fix this sleep schedule

[Anonymous]

Congrats, you got a kid who doesn't do what the internet/books say she should. I had one of those too. I would cut one nap and gradually move it later, to your preferred time.

[Anonymous]

Hi all, OP here. We've successfully (?) moved to one nap a day, but the wake time has not changed. She is awake early (4:45am) and loud. Now her first stretch until nap is even longer and I think that remains the issue. She takes a great nap, average just under 3 hours, mid-day, which means she is up before 3pm and is usually exhausted and falls asleep easily at 7pm. So the schedule is all off because she is up before the crack of dawn, but doesn't nap for about 7 hours, then solid middle of the day nap, and then up for four hours before bedtime. Keeping her up until 8 hasn't helped fix the early morning wakes, and just seems to extend the evening crankiness. But her night time sleep seems to be less restorative, and she cries out (briefly, thank goodness) several times a night and then is up before the sun every day. I've tried feeding her and putting her back down (major fail. happy to have milk, but refuses going back to sleep), but for the last month or so I've just been letting her hang out in her crib until as close to 6am as possible (she is usually ready to throw a fit by 5:30). How do I shift the nap so that she sleeps later in the morning? What's the right time to put her down? and then when should bedtime be?

I feel like this is going to be an adjustment process but her early wakes have been an issue for so long I don't know if we're talking about a two week shift or waiting until she is in grade school until we sleep in a bit again!

[Anonymous]

Tbh, OP, in your situation, I would adjust my own sleep schedule to go to bed whenever you need to in order to be ready to start your day at 5:30. I find adjusting my own sleep schedule easier than my kids. But I'm naturally a morning person so YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, OP here. We've successfully (?) moved to one nap a day, but the wake time has not changed. She is awake early (4:45am) and loud. Now her first stretch until nap is even longer and I think that remains the issue. She takes a great nap, average just under 3 hours, mid-day, which means she is up before 3pm and is usually exhausted and falls asleep easily at 7pm. So the schedule is all off because she is up before the crack of dawn, but doesn't nap for about 7 hours, then solid middle of the day nap, and then up for four hours before bedtime. Keeping her up until 8 hasn't helped fix the early morning wakes, and just seems to extend the evening crankiness. But her night time sleep seems to be less restorative, and she cries out (briefly, thank goodness) several times a night and then is up before the sun every day. I've tried feeding her and putting her back down (major fail. happy to have milk, but refuses going back to sleep), but for the last month or so I've just been letting her hang out in her crib until as close to 6am as possible (she is usually ready to throw a fit by 5:30). How do I shift the nap so that she sleeps later in the morning? What's the right time to put her down? and then when should bedtime be?

I feel like this is going to be an adjustment process but her early wakes have been an issue for so long I don't know if we're talking about a two week shift or waiting until she is in grade school until we sleep in a bit again!

You should have made a new post. Expect a lot of replies to your OG post. I'm surprised that 1 nap works, although 3 hours is pretty long. Would you be able to wake her up at 2.5 hours and get it down to 2 hours?

[Anonymous]

Nurse her back to sleep. My son couldn’t make it a full 11 or 12 hours like that until more like 15 months. I used to nurse him at 5 and then hold him and we would both doze together until 7. I did this on a mattress on the floor. I was tired but the phase ended and now I sometimes miss holding him.

[Anonymous]

I had to force a 9pm bedtime to stop early waking. She went through phases where she tried to walk it back 15 minutes every morning.