10month old waking early- should I reduce naps?

[April45]

DS is 10.5 months his sleep has improved after doing CC and now only wakes once which I'm so pleased about - but he's now getting up at 5.30-6am (I think because he's done his hours sleep but in a shorter timeframe).

He naps 1hr20 at 9.30ish and 2ish.

Do I reduce the naps to see if it helps? I don't mind him being up at 6 but 5.30 is a bit early. I was thinking to reduce the morning nap. I'm worried he might get too tired later on but perhaps I just take the risk!

I'm also not giving his morning milk until 7 in the hope he's not waking for that.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

I'd be inclined to put him to bed later before cutting naps. What time is he going to sleep in the evening? Average overnight sleep at that age is around 9.5 hours so for an 8 pm bedtime, 5.30 is what you'd expect in terms of getting up.

Really, that doesn't seem a lot. Where have you read that? He goes down at 7.30am.

*7.30pm!

It's quite likely the only thing that will do is make him overtired and grouchy in the day. Older babies and toddlers often seem wired to wake up at the crack of dawn no matter how late they went to sleep - and I wouldn't call that excessive napping for a 10mo.

Ferber. Most books will tell you something fairly similar though. I was horrified when I realised that the mythical 12 hours we dream of includes naps, generally. Try pushing naps later by ten minutes at a time and bedtime to gradually get to 8 and see if that helps the early start. Mine didn't start sleeping longer total at night until they dropped naps, though. DS now does 11+ hours, no nap. DD is a bit variable but around 10 (8 - 6) plus a nap of 90 minutes. We chose 8 as bedtime because I'd rather get up at 6 than 5.

The issue is the morning nap as it is too long. Try a 30 min nap at 9.30 to 10.
Next nap 12.30 or 1-3 and a 7pm bedtime.

Mine are 12 months and do what Lapin says. Works well for both. Short morning nap allows the after lunch one to be longer.

Thanks water and Lapin, I think that's the schedule that may work for us. Out of interest, when your children moved to one nap did this stay at 12.30/1pm or does it go earlier? Just trying to work out whether that 30min morning nap is to help them keep going until the lunchtime nap?

Mine haven’t transitioned to one nap yet. They wouldn’t last until say 12 to have a 2 hour nap. On the odd occasion (I think 2 times) my daughter wouldn’t take her nap and she’s been a mess by 11/1130 cos she is too tired! I think the idea is 30 mins is just enough to keep them going till 1 and then sleeping till 3 is perfect for a 7/715 bedtime.

In many ways I’d love one nap a day now but I think this will be how it is for another couple of months.

Yes basically you keep paring back this short morning nap until it is 15 mins from 9.45-10am, keep it at that for a week or so and then drop to one nap.
The one nap will be at 11.30 for a while but again you keep pushing back the start little by little until it’s at 12.

That's brill thanks both