15 month old wakes 3.30am every day, with the clock change this will be 2.30am - HELP!!

[Daisies1]

PLEASE tell me how to get my 15mo to sleep longer than 7-3.30. He sleeps through this period, self-settles for bed. I try to stop him falling asleep until about 9 then he naps maybe 45 mins and about 1.5 hours in the afternoon or vice verse.

He won’t go down for naps at all so have to feed to sleep and leave attached or drive and then transfer to cot (but then wakes after 45 so have to feed to sleep to lengthen the nap so depends if I have time or driving somewhere.

At 3.30 I’ve tried check ins, feeding to sleep or literally just leaving him to cry for an hour but nothing works. I’ve let him have an early nap too but doesn’t help. Naps are beyond impossible to get him in his cot, again tried check ins, leaving him, belly rubbing, dummy to get him off my boob.

Any ideas?

Rough schedule:

3.30am-9am awake (3 days a week has 15 minute nap at 7.30am due to car to nursery)
Nap: 9-9.45 or 10.30
Awake: 3-3.5 hours
Nap: 2-2.45 or 3.15/30.
(Has longer nap early or late not both usually)
Bed 7pm. Fall asleep in about 10-15 mins

I would gradually push his bedtime back until you reach 9 pm. He is only doing 8.5 hours at night which isn't much, but his total sleep during the day is nearly 11 hours which is in the normal range. I think you need to accept that as long as he has 2 naps he is not going to sleep longer during the night. The wake up from his second nap is also quite late considering his early bedtime. So I would gradually push his bedtime back by 15 minutes every day and you should see a slow improvement (give it at least a month).

I’ll try that thank you x

Tried 1 nap, night was worse as he woke at 9.30 pm and then up at 3.30

I’d continue with dropping tye day time naps. It will be a slow adjustment for him and may have a few bumps in the road like your 9pm wake occasionally initially

Wow 3.30 is very very early. Is it possible he has a food intolerance/allergy or something else?

I would also suggest trying to move towards one nap a day. If you can gradually push him to 10am he should start taking longer naps. The transition to one nap can be a long process over several weeks. I think DS was about 3-4 weeks transition at about 11/12 months. Now he can sleep for 3 hours, if I let him.

But 3:30 wake up sounds like hell and a very long day for both you and DC.

Have you tried wake to sleep method?

At 15 months old, he surely only needs one nap a day? It will be hard to make this the afternoon nap though if he's awake from 3.30am. If you can manage it, try and get him to have his long sleep between 11-12.30 then he could try a bedtime of 6.30-7.00pm.

What’s wake to sleep?
I’ve tried one nap and he’s an exhausted mess. If I go out in the car at all in the day he falls asleep, so on the way to nursery or from/ to classes or whatever we’re doing. Even with 1 nap if it’s not long enough he’s massively distressed by lunchtime as he’s so tired :(

Wake to sleep means setting your alarm for about 2.30am, since he is waking at 3.30 (ie an hour before he normally wakes) and rousing him enough so he stirs, but not enough to open his eyes. Then going back to bed, and hoping youve reset his sleep cycle enough to get well past 3.30am...

FWIW, my appalling sleepers deal ok with clock changes. Don't know if the new food times reset their body clock??? But travel and clock changes, and it takes 2 or 3 days, and they are back waking at 5am. So, could you try pushing breakfast, lunch and dinner back a bit - if you could make all meals (and bedtime) an hour later, might you get a "lie in" til 4.30?

That sounds horrendous, how are you coping on such little sleep? I have a crap sleeper so can understand your frustrations.
3.30 is still the middle of the night! Have you tried bringing him into bed with you at that time, he might fall back to sleep?

Could you get him to have a nap before 9? I read somewhere that a nap before 9 is really a continuation of their nighttime sleep.

@Dunes of sand: Thanks I’ll try that! So it has to be exactly and hour before? Only reason I say that is I always wake at 3am in anticipation of my morning call!

@Give me all the gin: Hm I’m not, I’m dying from sleep deprivation. I survive on large quantities of sugar and carbs to get through the day! I do put him in my bed and he glued himself to my boob preventing me having any hope of going to sleep but at least I’m horizontal! Occasionally he’ll fall asleep at 4.30/5am but only for 30 mins max and stay glued unfortunately :(

@Philominabutterfly: He usually does have a very early nap. I’m not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, whether it encourages his early wake ups or not?!?

Reading this, it might be a bad thing:
www.littleones.co/blogs/our-blog/up-with-the-larks-tackling-early-waking

Thanks!

Yes needs to be an hour earlier and you are supposed to do it 5 days running for it to work

Fucking hell. Sorry, nothing helpful to add, but

I would drop the nightime boobfest. I did the same around 15 months, he doesn't need it and is using you as a dummy.

Stop offering it. Give a sippy cup with water, sssh pat or just sit and stroke his head. He will eventually go back to sleep. He will realise that morning is 6am onwards. Not 3.30am.

You need to be firm. If he wasn't bf you wouldn't offer snacks at that time, or at 15 month start messing around with ff. It's bad for his teeth apart from anything else.