14 month old early waking - can we break the habit?

[Shefliesonherownwings]

DS is almost 14 months. He’s never been the best sleeper but we are very grateful that he does now sleep through and self settles. However he is waking every morning between 5-5:30, we even had one 4:30 and I’m concerned he’s not getting enough sleep.

He has two naps, first around 9:30 for an hour and second around 2:30 for an hour. He goes to nursery 3 days a week and they follow the same schedule. He eats really well at home and nursery so I don’t think it’s hunger. We also have white noise and a black out blind so I doubt it’s the environment either.

He has had a cough for months and we’ve been to the doctor a few times but they’ve assured us it’s nothing to worry about. However the cough started waking him up around 5am and he couldn’t get back to sleep. Now I think it’s become a habit for him to wake early. He goes to bed around 7 and is asleep by 7:30 but I just don’t think he’s getting enough sleep overall although he seems pretty happy in the day. We did have one day where he woke at 7:30 so we tried one nap that day and it made no difference.
Anyone know how we can break this habit and getting him sleeping longer? Even just to 6am would be an improvement.

In my experience, nothing I ever did to try and get my early waker to sleep later made any difference! I'd say that first nap needs to go though.

Try dropping the first nap and having a longer nap in the middle of the day eg 12.30-2.30

Most babies drop to one nap around 18 months yours may be a little earlier

My best advice is be married / partnered with someone who doesn't mind getting up early!

The main thing that helped with our early water was a nappy change about 10.30pm when I’m going to bed, as by 5am his nappy was full and that was walking him. If I do a gentle sleepy nappy change he usually sleeps till 7. I’d try this first.

Also do you get him up when he wakes early? I’d try to avoid that and leave him in his cot till a more reasonable time unless he is very upset.

after that, I’d drop the first nap, he might be using it to catch up on the sleep he is missing overnight.

I agree about dropping the first nap but because he wakes so early I just don’t think he’d last until 12-12:30 for a nap. But I definitely think that could help if I could figure out how to do it.

@Perfect28 thankfully DH and I share the early mornings and each get a lie in at the weekend.

@Bet1439h his nappy is fine, not too full in the mornings so I don’t think that would help. When he wakes I leave him for a bit in the vain hope he’ll go back off but he never does. He lies there playing with his comforter. When he starts getting upset we tend to go in and give him his milk or bring him down for milk if it’s post 6am. This morning we just had a cuddle in his room before I brought him down. I try not to stimulate him much before 6am.

It might just be summer. It's crazy, DS1 is 5 now and has slept through from 16 months, but irrespective of his blacked out room he still shifts to a 6am wake up in the summer.

When we were in the nap transition phase we cut the first nap down to 30 minutes, might be worth trying as a half way house?

It’s a stage, and it does get better, although if they’re a naturally early riser, probably only to 5:30/6.

It’s likely nothing will change it, so it’s just adapting life to it a bit. It changes in time.

It’s the typical age to drop a nap, so I reckon it’s that.

Thanks all, I appreciate the views. I’ll try and tweak the naps, maybe shortening the morning one as suggested first and see if that helps. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to hope it’s a phase and if not, get used to it lol.

Yeah, that first nap needs to go. You don't need to jump straight to 12:30 though, like you say it too long to last if he's waking up so early. Just push it back bit by bit. So if he normally goes down at 09:30, try to keep him up until 10 for a few days, then 10:30, etc. My now 2 year old was an awful sleeper and went though a horrible phase of early wake ups. 5-5:30 is an awful time to get up. I tried loads, mostly to no avail, but I did find the earlier the first nap, the earlier he woke. Pushing it later was the only thing I ever found any success with. He mostly sleeps though the night now, and the earliest he wakes up is 6ish. It gets better x