to do it in a week as that is when we are flying to stay with my sister and he will be in a strange environment and I don't want to compound things.  If you get this in the next couple of hours then my dilemma is if he wakes at 5.30am tomorrow then he will be exhausted by 9.30am and yet I should be moving him to one nap??

Look forward to hearing from you.

[Katet]

To be honest it took about 3 months to get my ds#1 to 1 nap & I am working on it taking about the same with ds#2.

today my ds#2 woke at 5.15am & I spent until 6.55 to get him back off again... he then slept another 45mins... I always work until 6.30 to get him back off no matter what, but this morning he was showing he was tired so I gave until 7am... now I will try every morning until 7am, even though it is hard with a todder running around from about 6.40am.

What I am doing is cutting the first nap short... no more than 45mins, soon to be no more than 30, if that means I have to bring the 2nd forward slightly & bedtime that is ok, cos better than an overtired baby, although what I tend to do is compensate, by a longer bath & a trip in the stroller so bedtime remains the same, unless he is super cranky, as I know if he is overtired at bedtime, not only do I get nightwaking, BUT also an early start. 7.10pm is the absolute latest I can get ds#2 to bed & possibly avoid them, but 6.55/7pm is a better time.

My rule of thump is to work out the average sleep needs for age (at 12mo it is about 14 hours) & if night sleep + day doesn't equal that, then I put to bed a bit earlier. So say today, 5.15 + 45 =6am... so for a bedtime at 7pm, he needs about 3 hours of day sleep, (total 10 hours awake time) so if he gets 2.5 or less then I will bring his bedtime earlier.

I would delay the first nap by 10mins, then keep it at 45mins max... he has shown he is capable of 4 hours awake time as  he si doing 5.30-9.30, so I'd move it later by 10mins every 3-4 days & then always make sure he is awake giving 3.5- 4 hours until the next nap, unless he is overly grumpy then maybe earlier.

For reference our day (maybe 3-4 days a week we get it right)

6.30 wakeup & bf
7am breakfast
lots of active play
9.30am Nap - up by 10.30 at latest
snack on waking
Out to an activity
12.30/1pm Lunch
1.30/2pm Nap
3.30/4pm bf on waking
lots of active play
5.30/6pm Dinner
6.30pm bath
6.50 bf & bed

As I have a toddler to work with it doesn't always go to plan & usually those are the days we have the early starts the next day.

[imsmum]

Would definitely wait until you are back home before trying the transition it can be tough!  We are only now settling in and we've been transitioning since December!   When you do it I would push the morning nap back 15 to 30 minutes for three days at a time and to keep the second nap short ie.  if the nap is switched so it's 10-11:30 and the second starts at 3:30 wake your lo up at 4:30.  I think Tracy's last book goes thru this in some detail.  Good Luck!