Early waker and first nap of the day

[greeneone12]

Hi All

I thought our 5am wakings were over but nope...here they are again! I feed her in bed and that takes us to about 5.45am as we both snooze but after being awake so early by 9am she is really tired again. This results in a 3 hour sleep and a grizzly, tired little one by about 5pm.

We have tried later bedtimes etc and she still wakes early :(

Should I be trying to break up that 3 hour sleep? Problem is when we have done that in the past she is just grumpy and not well rested.

Feel like I am in a bit of a catch 22. Plus I want to give up feeding in the next few months and I can't imagine actually having to get up and get her (and myself) dressed at 5ish in the morning.

:(

Can your LO have an afternoon sleep as well? How old is she?

Our DS is the same. We're starting to have some success with turning his nightlight out and him sleeping in the pitch black. Doesn't work every day but seems to be moving his wake up time later.

Was also wondering about the afternoon sleep?

I have an early waker (now 16months old) & when he woke early I would put him down for a nap early & it took me a very long time to realise this was just perpetuating the problem.

Your LO is taking a very long & early AM nap so the likelihood is that the AM nap is being used to catch up on the lost nightsleep. The only way to break the cycle is to push out & cut back the AM nap in order that she is tired enough to take a PM nap.

Knowing her age ??? will help us to give the right advice.

BTDT honey & I know how much it sucks!!!

Sorry for lack of info - she is 14 months but when she is woken from am nap artificaially she is grumpy :( I am willing to give it a try if it helps though!

DD is much younger (9mo) but we seem to have had success recently by making her stay awake longer before am nap, i.e. in her case she needs am nap 3hrs after waking but I decided not to let her have it before 9am - it was self-perpetuating as early am nap meant early pm nap then she was too tired for me to shift dinner later and bed time was getting too early. Touch wood now she'll sleep 7-6.30 rather than 6.30-5.15 (though does not sleep through yet). I think to shift bedtime later you have to be able to move dinner later too. At least at DD's age - just moving bed later for us just resulted in a hugely miserable evening for all of us!

fififrog makes good point re shifting BT later causing problems - it did for us too. The only way to achieve a later BT is to shift the entire day later so nap/BT.

greeneone12 - with her being 14 months I think you have 2 options:

1. Cut the AM nap right back. If you let her nap for 1hr, would she go down for a PM nap? Maybe something like AM nap 9-10am then PM nap 1.30/2-3/3.30 then 7.30pm BT? Over the next few weeks I would continue to gradually cut this nap back & push it out until its 30mins max from 9.30-10. Each time you cut back the AM nap the PM nap should need to come a little earlier. Maybe try aiming for something like 1/1.30 for 1.5-2hrs max with a 7/7.30pm BT. Once you have this established you might even need to cut the AM nap even shorter to 10/15mins so it is a tiny catnap to get her through to her PM nap which should be after lunch. Having the main nap of the day after lunch will help you achieve a later bedtime & prevent overtiredness at bedtime. And capping the AM nap short will prevent her from catching up on nightsleep during her AM nap, thus breaking the EW cycle.

2. if she absolutely refuses to take a second nap no matter how short the AM nap is, then you have no choice but to stay with 1 nap, but for the reasons stated above, you need to get that nap pushed a bit later so she is napping around midday. You would need to do this gradually by pushing the nap out by 15mins every 3-5 days. She will probably get overtired whilst you do this, but remain consistent & she will get there.

If you go with 2) above & after getting the nap to lunchtime it is still 3hrs & she is still early waking, THEN I would start to gradually cap the nap shorter until its around 2hrs.

Hope this helps

I would only let her have a short morning nap (less than 45 mins so she doesn't go into a really deep sleep) and then a two hour after noon nap.

Wrt the disliking being woken artificially, there are some alarms that wake you gradually by increasing light, maybe something like that would help? You have my sympathy, I have a DD of the same age doesn't like naps and is a grumpy bugger little soul at 5pm too!

Thanks all! Yesterday she had one hour in the morning and then went to bed at 8pm!!! Today she wasn't tired for her nap until 10.30am but woke at 6am.

It's all so confusing! I will wait another few weeks and see if the early wakings sort themselves out but if not will take an action plan based on the above.

Thanks all - happy new year!

Lots of people slag of Gina Ford for small babies (and I would agree) but she has a point with older babies and how much sleep they need. You might want to loosely follow her "guidelines" On the other hand you may not.

GF would give the same advice as above - to cut back the AM nap really short, so she WILL take a PM nap. And if just staying with the 1 nap to push it later towards midday.

greeneone12 - wow that's a long day. I would tread carefully if her nights start to shorten like that as its likely she's getting OT with only a 1hr nap in the AM. Definitely give the capped AM nap idea some thought.

Hope all works itself out soon.x