to wonder if it's reasonable to wake DD?

[whatthefoxsaid]

Very long story (posted in sleep) short, DD is waking at 4.30 for the day. Has been for weeks.
I thought I might try tweaking her naps. She's 14m and today napped 9.15-10 then 1-now.
Do I wake her in the hope she starts sleeping in more?
Or am I pissing in the wind? Leave her to it and hope the early starts sort themselves out?!

The naps seem a little early so maybe try putting them slowly back. Also what time does she go to bed may try later?

I always used to think the more sleep the better (sleep breeds sleep etc) until 4.30pm. No daytime napping after 4.30pm!

I would try moving her to one nap, after lunch. Both mine went down to one nap around that age.

4.30 is ridiculously early and I'd definitely be trying something. There are only so many hours she can sleep in a 24 hour period and you want to encourage her to do most of those overnight.

Around 12-15 months you can transition to one nap. So just do a long nap 11.30-2.

I think she'd do better on one long nap (and she's done it before) but it's hard to break the cycle e.g if I tried it tomorrow, how do I get her from 4.30 til nap time at 11.30?!!
Doje sleep breeds sleep has always been my mantra too but I've got to admit I'm swaying more towards 'there's only so much sleep she needs' ad she gets older.
Sometimes she wakes early bright and breezy but more often than not she's still tired, eye rubbing and doesn't come round properly til well past 6am.
Hard to know what to do for the best!

Hopeful bump!

if she wakes at 4.30 can she go back to sleep snuggled in with you?

What time does she go to bed?

If she's still in cot I'd stick her back into bed and sit/lie next to the cot in the dark. Minimal interaction. It took nearly a month to make my lo realise they had to go back to sleep

I'd try one nap. DDs 15 months and has been on one nap for the last 2 months due to early waking/late going to sleep. Since we went to one nap she's been sleeping 7-7 and napping 12-2:30ish.

It's hard transitioning to one nap for a few days. Just need to keep them entertained to keep them going through the morning and a big lunch to fill up before the nap so they don't wake up early from the nap wanting food. DD was used to a snack during her new naptime so woke halfway through it for a few days for food.

Thank you for the replies!
She doesn't go to sleep with me in bed, sometimes will snuggle for 5-10 minutes but I never wanted to co-sleep so haven't ever really done it with her. As a result, I think the novelty of it is too much!
She goes to bed at 7pm, is very good and goes down sleepy but awake and settles herself down.
We try minimal interaction/ignore, lay her back down and say back to sleep at the most but she gets sort of wired and frantic to stand back up and shout us. This morning she laid down for 10 mins or so but ends up back up. We end up taking her down so the other gets more sleep and to spare the neighbour!
One nap seems to be a popular opinion so I'm thinking May be the way to go..

Definitely try one nap. DS did 12-2 at this age then slept 7-6.30 ish at night.

we had the same problem with our ds at that age. He was a champion napper and pre 12 months would always sleep longer at night if he’d had decent naps but after 12 months it all changed and we rarely got past 5am. We got him down to one nap 11-2 and he fairly quickly started sleeping 11 hours at night again. Hope you find something on here helpful. Starting the day before 6am is a killer

Have you tried wake to sleep method?

Ours started trying to get up at silly o’clock from around 16 months onwards and miraculously what tends to work for us is a somewhat stern word with him. We just tell him that it’s the middle of the night and that everyone is still sleeping and that he needs to go back to sleep. My husband’s great at this because he uses his authority voice (still gentle but firm) - I have slightly less success. 😂If this doesn’t work we leave him for a bit even if he throws a tantrum, and we just deal with it like a daytime tantrum, i.e. not giving him loads of attention but just letting him know that we’re there. He might scream for a few minutes but then calms down and then goes back to bed quite happily.

Ours is almost 2 years old now though so the “reasoning” tactic might work better now than with a 14-month old, so not a guaranteed trick! I have a rule that he is not getting out of bed before 6am (unless poorly or genuinely upset) and I stick to it for my own sanity. I can’t remember exactly when this started working for us but I have a feeling that it was around the time that he started experimenting with just one nap. So like others have suggested, maybe tweak her naps a bit and see what happens. I found that by doing something fun like going out in the morning helped keep him up until his post-lunch. Also doing it gradually by pushing his nap back by around 10-20 minutes a day seemed to work. Good luck OP! Baby sleep is an utter mystery but I hope you crack it!

Soft music? While I understand the whole 'no interaction' thing, mine went to sleep really well if I played a cd of gentle nursery songs - I think it was a free one I got from the ELC. it meant if they woke in the early hours I'd put the cd on, settle them down and let them put themselves back to sleep. Sometimes they would lay awake for a little while (video monitor) but would have the music to listen to. It didn't seem to rouse them as much as me being present would.

I’m definitely not a sleep expert but we treated everything before 7am as a night wake. So whatever we’d have done at that stage if it was 2am even if it was 6.30. Total blackout blinds and at that age it would have meant standing over the cot shushing and patting, giving cuddles if he got really upset but not getting out of the cot, could mean I was basically there from 4.30 until 7 but resulted in understanding that it was not wake up time. Gro clock was a godsend from about 20 months but 15 is probably too young.

sympathies, but 4.30 really is the middle of the night and should be treated as such!

dd2 is also 14mo and naps almost exactly the same - 30 mins until 10 and 1.5 hours from 1-2.30. I can see dropping to 1 nap in next month as sometimes is fine without.

she was waking before 6am for the morning when she dropped her last night feed, I would take her downstairs so not to wake dd1. but dd1 would sometimes wake early when she heard her sister playing, or would sleep through the fussing.

so I spent a week of cuddling and putting her back in her room and ignoring the wingey crying and fussing.

she slept for 40 mins longer and by tweaking bedtime slightly later made it an hour.

you are reinforcing a habit of waking at that time.

rachierach11 you've described the situation to a T! Everything was going so well with naps and although bedtime could be a bugger, she wasn't getting up til 6-6.30. But since her birthday it's all gone to pot!

Wake to sleep scares me a bit to be honest. She's still in our room so to wake myself up would probably wake her completely rather than gently, and I can't start any earlier!

Soft music is an idea thank you.

WonderTweek I'm laughing now remembering dh trying to reason with her with his stern-but-kind voice! She can't really be talked round yet and a stern voice tends to upset her, though I suppose a sternish phrase to let her know its not time to get up yet would be useful for her to start learning.

DrWhy I agree with the theory of treating it like a night wake but upstairs she's so convinced that she's not tired and ready to get up! I did try it more consistently this morning (awake at 4.30, came down at 5.30) and she didn't scream.
Di11y sound advice thank you, you've helped me out on my other thread too I think you're right that we're reinforcing it.

Right I am aiming for 11-? Nap today. I think going out is a wise idea!

Just wanted to come back and update. It's early days but we've changed naps up so she has 11.30-2 and so far she's woken at 5.30 and 5.45, so definitely in the right direction! Thanks for the advice!

Mine is 13 months, started waking at 4-5am. I was a mean mummy and only let him have his morning nap, then kept him busy and awake. If he got too tired I would just take him out and get him to walk somewhere. Little things to drag his afternoon out. That really helped were back to 7am wake ups now and it only took a few days. It's almost as though it reset his clock as hes now back to an afternoon nap but will still sleep in until 7! I think they get so heavily into routines that if they wake at 4 for whatever reason then it's like their body takes over and assumes 4am is wake up time permanently! My theory anyway, good luck!

Just seen this thread - and it's been a few years now since I was here - but it changed my life when someone told me that any nap at all before 10am was the reason for early waking. I stopped that early nap for a couple of days and it all got better.

My 16 month DD has only had 1 nap for a while now. 11-1 roughly. Bed at 7pm wakes at 7am. I won't pretend she sleeps through though your definitely doing the right thing dropping a nap!

That’s brilliant news!! I’m so glad it’s worked, long may it continue!! DS2 has always needed very little sleep and at 10 months I think I will have to go to one nap soon. DS1 was still having 3 naps a day at 10 months!!

It's been easier to keep her occupied because the weather has been good so we've just played outside and got lots of fresh air and she's tired herself out running up and down.
Last night was a bit of a nightmare with all the fireworks but after a false start at 3.30 she went back down til 6
So it's definitely working a lot better than when she was having 2 naps!
I think I'm inclined to agree that pre-10am naps were just catch up sleeps. I'm so glad I posted!