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

@Mamoun I can speak to nursery about stretching it as long as possible, but they often just say we tried our best. They said she gets hysterical there and will fall asleep on the floor, then refuse her lunch 😢

there was 1 day where they stretched her till after lunch and she still slept under an hour and was horrendously overtired. The problem there is she often gets woken up by other crying babies etc, it’s a big nursery room.

we can easily manage one nap at home, but not nursery which is the annoying part as she’s there 5 days.

I’ll have a read of that, thank you

No real advice op but massive solidarity - my DD started doing this in the second week of lockdown when she was 16 months old. I recently found a selfie id taken with her on my phone at 4.30am and we both look like zombies 😐🤣.

Obviously it was a different situation for us as she was at home and not nursery, but as far as I can remember it was just a weird phase and she stopped after around 3 weeks.

We battled through with 2 naps as there was no way she’d have made it through the day with just the one. After a few weeks it settled and we did manage to get her down to one 2 -hour nap after lunch. Maybe she’s in that transitional period?

Sending solidarity!!

Just to add DD was also a terrible sleeper at nursery when she was in the baby room so I sympathise with that as well.

Typically, once she turned 2 and moved up to the toddler room she started napping for 2 hours in the afternoon - just as we wanted them to limit her nap as it was interfering with bedtime 😫

@MindatWork ha! I found a daft video the other day from the early days at 3am of my dd shaking a mascara and me looking like pure shit 😆

its hard because I feel like her naps are out of my control when she’s at nursery, I can obviously speak to them about it but then they’re the ones who have to deal with it

I@MindatWork that should say maraca not mascara

I know its very hard to control what happens at nursery, so I suggest just taking it day by day and working with whatever happens, however on weekends do you think you could try potentially shortening the first nap and seeing if that helps extend the later one? I think if you start seeing it help her second nap lengthen you could then start cutting that nap shorter and shorter and keep an eye on the second nap.

It may honestly help.

Also, I have a great document from a sleep consultant I'd be happy to share if you like.

@Winniethepig yeah on weekends she has had 1 nap a couple of times but admittedly that’s when she was waking at 7am not 4/5am. But it’s a lot easier to do at home.

im going to speak to the nursery this morning and see what they suggest

@Thefaceofboe its really hard when they're on a shitty run with nursery. We're going through it now with our toddler who is dropping her final nap.

They let her nap even though she doesn't need it and it makes our bedtimes absolute hell!

@Winniethepig ah it never gets easier does it there’s always something😄

my little one woke at 6 this morning which I’m happy with and nursery just phoned to say she’s still awake (just!!) and can they put her down for 12 because she’s been upset for a bit now. I’m hoping it’ll be enough to push her for a longer nap

So they managed to stretch her to 12 today just after lunch. She had 35 mins argh 😣

How are they settling her? Is she self settling?

Its hard at nursery because there is always something happening but at home does she go down awake or drowsy?

She self settles at both nursery and at home. They usually just put her in the cot and she’s asleep in a couple of minutes

But she wakes up really upset from her naps (obviously still tired) and they do their best to get her back to sleep

That's brilliant, hopefully its just a case of waiting until she's dropping the morning nap and the nursery can try and get to her have a longer one. By the sounds of it she is getting ready to.

How is this going OP?

@Winniethepig shes on one nap and waking between 4-30 and 5-30 most days. It’s hell. No idea what to do now

My DD did this for ages (probably six months, maybe eight).

We went with it, but we also would go in and lie with her or cuddle and not come out of her room until her nightlight changed colour. It eventually conditioned her to realise the day won't start until the light changes colour. She is older now (2.5) but if she wakes up and sees the light isn't orange she just goes back to sleep. Typically wakes up about 06.30 when it used to be 04.30-05.00. Been this way a while now.

@EnglishRain i try doing that too but my DD is just not a chill toddler and needs to be up asap, and screams until she’s up. I try and persevere but for my sanity to go down with her for a coffee 😂

I wish I could offer advice but my nearly 15 month old has been waking early for about 8 or 9 months. I've tried everything but I guess consistency is key and i've never stuck at trying something for a week to see if it worked as the initial outcome is that things get worse (but maybe they get worse before they get better). I think it has to be down to timings but can't seem to crack it.
We went down to one nap as my baby was fighting naps and having short naps and his naps got longer. I think one nap would force your baby to sleep longer as they'd be so tired (worked for us and didn't take long) but I know you say they can't sleep well at nursery. My baby sleeps 2 hours at nursery, as do most of the other kids so i'm wondering if, and this might sound extreme, but have you thought about changing nurseries? Maybe one with a separate baby sleep room may help (that's what is in our nursery, so he isn't disturbed by other babies playing).
Short naps do often lead to early wakings as they need day sleep to breed good night sleep (apparently, we haven't seen the proof!). In any case, I hope things change for you.