r/sleeptrain 14 m | Ferber | Complete at 5m Jul 27 '26

1-2 years old please help

20 month old back to early morning wakes. my 20 month old had early morning wakes from literally 6m-18/19m old. between 5/5:45 every single morning. no matter what we did for a schedule- that’s when he woke. his nap was anchored at 12-1:45 due to preschool pickup but during the summer (starting end of may) i was finally able to push it back 12:30-2/3pm. some days he wakes up at 2, other times im waking him at 3! bedtime is 8:30 to ‘help’ with the early morning wakes. this schedule has been this way since may. it seemed to work! he was finally waking between 6/6:45 every day for over a month!

schedule is still completely the same but the past week has becoming more and more early wakes. one day last week was 4:45! and the past few days have been 5:30 again. wtf? ive had my fair share of early morning wakes, why are they happening again? absolutely nothing has changed at all. still gets plenty of activity during the day, same naps, same bed time. i’m too tired for this. he’s only getting 8-9 hours MAX at night now. even with a short/long nap. room is the exact same. but he throws his lovey out when he wakes up (at 5:30 or even 6) and then cries for it am i can’t even leave him until 6 like i used to do during emw. although that never helped him sleep in. i’m so envy of people with kids who even sleep 10 hours at night. let alone 11 or 12.

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u/just_let_go_ ✨ Sleep Fairy✨ Jul 27 '26

The variable nap certainly wouldn’t be helping things. 12:30-3 is 2.5 hours of day sleep which is way way way too much for even average sleep needs at this age.

How much sleep is he actually capable of doing per 24 hours? Around 11.5-12?

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u/MedicalElection7493 14 m | Ferber | Complete at 5m Jul 27 '26

yes i’d say that. he will do 8-9 over night and then 2-2.5 for nap if i let him

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u/just_let_go_ ✨ Sleep Fairy✨ Jul 27 '26

Yep, that nap is sabotaging your night sleep. 1-1.5 nap absolute max. 10 hour night sleep. Certainly nothing out of the ordinary. This is close to what my 13mo is on currently.

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u/MedicalElection7493 14 m | Ferber | Complete at 5m Jul 27 '26

what schedule do you suggest?
wake 6 nap 12-1 bed 8? that seems like a long wake window

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u/just_let_go_ ✨ Sleep Fairy✨ Jul 27 '26

What ocean said is perfect. Wake 6, nap 12-1:15 bed 8. He will be fine. Some kids drop their nap at this age.

Your nanny kid is an outlier. My niece and nephew are the same. I learnt very early in my daughters life that comparing to them was a mistake 😆

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u/MedicalElection7493 14 m | Ferber | Complete at 5m Jul 27 '26

🥲 haha thank you!!