Nap times for early riser

[5ambreakfastclub]

Hi all, I've posted a few times about my DD (14 months) and her early rising, basically since birth she has got up between 0500
and 0530. On the odd occasion 0600 if she's been up a lot. At the moment she naps around 0830/0900 for around an hour then again at around 1300 for another hour and bed by 1900 latest . My question is around dropping to one nap. I can't ever imagine she'll last until 11/12 for one nap . Does anyone else have an early riser that only has one nap? She seems to be very specific about how much night time sleep she has and so I'm hoping once she drops to one nap she might sleepy longer in the mornings...

Don’t have the issue with early rising. Although like most we do go through phases of early mornings... But we moved to one nap at 12 months (his lead) and in general it made everything so much easier. That’s pretty much when he started consistently sleeping through and going down for naps/bed like a dream because he was so tired.

Do you wake little one from their nap? What I’d try doing is pushing the nap back as late as you can. Intitially when my DS started with one nap- he was up between 6-7 and the nap started at about 10.30 at the latest. Now at 18 months it’s moved to 12noon. When he was going for the nap at 10.30 I’d leave him as long as he wanted- normally around 2/2.5 hours. Bed time would then be early- 6.30ish. Where as now he naps 12-1.30ish and bed time is at the earliest 7.15. I was surprised how long I could stretch him in the morning. I found it easiest to do this at home with constant playing. Even now if he go out in the car or pram he can’t resist dropping it much earlier than he normally would. Could try pushing it back a little every few days and see how it goes.

Or someone people try a power nap at 9 of say 20 mins max and then proper nap about 12.30 after lunch.

I would imagine she will be fine with 2 naps for a little while yet, as her getting up early makes for a very long day. My first was a cat napper and he generally did two naps a day until he was about 2 as 30 mins just wasn't enough sleep to keep him going until bedtime.

Once he turned two, he dropped to one nap and did about an hour and a half.

Out of interest, what happens if you put your DD down for bed earlier? If she's waking at 5:30 have you tried a 6pm bedtime? I just wonder if you can get her body used to sleeping longer at night, if you could then gradually push bedtime later again in the vain hope she will sleep later?

Thanks for the advice I'm not sure she can quite cope yet with stretching the naps to later ( her eyes are literally rolling in the back of her head come 9am) but I'll keep the advice to keep her as active as possible when it comes to starting to shift the nap- first baby so I'm just worried I won't pick up the cues for dropping a nap! I don't wake her when she's napping, an hour is generally the most she'll do.I've not tried putting her to bed earlier so maybe I'll give that a go, she's can be pretty wild when it comes to going to bed so she has bath at 6, bottle, teeth and then put down and can take anywhere from 30 mins to and hour for her to finally drift off I think I'm getting caught up with dropping a nap because a lot of her wee friends the same age are but they all tend to get up around 0700 so I could see that working! Nothing has changed her sleeping habits, crawling, solids, walking - she still has stayed the same!

I wouldn't worry. Follow her lead.

My second is 13 months, he still does 2 naps and he sleeps brilliantly, does 2 naps of an hour and a half. I could probably push him to do one long nap from 11-2 but I don't see why I would if he's happy doing two. He just loves to sleep. I'll follow his lead when it comes to dropping his nap, when he starts fighting either nap, I'll have another think, but until then, two naps it is!

Thank you! I always worry so much about what to do for the best , and I think the early wakings don't help because I get bombarded with things to try - mainly nap related so I do tend to get a bit obsessed with what i should be doing instead of DD wants to do!!

I agree with follow babies lead. That’s how we ended up with one nap at 12 months as he just wouldn’t sleep no matter what I did. It is quite early compared to others i know. I don’t mind trying something new or tweaking routine slightly to see what happens but if it doesn’t suit I’ve always followed his lead. They are all so different. Also, as hard as it is some are just early risers no matter what you do...

Is there a DP/DH who shares the early mornings with you?

Yes my DH deals with bedtime and any night wakings and I get up at 5 so at least I get a full nights sleep! When she starts going through the night reliably we may need to change that