Hello all, my DD has been a short sleeper since she was born. She is now 14.5 mo and sleeps in total 11.5-12hr a day. That is, 1.5hr nap+9.5-10hr night, or 2hr nap+9-9.5hr night. She is usually a 1.5 hr napper (1hr20min seems to be her natural cycle). We tried different schedule, but never got over 12hr sleep a day total.
I have been trying to transit her from 2 naps to 1, but it's really difficult mainly due to 2 things. First, she sleeps only 11.5 hrs means she has more than 12 hrs awake...yet seems she cannot hold the extended A time yet. Though she could play fine and keep awake for 6 or even 7 hrs, she would have NW or nap wakings under those A time. I suspect it's OT. Second, she wakes too early -- 5 am average, sometimes 4:30, and 5:30 would be a surprise. With this WU time, I'll have to put her to nap no later than 11 am, then 1.5 hr nap, and bedtime before 7pm -- which means another 5am or 4:30am WU (she only sleeps 10hr at most at night). Seems an unbreakable cycle.
So I'd really love to have some suggestions on how to tackle the EW, and whether (and how) to transit her to 1 nap.
She just recovered from roseola so the schedule in last few days are irregular. Before roseola, a typical day could be:
4:50 WU
5:30 milk
6:30 breakfast
9:00 snack
around 10:45 nap 1.5 hr till around 12.20
12:50 lunch
3:00 snack
5:00 dinner
6:15 bath, milk, bedtime routine
6:45 asleep
Before consulting here, I was offered two suggestions. First, stick to a fixed schedule, say, 11am nap, 7 am bedtime, no matter when she wakes up in the morning and no matter how tired she might be, just stick to the clock and see if she can adjust it naturally. Second suggestion is that I should offer 2 naps, 1 catnap in the morning (30 or 40 min cap), and 1 nap around 1:30pm so I can push bedtime to 8pm, then gradually cut the length of morning catnap to see if she can sleep later in the morning naturally. I tried the 1st suggestion several days before her roseola, nothing really changed yet, and sometimes NW, not sure how long should I continue.
Last night she stirred at 2:40am and not fully settled untill 4:20am. Yet she woke up at 5:10am and cried for play! It has become a habitual EW. She can cry for hours if let her in her crib. We share room (no extra room sorry) so I have to take her out so my DH could get more sleep before going to work.
Thanks for any advice!!!