to think this is not normal (toddler sleep)

[onemiddlefinger]

My DS (nearly 2) wakes up at 5 am and i'm exhausted.
He goes to bed at 8.30 and when at home has a nap during the day as well, sometimes up to 3 h as he is making up for the 5am wakings i'm sure.
But during the week at the nursery his daytime naps are usually 1h-1,5h and it makes no difference to morning wake up time.
Surely at his age he should sleep at least 10 hours? Today it was less than 9 as he fell asleep at9pm!
What am i doing wrong??? Please someone tell me there is a way to get hime to sleep longer in the mornings.

I have just ordered the gro clock, I felt that he was too young for this, but after hearing that it works for even under 2yr olds I decided that it's definitely worth a try.

5.10 this morning...
I wish I could take daytime naps, but I think at my office it's probably frowned upon...

Hope it works for you OP!

We would activate it at bed time, waving and saying, 'Bye bye sun!' Then, when the star appeared we'd whisper, 'Shhh. Stars. Sleepy time!' Any wake up before the approved time would get 'Shh. Stars. Sleepy time!' repeated with DS put back in bed with minimal interaction as often as needed. (Yes, there was some rage.) When the sun came up, curtains and blind would be thrown open with some flourish accompanied by, 'The sun's awake!' to make the difference between sleep and awake time really obvious. OTT kisses and cuddles would also ensue.

I would suggest setting it for 5am to begin with to get him attuned to the idea, then set it by about five minutes later each week, gradually increasing it to 10 minutes as he appears to get it.

No way is he going to know how to reset the time as a PP said. I still need the instruction manual to do it! Still best to keep it out of reach, though, so he doesn't fiddle with the buttons.

you can lock the screen, you press and hold the down button until the little symbol on the screen flashes.

it stops sneaky little fingers waking the sunshine up too early!

I hope it works for you! 5.10am would actually be quite reasonable in my family - DH gets up about then to go to work. Our little toddler alarm clock woke him up just in time this morning, at 5.45am (he needs to leave before six!). DH and I do go to bed early though as we know we'll be getting up at that time!