3 yo tosses and turns for hrs before sleep!

[1stimer]

DS was an independent sleeper very early on. I remeber at 4 weeks he was fussy and wouldn't settle so I laid him in his crib and he went right to sleep.
Welp that's no more! We had started hearing him in his crib maybe a year ago (he's three so, 2 then) 2 hrs after we thought he was asleep. He would be laughing or whatnot. You could just hear him rustling about. He transitioned to a big bed maybe 6 weeks ago because he started screaming at bedtime wanting to sleep in the other bed in DD room. Now that we are more aware of him, we notice it takes him quite a long time to fall asleep most nights. I'm not sure what to do. He still gets a nap at school but it's a new school and we are still working out communication issues so I'm not sure how those are going. At his daycare he would usually nap but they would often mention it taking him a while to sleep. On weekends we try for naps becuase he will end up overtired and thus have a hard time sleeping ( our problem tonight) however, sometimes we abandon the nap bc it's taking him so long to sleep. I feel like I'm in New territory. With DD it was so hard sleep training her...literally took years but by the time she was 3 and in her big bed, she knew bed time and she got in bed and that was that. We occasionally had a rough night but I'm dreading bedtime with ds. It's a fight to get him there first, and then I feel like my anxiety just builds and builds until I know he's asleep. I'm counting the minutes he has until he has to wake up. I need another person's perspective...another set of eyes. What can I do, what am I maybe Missing??

[ginger428]

Hi 1sttimer! Can you write out his full EAS? Thanks!

[1stimer]

Up at 7/715- sometimes earlier if he's up on his own
Breakfast 720
Lunch 11
Nap falls around 1145 at school and they are up by 145 at the latest
Dinner 545
Play until bath around 630/645
Bed 730- sometimes earlier if we notice he's tired
We check on him every so often, no video monitor so he's almost always asleep by 9 but we have had him stay up until 915. I think he generally falls asleep by 830.

[ginger428]

At 3 yo, his nap time is quite early.  I think most parents on here have said their 3yo toddler is taking a nap between 1-2pm, with about 6-7 hrs of awake/activity time before naps. My DS who is 3.5, is napping a couple times a week and it's no earlier than 1:30/2pm.

DS might be compensating for too much day sleep before bedtime. He needs about 11-12 hrs of awake/activity time.. currently he's getting 10 or less.  I hope communications are going well with the school and if at the very least, give him some books to read until 12:30 or so, then clock to see when he falls asleep. It's great they'll wake them at 1:45. But with needing about 6 hrs of awake time, especially after a 2 hr nap, DS is likely undertired for bedtime at 7:30.

At the very least you can push BT to 8:00, and try to have him do as much physical activity before dinner as possible. Eventually, that early of a nap time could cause a shift in his wake up time as well as he his sleep needs drop.

What do you think?

[1stimer]

We moved his BT to 8 most nights and it seems to have helped. I think he's trying to drop his nap. DD didn't nap at his age. Judging by how naps go at home I'm not sure naps are going well at school. I have a message in to his teacher to touch base. Pushing bt to 8 seems to have helped a bit, but they both just seem so tired in the mornings....but that's pretty standard for us all isnt it lol?

[ginger428]

Haha yes it is.

How has it been going? Expected him to be a little tiredat the beginning of the later BT but hopefully he'll adjust well.