Does earlier bedtime work?

[Madallie]

Dd, 2.1 yo has started waking earlier - 6/6.30am. I put her to bed at 7.30pm but she usually doesn't go off Til 8.30pm. She has a nap of 1-1.5 hrs at 1pm.

Really don't want wake time to creep any earlier and already feel it's getting too early considering the time she goes to sleep. Does putting babies/toddlers to bed earlier really work? I fear she will just start waking at 5/5.30am. Being 38 wks pg I just can't face that right now.

Bump

I would think about dropping or shortening the nap tbh. much as we they probably need it

Could try doing that. Does it take a while for a new routine like this to 'work'. It's just on the days dd wakes up herself after only 1 hrs nap (or 50 mins out in pushchair). She does fall asleep earlier but then just wakes up earlier so is not sleeping any longer iyswim! Sometimes it's even a bit less overall sleep. These are only odd days here and there is it something that is more likely to 'work' if I cut nap consistently for a few days/week etc?

Not all children need huge amounts of sleep and mine did not. I have also met children who were going to bed at 6.30 pm when they started school because they were so tired. Mine never went that early and I tried to get them to sleep longer without success! However, I would look to trying to tire her a bit more. Can she play actively for a bit longer in the afternoons? I always used to think that when children are awake for longer, they are absorbing more about life and learn well. Not a tried and tested theory but it made the late bedtimes just about palatable!!! Some people tried black out blinds in their DCs bedrooms and with the lighter mornings you could try that. Good luck with your new baby.

Tricky as I bet that nap in the middle of the day is a godsend! I would hold on to that, try to have a
Big bout of fresh air later in the afternoon and slide bedtimes earlier by 10mins each day to see if she will go off any earlier and wake up about the same.

I know my ds who stopped napping just intone for his little sister to arrive was hard to manage as I had no break in the day at all!

I guess I might have to accept that dd's sleep needs have decreased and maybe she doesn't need as much sleep as other 2 year olds (or how much I would like!). I know I should feel grateful that she mostly sleeps through for 10 hours at night and will mostly still have a nap.

Maybe I shouldn't listen too much to other people who have 12 hour a night sleepers because it will just make me stress when clearly my dd does not want or need this amount of sleep.