waking up way to early

[shells]

My lo is 15 months old. She is usually a pretty good sleeper. I have been down to one nap for about a month... although it took me months to get there. The past few weeks she has been waking up sooooooo! early, 4am-5am. I usually leave her in her crib for at least an hour to see if she will return to dream land but it usually doesn't happen. I have been trying to stick with the one nap but she gets so tired and cranky by 10:00 it is a struggle to keep her awake. I guess what I am trying to get at is should I start back with two hour long naps, one at around 10:00am and the next around 3:00pm or should I stick it out and try to keep her up till noon. I have gone back to two naps every once in awhile when she gets up super early...the morning one goes ok but the afternoon one is usually a half hour screaming match. HELP!!!!!!!!

[Mom to M&M]

She may be overtired. How long is her one nap/day? If you do decide to return to two naps, you may need to cut the first one shorter than an hour...

[shells]

This her usual routine
5:00am wakes give or take a half hour
6:00-6:30 bottle
7:30 breakfast
11:30 lunch lately she has been falling asleep in her highchair
12:00 nap usually 2 hours
3:00 snack
5:00 dinner
6:45 bath,bottle,bed

this routine lately has kind of been thrown out the window because she is up so early, most times she can go down at 9:30-10:00 for and hour and then I attempt to put her back down at around 2:00 for an hour...she really resists this nap. I just wish she would sleep till at least 6:00am.

[Mom to M&M]

She definitely sounds overtired to me. What if you either:

a. move lunch to 11 and nap to 11:30 and bedtime to 6:30 until the early wakings resolve
or
b. offer a catnap from 9-9:30 and then lunch at 12 and nap at 12:30

[shells]

I'll for sure try moving her lunch up to 11:00 and nap time 11:30. I just thought if I put her to bed earlier she will wake up earlier. I have so many people telling me to keep her up later, I know that will not work. I didn't realize that being over tired could cause early wakings.

[TDR'smom]

I agree with Karen to try and move her nap up, even if it is just 15 minutes.

The earlier we put Tyler down for his nap (within reason) the longer he sleeps.  For example if we put him down at noon, he will usually sleep till close to 3PM.  If we put him down at 12:30PM, he will sleep till about 2:30PM.  If we put him down any later than 12:30PM, like 1PM.  He will be awake at 2PM. 

HTH.  and Good luck!