Ready to drop the nap or overtired?!?!?

[VickyB20]

Hiya!

My 26 month old daughter has always been an absolute dream sleeper.  However, just recently, she's started really resisting her pm nap and waking at 5am.   

She wakes perfectly happily and wants to start the day.  I try WI/WO but she just bangs on her door or comes into our room every 5 or 10 minutes.  (I worry about her waking up her brothers too.)

With the afternoon nap, she will sometimes sleep - up to 3 hours or more, if I leave her be.  But other days she will just play for an hour and a half in her room and then start shouting for me to go and get her.  I have just started waking her up from her nap at 3:30 (she goes down between 1:30 and 2) with the thought that perhaps she's just getting too much sleep.

Bedtime is 7:30, or half an hour either way.  I know that she's not getting enough sleep is she's up at 5 with an hour and a half nap and wonder if she would actually get more sleep if we ditched the nap and hoped that she slept later in the morning IYKWIM.

I really don't know what to do!  When my boys were waking early, it became clear after a time that actually the problem was over-tiredness so that's also on my mind.  So how do I know if she's overtired or getting too much sleep?!?

Thanks.
Vicky
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[Layla]

Hey Vicky....

What time is the afternoon nap? Around this age they do start to mess around with naps so what I would try & do is introduce quiet time. Put her in the cot/bed around nap time (I would try around noon), give her some books to read if she wants & leave her there for about an hour. If she's not asleep say by 1.30pm then take her out & do an earlier bedtime

I actually think her waking up at 5am is a sign of overtiredness & not enough sleep rather than too much. On the days that Isabella does not nap I do bedtime at 6pm & she will sleep a full 12hrs (if not a little more sometimes). She too has been playing around with naps & probably takes one on av of 4/7 days .

So on the day she's not napping I would try for bedtime earlier than 7.30pm... maybe try 6.30pm, especially if she's been up since 5am

hth & let me know how you go
Layla

[VickyB20]

Thanks Layla.  I got her down earlier today (although she slept till 6am this morning, which was an improvement) so we'll see what happens.

I think you're right - I think it's more likely to be over-tiredness.  Since her brothers were born, I've been less able to respond to her cues and have often had to delay nap or bedtime due to their needs, rather than hers.

Normally naptime is at 1:30 because she's at nursery on Tues and Weds and I don't pick her up till 1.  I'll experiment with getting her down earlier on other days, although it might be tricky because the boys don't go down to 1:30 and I can't see how I can get her down if they're up IYKWIM.

Thanks for your advice.  How old is your Isabella?

Vicky
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[Layla]

Isabella is 2yrs 7 months