Help! 14mo suddenly waking up at 5.30 & miserable

[Lmama]

We’ve always been really lucky with DS’s sleep (my mum’s says everyone gets one good ‘area’!) He has been sleeping 7pm-7am since around 6months and he often went to 7.30am.

However, for the past month or more he has been waking up earlier & earlier. Now it’s 5.30am and he’s crying straightaway too.

The thing is, he’s exhausted. He gets to 8am and he’s knackered. He was down to one nap though we’ve had to bring back the second, and his lunchtime one is now crappy too. He wakes after an hour, still knackered and won’t go back down. By 7pm he’s falling apart!

One other thing, it did coincide with a bout of pretty rubbish illness for him but has lasted & become routine.

Anyone had similar? Any tips? I know some babies are just earlier risers but he’s never been that way and he’s clearly not getting the sleep he needs. I don’t know what to do.

We had a rough patch around 12/13 months with our DD when she started nursery and was transitioning to one nap. I suspect it might be the nap transition that's causing the issue for you too - it's really tricky to get it right and it took a while to settle for us. Could you try a quick cat nap at 8-8.30ish and then aim for a longer lunchtime nap, with a view to eventually phasing out the early nap? You might find it helps with wake ups after a few weeks. The other thing might be to bring his bedtime forward a bit to 6.30 to help avoid overtiredness during the nap transition.

No advice, just solidarity! We have been in the same situation for just over a week now- for us it's coincided with his 1 year jabs.

His sleep is so disjointed and we are all three knackered. Hoping it will ease a bit in the next few days, but being woken up by a baby screaming in your ear is NOT a good way to wake up!

Thanks @chocopuffs It’s such a fine balance isn’t it. I’ve been nervous to bring his bedtime forward incase that leads to an even EARLIER wake but perhaps I should give it a shot!

@NotMaryWhitehouse I feel you. Really hope it gets better!

Yes we had this too, particularly the miserable part!
Wasn’t much to explain why just that it was another “phase” and eventually grew out of it. I know that’s not too helpful but I sent myself crazy trying all kinds of different things and by the time I’d almost given up he had started to sleep in longer again.
Think if I just rode the wave it would have been easier.
Good luck OP and hope things turn around soon.

Is he cold? Thirsty? Is there a noise somewhere? My wretched neighbours had a very loud alarm that went off at 4 am every day right next to my toddler's bedroom. It drove us all insane.

We had the same issue and frankly needed to get a sleep consultant to sort it. Also early riding is the hardest and longest lasting of baby sleep problems to resolve. Ie expect to implement a sleep plan for a month and really stick to it to see results. Try stretching him to his old nap time, if he's really falling apart, allow him a 15 min cat nap somewhere in between, don't let him have TOO long of a proper nap to compensate for early rising (no longer than he used to nap). Make sure he goes to bed at a decent time, ie not too late, and when he wakes at 5:30, don't get him up till 7, keep going into his room to settle him till you are ready to get him up for the day.

This is the short answer, but there are lots of smaller details you need to follow, frankly I'd get a sleep consultant (ours was about £140 for a sleep plan), and it will be sorted.

Good luck.

2 of mu noys were like this. 5am and up!. DH and I took turns to get up. Get a cup of tea and go downstairs and watch Lion King (oldest), Fox and the Hound (youngest) snuggled on the sofa. I could doze of at least still rest and although they were awake they wouldn't be running around.

Then we would "get up" as in get ready for work, nursery etc at normal time. It was hard going but you will get through it.

Google wake to sleep method, sounds crazy but worked repeatedly with my DD when she was young.

@Lmama I thought this too but weirdly it does sometimes work, especially as it sounds like he's not fully rested when he wakes up so he obviously needs more sleep than he's getting. An earlier bedtime coupled with a switch in nap routine might help to resolve the overtiredness. It really is a tricky phase though, I went down a Google spiral about it all