3 year old... EWings, taking ages to fall asleep, what to do?

[momma.bear]

My 36 month old has decided all of a sudden that she needs a lot less sleep. Our routine used to look like this:

6:30/7am wake up
1:00-3:00/3:30 nap
7pm BT (sometimes took up to an hour to fall asleep, depending on length of nap)

Now it looks like this:
5:45/6am wake up
12:30-2:00 nap
7pm BT (falls asleep around 8pm)
I've read that 3 year olds need 12 hours of sleep, usually 10.75 at night and 1.25 at nap time. My DD has always been high sleep needs, and didn't transition to one nap a day until she was 21 months old.
I'm hoping I don't have to get rid of her naps, or cap them, as she's miserable when I have to wake her up, and it'd be very difficult to go to no naps when she's waking so early. (Also don't like having to be home by 7pm for BT which would happen if I cut her naps.
Anyone else been here? Would love some advice!

[Sarsheep]

I don't know the answer, but her day looks quite short with that long a nap, if you want to keep the long nap, you'll probably need a longer day to compensate?? xx

[Mom-of-boys]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news , but just before 3 my DS1 started refusing his nap, and now at 3 is currently waking at 6:00 am and in bed by 6:30 pm, no nap.... I tried holding on to nap so long, but eventually it was 9:00 pm before he fell asleep, so I gave up.

[Buttonbobs]

I agree this is the start of the nap dropping, but it's not an immediate thing. My DD (now 2.5yrs) has been having later and later naps (most recently from 2.30-4.30) and they have become so late that if she naps she won't sleep until nearly 10pm.

I would probably shift then so back to 1pm at the earliest, possibly later, to help bring those WUs later again. Then dap the nap at 2 hours and if necessary move BT later too.

There is probably some developmental stuff going on too, this seems to happen on birthdays and half birthdays for quite some time.

What do you think?

[momma.bear]

yeah, i agree her naps should be a little later. the reason they've been happening at 12:30 is because my 20 month old DS has been waking up at 5:30 and needs to go down by 12ish, and if I put DD to bed too late for her pm nap, then I have no time for myself. selfish, i know! i guess i need to fix my DS first!!

[Buttonbobs]

Well it certainly is a choice you can make - but to be honest if you're going to keep the nap for your DD at that time you will need to expect EWs from her too - and in order to prevent OT you'll need to shift her whole day earlier by using earlier BT too. It would seem better to me to work on DS's EWs and keep DD on a routine that works for her.

[momma.bear]

Ok, so if DD wakes up around 6am, would 1pm be a good nap time?

[Buttonbobs]

I would say so, and perhaps fix it at 1pm unless you get a later WU.

[momma.bear]

if WU is 6:30 or even 7, would you then do a 1:30 nap?

[Buttonbobs]

Not straight away, I would stick to 1pm for a few days but yes if my DD didn't seem tired I would go later, just not earlier.