14 mo waking at 5am on the dot

[Thefaceofboe]

A posted on here a month or so ago with my success with sleep training, my little girl went from being rocked to sleep and waking every hour, to going down sleepy and sleeping a solid 12/13 hours. Shortly after the clocks went back, she’s started waking at 5am or 5.15am on the dot, regardless of bed time, naps etc.

She was doing typical 7pm - 7am before so even with the clocks going back an hour, 5am makes no sense. We’ve started putting the heating on a timer for 4am incase she’s getting cold but that hasn’t helped.

any tips? Her typical nap routine is 10ish and 3ish for around 45 mins each time, but this can vary. It’s hard to control her naps too much during the week as she in nursery 5 days a week

Posting this as she was up at 4am today and after almost an hour and trying to settle her back, I gave up and came downstairs. She did go to bed at 6.30pm last night so I was expecting an earlier wake up but not this early 😴

I was wondering if yiu could change your bedtime so you are ready to be awake at this time? Or just because she's awake,does that means he has to be attended to immediately? Can't she lie quietly for an hour?

She might be ready to drop the first nap. Yoi could try dropping the morning nap and bringing her lunch nap earlier. My DD dropped that morning nap at around 14 months

Our Daughter did the same at that age, when we dropped down to one nap she went back to sleeping until 7/7:30. Just ask nursery to adjust her naps and try a later, longer one x

Shorten the second nap. Then drop it and move the first one later.

Also make sure she doesn't nap after say 3.30pm.

Talk to the nursery about their nap routine.

Some toddlers don't need any naps around the age of 2.

Firstly, she doesn’t lie quietly she screams as soon as she wakes up, always has.

With naps she won’t be able to drop go 1, she’s up so early she can’t make it any longer than 4/5 hours wake window, which is usually around 10am and then will only nap for max an hour. That means shed be doing 8 hours between her nap and bedtime. There was 1 day when they couldn’t get her to sleep in the afternoon and she was horrendous at bedtime and up all night (over tired)

i personally don’t think 1hr and a half for a 14 month is too much sleep, if anything not enough as she’s so grumpy most the time 😥

So if she woke at 4am today, what would her ideal naps be? I’ve heard if they have their nap too early it promotes more early starts

You might find if she drops to one, it's extremely long. Mine went down to one around that age but it was 2.5-3 hours. It's not smooth sailing stretching them round to that first nap but it was worth it for us.

@Kitcaterpillar I’d happily drop to one nap, but because of the early wake ups i don’t see how it’s possible, and would be hysterical and I don’t think it’s fair on her. Wake up is 5am and bedtime would be 7pm (can’t be any earlier as we don’t get home till 6.30pm)

There’s been a couple of times where she’s done 5am - 12pm and she still only slept 45 minutes. She would sleep for longer at home but it’s too noisy at nursery

It's always suggested one nap on here but it's easier said than done, and it doesn't always help. No point stretching her to the point of being so over tired this affects her sleep too. 2 short naps seem fine for her age.

Maybe just a phase and she'll get out of it soon

What do you do with her when she wakes? Mine used to be willing to come into bed with me and snuggle and chat for a bit so the first 90 minutes or so she wasn't using much energy and I found I could stretch that wake window. Nursery used whatever wizardry they use to get her round to 11. That's pretty much how we got there and she slept on the noisy nursery floor like they do.

Also, this might be stupid but, it's not your heating clicking on waking her, is it? Like an audible 'time to start the day' sound.

No, I agree. I'm a massive fan of naps so whatever works! And it only meant stretching mine an hour so was quite easy.

My only other suggestion was going to be that she'll just stop again in a couple of weeks.

@Kitcaterpillar my dd is such a light sleeper, sleeping at nursery has always been a nightmare.

nope, we have only started to put the heating on the past 2 mornings to see if being cold was waking her up. She’s dressed appropriately so I didn’t think it would be but anything’s worth a try.

i usually leave her for a bit, try and settle her in her cot, then try cuddling/rocking, then in our bed but she just seems wide awake but she gets tired after an hour or 2

Could you please tag your post about the sleep training? I am cracking up. 14mo up at 5am every morning after waking every hour during the night. I need help and sleep!!!!!

this was my previous thread. Sleep training her was the best thing we (reluctantly) ever did

www.mumsnet.com/talk/sleep/4648961-1-year-olds-sleep-sos

Definitely drop to one nap. I know what you're saying about not knowing how you'll make it work because of the early wake ups, but you just have to take the hit off a few days while LO adjusts. Lots of distractions and snacks and eek them out until 11am and do 11-1. Then push to 12-2. I never let mine sleep past 3. We dropped to 1 nap at 11 months as LO started refusing her afternoon nap.

She needs a 30 min nap between 9:30 and 10:00am and then 2 hours between 12:30 and 14:30

I think soon your little one might be ready for one nap but perhaps not quite yet. I think either way 90mins is quite a short sleep total day sleep for her age? My 2yo sleeps more than this now (in 1 nap).
Can you try to get her to sleep a bit longer?
A tip we had which worked to encourage later sleeping: rouse to sleep - gently disturb her sleep 30mins or so before she’d normally wake in the hope of starting another sleep cycle which lasts longer and breaks the wake habit? You could try this for naps and in the morning.

I appreciate everyone saying she needs one nap but it’s really not that simple when she’s at nursery, they can only do so much and have other babies to look after. She gets so hysterical by around 10.30 they have no choice but to put her to bed 😫

I can get her to have longer naps at home, but not sure what else to do with short naps at nursery. Even if she only has 25 mins for her first nap which she does sometimes, she will still only have 45 mins for her second one.

shes already so upset because she’s so tired from being up at 4

A lot of these posts are sounding so patronising. OP has said her baby won't sleep for more than 45 minutes at nursery, so saying she needs a 2 hour nap in the afternoon isn't helpful. Some babies just don't nap for long, especially in a loud environment.

Yep, I KNOW she needs to sleep longer, but I’m not a wizard. It’s out of my control especially when she’s at nursery

Also the waking at 5 is a new thing, her naps have never seemed to affect her wake up time before now.

Later bedtime?
If my 2 year old napped at all in the afternoon after 12 months he wasn’t ready for bed until 9pm

Now most days he has no nap, and bedtime is 8pm earliest. Wakes 6.30-7am usually

May not be helpful, and certainly not practical advice, but my DD woke at 5am from about that age until she was 4-5 years old. Then gradually slept a bit later, but has always been an early riser. Now 13, rarely sleeps past 7am naturally.

I tried loads of things and it just tormented me until I accepted it. If she's tired during the day I realise that's a different issue, though. Mine would only have short naps too, like she never wanted to miss out.

People are just trying to help 🤷🏼‍♀️