Routine for 12month old - Early Riser - help!!

[MrsWarleggan]

For some reason (think it's the school holidays) over the past week my 12 month olds routine has gone out the window. Its now playing havoc with her and with me as I'm currently wfh, and was fitting in my work hours when she napped. The evening part hasn't changed. Eats dinner at 5.00pm start bedtime routine at 6.30pm goes to bed at 7.00-7.30pm. But she's gone from waking up at 6.45-7isham to waking up at 5.30-5.45am. Her naps are now all over the place. I've just taken her back up as she was very grumpy and rubbing her eyes. She's now sparko again, but it really buggers up the rest of her day. I offered her breakfast just before 7am but she didn't want it (school routine she normally has it at 7.45-8.00am) She had her MMR last Monday and got really snotty two days after and still is, so maybe that's causing the blip? 🤷‍♀️

Can people share their early riser routines please? I need to get her back to something more set in stone because I HAVE to work! 😩

FYI she is a brilliant sleeper and always has been.
TIA 😊

Her routine is changing.

You can't work whilst looking after a baby. You are going to need some childcare. Remember babies can't tell the time but she is clearly needing sleep and food at different points in the day than she did.

Do you have older DCs?

@Heartlake

Yes, DD 6 years in August. Unfortunately I have to work. No getting out of that one and can't afford CM more than one day a week. My Mum was due to have her two days a week when I went back from mat leave , but she's having to shield so I'm a bit stuffed!!

Seriously then this is a bigger issue than your baby's routine changing. Unless you are self-employed and entirely independent you can't be under pressure of looking after 2 small DCs and working. What is the DC's dad up to? He needs to help you.

My son will be two at Halloween.

Similar bedtime routine but he goes to bed at seven.

He has one long 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon.

He has woken naturally between 5-5:30 for the past year, it's exhausting.

However yesterday he woke at ten to eight and today at just before seven. I feel
Like anew woman!

No change to routine at all. I'm hoping that he will start to sleep later!

And eventually yours will too!

You can't WFH while looking after a child, it's not feasible and in normal times your employer is highly unlikely to allow it.

I’ve a 12 month old too (12th July birthday). She has a similar routine to yours in the evening. She wakes 6:30-7ish, which is amazing, but can be a beast to get to sleep at night, I’m wondering if it’s time to drop a nap.

She sleeps 9:30/45-10:15, then 1:30-3, bedtime 7.

Do you think yours might have too much daytime sleep?

My 1 year old goes through phases of waking early (before 6) for a few days but it makes no difference to routine as the day starts at 6:30. If she is awake before this we leave her to babble away to herself, which she is quite happy to do. First nap is always 9am and not before. I would just keep her going until then if she was tired from early waking.

First nap 9-9:45 (we wake her up after 1 sleep cycle)
Second nap 1-2:30 or 3 (we don't let her sleep beyond 3)

Do you go straight in when she wakes or do you let her babble until a time you consider reasonable?

OP i feel your pain, i have a 1yr DD and older DS whom i've had to help with homeschooling and am expected to work from home too. Luckily i only have to do 4.5-5 hours a day but its driving me to the brink of insanity.
DD used to nap twice a day for about 1.5 hours each and it was much easier to get work done around that, but then she transitioned to 1 nap about 2 weeks after i had to work from home and now my weeks are a nightmare of me sitting at the table trying to work on the comp while she climbs all over me, whinges next to me to get up etc etc. I want to cry all day because its driving me mad. My managers sees this on skype daily too and doesnt take pity on me.
In terms of routine i have no advice because they change the routine themselves and there is little can be done half the time, my DD at the moment has decided she wants to nap at about 2pm till about 4pm and then doesnt want to go to bed until 9-10pm and now i get no evening to myself anymore, my life is great lol!
Sending lots of sympathy as i know how hard it is :)

i don't think the op understands how impossible this would have been so far with most babies

honestly op, there's no way anyone i know/babies that i have experience in would have been able to actually DO a job while looking after a 1 year old, nevermind two children

the problem that you're about to hit (possibly have, reading between the lines in your OP) is that the 1 year vaccines typically upset them for a couple of weeks (mine was a week delayed, funnily enough just like you describe) but.. the 11/12 month sleep regression! in fact it's uncanny how much like your op was my experience, even down to the (faaaaar too early) morning wakings, then baby is falling asleep exhausted after getting grumpy because not enough sleep!

the bigger issue around your baby's changing routines (food and sleep wise) is that you're about to hit one of the hardest points in terms of "interest in the world" vs. "ability to interact independantly in the world"... it's like they suddenly start to understand that they can get that thing over the other side of the room, or want to explore something new, or see something up high.. but have very little autonomy to actually DO anything about it.. and worse, they don't have the attention span (say) of a 2 or three year old to e.g. play with this tub of pasta for 10mins without getting bored, throwing it away, then having a meltdown because they don't have a toy any more

i guess my point is - you've sort of got into the impression that working and looking after a 1 year old is doable.. for most, it's not. and the routine you've described as a "problem" is actually still a very very very good, well behaved, independant little thing.. honestly, i think you should count yourself lucky that your little one has been enabling you to work like this so far... not trying to get her "back" on track...

Thankyou for all your advice. Dad is at work 12 hours a day so unfortunately it's just me. This hopefully isn't going to be a long term situation so will stop trying to push it and work as much as I can in the evenings for now.

@MrsWarleggan the early start could be because she's not tired enough to sleep through the night anymore, could you try dropping the afternoon nap? She's the right age for it.

In that case I really hope your DP is doing his fair share of cleaning / sorting meals / letting you rest at weekends because what you're doing is untenable long-term.