HELP!! 2.5yr old, late nights early mornings.

[Maddysmom]

I feel so desperate at this point. My dd is 2.5 yrs old and sleep problems have become worse the last 2mnths. Ever since she moved into a toddler bed.
First off she needs us to be in the room or in her bed with her for bedtime and naps in order to fall asleep. She used to sleep 7:30 till 7, with a 2hr nap. Now she's been going to bed by 7:30 but taking anywhere from 8:30 to 9pm to fall asleep. then she's awake at 5:50am EVERYMORNING.It doesn't matter if she's asleep by 7:30 or 9pm she's up at 5:50 everyday. I usually try to put her down for a nap at 12:30 and let her sleep 1.5 to 2hrs. Most days though it is a struggle to get her to have a nap. During the day she crys alot and has tantrums over silly thiings. She has always been a happy baby, so its been very draining on us.
What do we do? The days she doesn't have a nap she wants to fall asleep at 4pm all on her own. How do I get her to go to bed a bit earlier and sleep a bit later? How do we get her to go to bed at night without such a struggle from her? HELP.... Tracey

[Maks Mommy]

Mak was not a very good sleeper since she was a baby and even if she goes to bed late, she will always wake up at the same time.  It tends to be worse in the summer when it gets bright earlier.  If anyone else can help I'd love to hear about it!!

[imsmum]

With my older dd who is now 5 1/2 we went through something similar--where her naps could be for a couple of hours in the afternoon but sometimes she wouldn't fall asleep until 10.  When she was around 3 (I think--memory getting a bit foggy now)we started limiting her nap to 1 hour is the afternoon.  She was always grumpy when we woke her from her nap but it did help get her down a little earlier in the evening.  Maybe try a nap from 1 until 2 with bedtime hopefully at 8, so even if she wakes at 6 she'll have a 10 hour night.

[Carmela's Mom]

Just recently, we did what the sticky on top says to do.  how to fix the early wakings.  It worked like a charm.  I've tried it in the past with no success but this time it worked.  We were putting my daughter to bed at 7:30 and were lucky if she was asleep by 9:30!  So now we go outside after dinner and she goes to bed at 8:30.  90% of the time she goes straight to bed.  Her nap depends on what we are doing with her brother but is never later than 1:30, usually its around 12:30-1:00.  I try for a 1:00 nap.  And she sleeps 1.5-2.5 hours (never did longer than 1.5 before).  She wakes in the morning now about 7 am  ... she used to be more like 6 a.m.  I'm loving it!

So our day now looks like this:

7 a.m. awake
7:30 breakfast
9:30 snack
12:00 lunch (depends on her brother, sometimes as early as 11:30 and sometimes as late as 12:30)
1:00 -3:00 nap
3:00 snack
5:30 dinner
7:30 bath
8:30 bedtime

It took us about one week to see the results.  So glad I tried.  The latest she falls asleep now is 9:15 (and that's extremely strange, usually by 8:45 -- 9 the latest she is OUT!)

[Poppy & Lily]

Hi,

My DD went through the same thing at around 2.5yrs old, she would be in bed by 7.30pm but would be messing around until 8.30-9pm  she would also be up at 6am and she definatly wasn't getting enough sleep as she was grumpy all day .

What we did was we let her go without a nap one day and that night she was in bed and asleep at 7.30pm and then went through to 7.30am the next day so we figured that maybe it was her way of telling us she was ready to cut her nap out (it also was a huge struggle to get her to nap).

What we do now is if i am coming back from somewhere in the car and she falls asleep i let her have a 30min nap or sometimes in the afternoon she might fall asleep on the sofa and again i let her have a 30min catnap.  It has def done the trick she sleep 12hrs straight now and the tantrums have stopped.

All children are differant some have naps until they are 4 some stop napping much earlier.You could give it a try one day and see what happens if she falls asleep at 4pm let her have a little catnap but not too long as this will affect her bedtime, i find that 30-35mins is long enough to refresh her but not too long to affect her bedtime IYKWIM?

HTH 

[Maddysmom]

Thanks so much for all of your advice. We put her to bed at 7:30 last night and she was asleep at 8:45 And for the 3rd morning in a row she was awake at 6am but sitting in the hallway in the dark So this morning I went and instead of bringing her down stairs, I put her back into bed and told her it wasn't time to get up yet. She didn't make a sound and slept another 45 mins. She has been so good today and no tantrums. So I hope maybe tommorow she will sleep a bit longer. I will definitly try your advice. Crossing my fingers....Tracey   Thanks again everyone

[Maddysmom]

Things seem to be getting worse. If she has a nap or not she's still not falling asleep until 8-8:30pm. Now, she wakes 1-3 times a night and this morning was in our room at 5:20am
We are tired and confused as to whats going on. when she wakes at night its only for a couple mins and usually she's had a bad dream. It seems like she's waking in the am 9.5 hrs from when she goes down. Maybe I will stop her naps for a whole week, and see how she does  
Any suggestions would be wonderful.....Tracey

[kellyann]

Carmela's Mom  which sticky are you refering to?  My boys (26 months) have been waking at 5-530 am for 2 weeks now. I'm desperate for some sleep.  Thanks, Kelly

[Maddysmom]

Hi everyone
Well just an update on maddys situation. Two nights ago I put her to bed at 7:45pm and this time I put the gate on the outside of her bdroom door. For the last 2mnths, since she got a toddler bed, we have been laying down with her until she falls asleep. Otherwise she would run around upstairs.
Anyways, put the gate up at 7:45pm and went downstairs. She would open her door and call for us,  and about 5 different times we went in and layed her back in bed. Finally at 8:20pm it was silent and she went to sleep all on her own
Then yesterday I gave her an hour nap 1-2pm. She went to bed at 7pm (with the gate across her door) and this time only opened the door 3times and was asleep in 15mins.She hasn't done that time in months . PLus....she didn't wake lastnight and she slept until 6:45am!!!!!!
I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with her. The naps are still a bit eratic but at least the bedtime routine is getting easier.
I'll keep you posted on how she does....Tracey

[Poppy & Lily]

Yayyyy really glad things are getting better for you