How to fix EWings with 26 month old... and do gro clocks really work?

[momma.bear]

My DS is 26 months old. He's been having EWings on and off since he was 1. The past few days he's been up just before 5am. I just don't know what to do. His EASY looks like this:

5-5:30am - wake up (was 6/6:30 a week or so ago)
1-3pm - nap
7:30 bed time

I've heard so many stories of gro clocks. I just don't know if he'd really catch on, or if he'd even pay attention to it. And they are very expensive. I know people have done night lights with timers on them as well, which is the same thing. Just looking for tips and suggestions, as I can't take these early mornings anymore.

[lauradj]

Have you recently gone through day light savings?  Could he be ready to drop his day time nap or maybe cap it at 1.5hrs?  Does he recognize numbers?  I ask because one of my girlfriends took a digital clock, covered up the minutes side and left the hour visible.  She told her DD that when she saw a 7 in the hour spot, she could come out of her room and go get Mommy and Daddy.  It took a week for her to get it and then they were good.  That's an option if you don't want to buy a Groclock.  Otherwise, there's always Santa!

[anna*]

My son never woke later than 5.30am from 10 months to 23 months, then we got a Groclock. We had a few rough mornings where he was getting to know we really did mean business with the clock, and within a few days he was going back to sleep at 5.30am and very quickly started sleeping til 7 or even later. My daughter, we never really had to introduce it as such because she has always shared a room with her brother and the clock has already been in use. But since 19 months she has known she has to wait for the sunshine before she can call us to get out of bed.

I remember telling friends at the time, if I knew how well it would work, I would have paid £200 for it, I was so tired. It's not for everyone and its not necessarily an easy fix and you do have to be completely consistent in how you use it, but it CAN work amazingly well. Unfortunately as everything there's no guarantees.

[creations]

Maybe a later nap and later BT to bring the whole day around. For a good while before we dropped the nap mine was happily doing
WU 6/6.30
nap 2-4
BT 8pm
His nights were always on the short side, 10.5hrs to 11hrs was normal for him, towards nap drop we accepted 10hr nights as he was well rested, napping well, happy etc. It's not a suitable routine for everyone but looks like it something similar might be workable for your LO for a period on the journey towards nap drop (maybe 1.30-3.30 nap with 8pm BT?)  After many months we did get shorter nights again but that was in the run up to actually stopping naps.

We use lights on a timer. Yes much cheaper and IMO the same effect as the gro clock. I actually just tried it as a quick/easy trial before paying out for a gro clock but then it worked so well I decided not to get the gro clock after all. What I like about the lights for us is that DS's room is very dark so the lights coming on make it clearly 'morning' and he gets a book from by his bed, reads for 20 mins before we get up. In the early days of course I had to go in to him and tell him it was still night, just the same as the gro clock method - you really do have to reinforce it. But once he got it I luxuriated in a later WU and an additional 20 mins lazing in bed whilst he read! Result!

[momma.bear]

Thanks for the advice everyone. We did have a time change 4 weeks ago. Prior to the time change, he was waking up at 5/5:30am. Then after the time change he was sleeping till 6/6:15am. But about a week ago he started to wake up early again. It's been 5/5:30am most of the week, although this morning he slept until 5:45.
This evening he was exhausted. We lost power for an hour, and around 7:15 he was lying on my lap with his hands covering his eyes. He was definitely tired. I just don't think he can make it until 8pm. Perhaps he's OT and can't catch up?
How long do other 2 year olds sleep? DS is getting 12 hrs. Which is the same as my 3.5 year old DD.
DH is going to look for a timer for me tomorrow

[creations]

How long do other 2 year olds sleep? DS is getting 12 hrs.

I would say this is is well within the normal range.  2yos are all very different, some do a 12hr night plus a nap, other it's more like 12 hrs (or even a bit less) total in 24hrs.
A combination of slightly later nap and BT plus the gro clock or timer could be very successful for you. FX

[anna*]

At this age my daughter was doing 13 hrs but it was all in one chunk, she had stopped napping in the daytime.