21 month old waking at 5.30am but still tired - any tips for getting him to sleep longer?

[wigwam33]

In the last 3 weeks I have stopped BF my son at night. It took 2 1/2 weeks (yes really) of him waking up once or twice at night and crying each time before he finally slept through the night. We co-sleep so either myself or my husband just held him each time. However, he now wakes at 5.30am (instead of 6.30-7.00am before) and he won't go back to sleep again. I BF him then and he insists on getting up. The problem is that he is then tired again by 9.30-10.00am and wants to go back for his nap then. He then gets grumpier later on in the day because he's too tired. Also it means he misses his morning activities / groups if I let him sleep then. Previously, he had been in a good rhythm of going to sleep at around midday for a couple of hours. Any ideas for what to do?

Let him nap on the way to group or something? I had this with ds at a siimilar age. So I'd leave the house a bit earlier and he'd have 20 mins in his pushchair.

Also early bedtime.

Plus check he's not being woken by being cold or noises from birds etc. also is he eating more in the day? I'd also offer water for night wakings

Thanks Iggly. Yes I think you're right about early bedtime. It seems the reverse of what you might expect - I have noticed that he seems to wake up earlier if he gets to bed after about 7.30.

Did your DS then have another nap later on or was 20 mins his only nap of the day? My DS still naps for 1.5 - 2 hrs in the day. I've tried shortening this in the hope that it would make him sleep more at night but it actually made the nights worse! And on top a really grumpy child for most of the day. We offer water for night wakings and v occasionally he'll take it. Mostly though he just wants a cuddle. He might be waking up cold - he always refuses covers so I put him in a vest and PJs but still that's probably not enough in the early morning.

He'd have two naps a day - the first power nap of 20 mins then 1.5 hours after lunch. It was the transition from 2 to 1 naps so he needed the morning power nap still! Took months before he dropped the morning nap.