Please help! My 15 month old waking between 5-5:45 absolutely inconsolable and won’t calm down for an hour

[MinnieMummy1]

Just to give you background from 15 weeks to 1 years old my DS slept 7pm to 7am. As soon as he turned 1 the sleep got a bit trickier and he would intermittently have a few early wakes. However for the last 4 weeks he has without fail woken up around 5:30 am hysterically crying and screaming and he won’t stop even if I get him out the cot. I’ve tried milk or a snack (desperate) or Calpol or neurofen and nothing works just screams like he is in pain. He only stops if we go downstairs and start the day. I just want some advice because he was such an amazing sleeper for so long! Is this the new normal and he is an early riser or is this a phase and there is something I can do.

p.s I was transitioning from 2 to 1 naps as some days he just wasn’t tired for the morning nap anymore but since the early wakes I’ve had to re introduce the morning nap as he won’t last until lunch time.

Any advice is greatly appreciated 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

i Think early wakes are a sign of over tiredness, so perhaps not ready for 1 nap yet or the one nap isn’t long enough.

my eldest DD still had 2 naps until 18 months.

2-1 naps is the hardest transition takes ages x

The only reason I did it was because he spent the whole nap window just jumping up and down in his cot 😂😂😂 but we are back on two naps and he sleeps around 2 hours in the day in total so I just don’t know how to fix that then

We just started the day then. Cbeebies on while I dozed on the sofa and came to. Often used to be worse before changing the clocks.

An early nap is a little treat for an early wake up. If he knows that he’s going to get a nap, he can get up earlier than if he has to push through - albeit not a conscious thought process!

I think at 15 months you move to setting a routine by the clock rather than being baby led, so if you want a 7 am wake up in the morning, his nap should start between 10/11am if on 2 naps. I’d cap naps at 1.5 hours. Second nap at around 3pm.

If you did a nap at 3pm for 1.5 hours would they still be tired for bedtime at 7?
I was under the impression they need to build up sleep pressure 🙈

Yes and when they aren’t tired, it’s time to trim it back and consolidate it but 3 hours of daytime sleep is fine if they’ll do it. Babies sleep better when they’re not overtired - a lot easier said than done.

A long time ago (she's now 18 😂) but I remember when Dd1 started waking at 5am, I read about resetting her sleep clock. So, for a few days, we'd creep in to her room at 4am, barely wake her, then resettle her quickly back to sleep. It worked! Within 3-4 days she was sleeping through until 7am again. Was hard getting up myself at 4am, especially when I wasn't sure if it would work, but thankfully did for us, might be worth a try? I think it was called the 'wake to sleep' method.

Hi OP, can I ask if anything worked in the end? We are in the same boat (sometimes even 4/4.30) and am yet to hear of anything that worked! Thanks x