5 a.m. and waking up crying

[Carina's Mommy]

Carina is just a couple weeks shy of a year old.  She sometimes sleeps through the night, but lately she wakes up at 5 a.m. and just cries and cries. I can't get her back to sleep (with rocking or pacing). So we basically get up for the day. She then is a little fussy all morning until her a.m. nap, but she stops all out crying as soon as we leave the room or turn on the lights. 

Our "routine" is generally all over the map.  Today we:
5 a.m. woke up --and stayed up despite trying for an hour to get her back to sleep
6 a.m. bf (not exceptionally hungry)
8 a.m. breakfast
8:30-11:00 nap
11:00 bf
12:00 lunch
3:00-4:00 nap
4:00 bf
5:30 dinner
8:00 bath, bf, books, bed
8:00 bed (usually we try for 7:30 and she was very tired tonight, but we were out)

Any advice??  Yesterday was similar--very long 3 hour morning nap, only 10 minutes in afternoon...

[Kimberly®]

your LO is getting 4.5 hours of daytime sleep. Thats to much and its effecting her nights.
I think it may be time to go to one nap. Try to keep her up till 11:30  if you can, do the bf earlier or when she wakes, and lunch at 11, then let her sleep 2-3 hours and have her up for the afternoon. The first few days you do this will be really hard. She'll be tired and cranky, but once she ajusts she'll be ok. When you do this move bedtime to 7-7:30 and it should help some of the overtiredness, when she's ajusted you can move it back if need be.

Does your LO have a night light? if not try putting it in her room. She may be afread of the dark.

HTH