Dawn riser - what time do I make naps now?

[DisasterZone]

Urgh - 10.5 mo old has started with the dreaded early morning rising. 4:30am and 4:45am today. I think that trying to settle him back to sleep after an hour or 6am is a waste of time so both mornings have given up and have been up with him.

Daytime naps have been a problem for him. He only has 2 each 45 mins, despite any attempts to resettle. We tried wake to sleep yesterday but it meant that his eyes shot open after 30 mins instead of 45.... he's extremely sensitive to being woken.

So any thoughts about how to schedule his naps? If he's been awake since 4:45am should he go down again at 8am? Before this early rising started he was napping around 10am, should I aim for that?

I'm so tired and grumpy with this all. If anyone wants a full description of his sleep patterns it's here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/1421902-Wake-to-sleep-does-it-work-if-your-LO-has-never-had-good-sleep-habits - my efforts yesterday...

We have had a couple of bouts of early waking, in the middle of one right now as it happens at 11.5mo which has been going on since mid-Jan. This one with 5.20 wake up seems fairly ingrained. Am trying to help sort it by 1/2 hr nap at 9.30 but no progress after 10 days and now DD is ill anyway.

Previous bout was at 7.5 months and was sorted by not letting her nap before 9am rather than previously I'd been doing a 3hr interval. That allowed us to keep the rest of the day on track and stop dinner and bed drifting earlier and earlier.

My pitiful advice would be not to let DS nap too early - try to stick to clock time which has been working better for us since October, but I'd aim for 9am if poss - he'll b climbing the Walls by 10 surely!

Ps meant to say... But don't expect any magic bullets. Our EW problem has been going on for nearly 2 months now. I happened to be seeing my GP and he asked after DD so I whinged about the EW and he said that they just grow out of it when they're ready... Sigh.

No advice just sympathy. My DS is 18 months and is up for the day anywhere between 4-5. Naps are terrible too. I've tried everything and nothing gets him past 5am. I think some children are just early risers :(

It seems so common - spoke to a friend today who confessed his 3 yr old did it for 8months from around 18 months. Grrr.

BTW wake to sleep was a disaster this afternoon. I did get him to stir, roll over and appear to go to sleep but as soon as I stepped backwards to leave a board creaked, his eyes shot open and sleep was over. So I woke hi up after only 30 mins! That makes a total of 75mins for the whole day, which I feel is really not enough. He crased at 6:30pm, so we'll see what impact that has tomorrow.

Thanks both for answering and sharing your experiences. It is helpful. :)