Changed daytime sleep to try and prevent EW, anyone else tried this?

[waffles1]

So my lovely little DS is STILL waking at 5.20am most mornings (yaaaawn!), very occasionally we get a 6.15am but once every few weeks if we?re lucky!

I decided to re-jig his daytime sleep as he had got into the routine himself of sleeping from 9.30am ? 12pm every day, having a very short catnap in the afternoon and then going to bed extremely over tired and therefore falling into an exhausted sleep. I thought this may behind the EW. So for the past month, the new routine is a short nap in the morning, approx 9.45am ? 10.15am, then a long lunchtime nap, approx 1.15pm ? 3pm.

However, this hasn?t made any difference with regards to EW. But within himself he seems much happier during the day (previously seemed tired most of the afternoon and quite grumpy!) so this new daytime sleep pattern seems to suit him which is one benefit. Have other people changed the daytime sleep to prevent EW and when did you see consistent later wake ups?

When he does wake at 5.30, I can sometimes get him back to sleep by giving him a bottle and putting him back down, however on the days I have to work there?s no point in going back to sleep as I have to get up at 6.30am anyway, so feel very tired all day. Would just love a consistent wake up of 6.30am (or later but that?s just being greedy!!)

Also, on the downside, since changing the daytime sleep we have had 1 wake up during the night on quite a few occasions. DS is waking up very upset and will only be comforted by a bottle and then goes back to sleep, so all a bit random and not really a habit I want to enforce (bottle to go back to sleep) but when you know you?ll be up in a few hours we tend to do what works and will get us the maximum sleep!

So really, after that load of waffle, what I want to know is, will EW eventually start to happen because I have changed the daytime sleep and if so, when? Plus what are the random wake ups about, over tired, under tired maybe?!!! Anyone else?s DC?s doing this.

DS is 13 months, should have mentioned that right at the start!!

Also should mention, room is black out which hasn't seemed to do anything either, grrrr after spending £30 on blackout material!!

Thanks for reading fellow MN?s 

Firstly - well done for persevering & getting him into a good napping routine! Shame it hasn't sorted the EW but I'd say given his age he is in the throes of the 2-1 nap transition & this is why the EW is still there.

He may be ready to completely drop the morning nap & take a single nap around lunchtime, BUT getting there will be difficult to achieve while he is early waking, as he will undoubtedly get overtired.

If you want to try & eliminate or at least reduce the EW first, I would push out the morning nap until it starts at 10am, still capped at 30mins. Then, if the EW persists, cut back the morning nap by 5mins every 3 days until it is 15mins long from 10-10.15am. He may be able to take his lunchtime nap at 1.15pm still, but may need it slightly earlier at 1pm. If doing this makes absolutely no difference to the EW then you will need to make the jump to 1 nap

11/11.30am works well as a starting point for many LO's, but this may be too late for your LO if he's still getting up at 5.30, so perhaps start with 10.30am nap for as long as he wants. If the nap is 2hrs or less, you will also need to offer a much earlier bedtime of around 6pm to prevent him getting overtired. He will still wake earlyish to start with, but once he's used to it you can then gradually push the nap later by 15mins every couple of weeks until it starts after lunch & gradually push bedtime back out at the the same time. Its a slow process & OT is unavoidable but he will get there.

One other thing - what time are you putting him to bed at night? Just want to make sure its not too early/too late.