22 month olds early waking

[twinmama2]

My boys are 22 months old.  They have often been early risers, and we always left them in their cribs if they were up before 6am.  They would usually look at books, talk to each other or fall back asleep. However, in the last week or so they have figured out how to climb out of their cribs so when they wake up early they run out of their room and start playing.  We've also had a new baby in the last week so their whole world is changing quite a bit right now.  They've been up between 5:00 and 5:30 pretty consistently lately.  Then, by lunch time they're falling asleep at the table or so tired that they start having meltdowns. We're going to try moving nap and bedtime up just a bit to help fight some of the over tiredness. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to teach them to stay in their beds until a more reasonable time - or even better, how to train them to sleep in later and get the rest they need??

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

How does their day look in regards to the time of naps and bedtime? Would a gate at the door stop them escaping the room at least? Tbh we have kept DD3 in a sleep sack for just this reason, so she cannot lift her leg high enough to escape (though jokes on me as she seems to have figured out the zipper!).

[twinmama2]

They usually nap around 12:00 or 12:30 and sleep for about 90 minutes.  Then bedtime is around 7:00 or 7:15. 

Although yesterday we tried to put them down earlier for nap because of the early wake up and they ended up fighting it for an hour and having a terribly short, overtired nap.  So we then moved bedtime up to 6:30 which they went down fine for...but they were up at 4:00 this morning!  We tried and tried to get them back to sleep and they eventually did, but it was short lived and they were up after only about 45 more minutes of sleep at 6:15.

I'm also wondering if they'd be ready for big beds. I wasn't planning on transitioning them out of their cribs until much later, but I don't know if it's safe to have them climbing in and out of cribs so much.  I hesitate too because of the new baby - they've had a lot of changes to adjust to lately and I'm not sure it'd be wise to add another one right now. 

Has anyone ever used something like the Gro Clock?  I've heard really good things about it but I'm not sure my boys are old enough to understand it yet. 

Thanks for any suggestions!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I have not used a gro clock (have not had the need so far but tempted to get one for DD3!) but it might work if you are consistent with it. If they can climb out it probably is best to transition to beds - do their cribs convert to toddler beds?

Just wondering if they have always been on the lower end for sleep or if that is something new?

[twinmama2]

They have always been on the lower end of sleep needs. But they are also very sensitive to OT, so I feel like we are always walking a fine line between OT and UT with them.  Do you think the early wake ups might be because we're putting them to bed too early? I always have a hard time figuring out if our sleep problems are due to OT or UT. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yes that does make it tough. My DD3 is lsn too, she is 25 months but not prone to OT really. We actually were on a 30/45 min nap by that age and then dropped it just a couple of months ago...we do bedtime of 8 pm with a 7 am wake most days. She kind of maxes out on 11/11.5 hrs of sleep in 24. Are they pretty done in by their current bedtime? Do you think maybe the nap could be capped a wee bit?