A couple weeks ago I posted about my 2 yo's sleep problems of very early wake ups resulting in two naps a day (and then another ealry wake up, and so on
). Just wanted to update on our success in case it gives others some ideas.
Most people on that thread advised holding out for one nap and moving it forward (as well as bedtime). That didn't work at all. I still was only having 1-1.5 hour naps, early bedtimes and early wake ups. After reading more threads on here, I discovered others who had moved the naps BACK and found their LOs simply needed more A time before the afternoon nap. I also read info that around age 2-3, kids will start sleeping in later to adjust for a later bedtime (whereas it caused earlier wake ups as babies -- which was always our case). I also read that average sleep for a 2 yo is 13 hours, we were only at 12. Asher has always been on the high end of normal for sleep, so I figured 12 wasn't enough for him, despite being "happy".
After a couple days of going back to two naps and then having 8 pm bedtimes (due to the late naps), I managed to move his naptime back to 2 pm over the course of 2-3 more days. I immediately started getting 2 hour naps again (and often 2.5 hours!). He was dog tired and I had to work hard to fill in that extra time after lunch. This made it easy to move his bedtime back to 8 pm, as he typically liked to go to bed 4 hours after he woke from his afternoon nap. He also started sleeping in till 6:30-7:00, close to 7:00 most days! We've been doing this for over a week!! Naps have been solid since starting this, two of which were even at my parents' houses! We've had a couple early wake ups still, around 6:15, but nothing compared to the 5-5:30 wake ups of the past 2 months! I still occasionally hear him wake after 1.5 hr of his nap, but he goes right back to sleep for another 45-90 minutes. I also hear him sometimes during his habitual 5:50 am wake time of the past, but he has been going right back to sleep until closer to 7 am -- and this is despite his room getting light!
Hope that gives some ideas and HOPE to others!
