Toddler having massive nap - should I leave her to it?

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DD is 19 months and has a slightly annoying sleep schedule at the moment because it includes early waking. Roughly it is:

Wake at 5am
Nap in pram at 10.30/11 - 1.30 or 2pm
Bed at 7pm (sometimes reluctantly)

She is still BF to sleep at night but in process of getting weaned. When she naps she is unwake-up-able until she wants to. At 5am she is un-resettle-able. Should I trim her naps in the hope she sleeps longer in the morning, or will this just make her too tired? Is she doing what she needs to do? Will this change on its own? The early mornings are hellish for me, I'm not an early riser (and nor is DH).

I think the recommendation is 2 hours for a nap, 2.5 at most. You could try trimming the nap a bit if you want (shouldn't do any harm), which might help with the early waking/evening reluctance.

I would leAve her but I'd rather have a nice few hours of peace in the afternoon than a lie in!

Can you not go down with her for the timebeing so you get a sleep too, forget housework etc..

Can you not go down when she does for the timebeing so you get a sleep too, forget housework etc..

At her age I would do a 2 hour (max) nap after lunch

I would push her nap later and cap it at 2.5hrs. I'm like you - the day shouldn't start until 7am, dammit!

I'd push the nap a bit later, to after an 1130 lunch.

DS woke at 430-5am til he was 2. Then 530 til age 3. Then he got the hang of the groclock and waits til the sun at 630, yippee!

I know you say she's unwakeupable but there's always a way. Cold flannel on the face never fails! But tbh if it's not interfering with her going down at 7 I'd let her nap for up to 3hrs. We tried all sorts to get DS to sleep til later in the morning but it all failed, and reducing his nap just let us with a v grumpy boy at 5am.

Good luck with bf weaning. The no cry sleep solution has a great gentle method for going from feed to sleep to self settle.

Leave her, overtiredness doesn't help early waking anyway. If you could push the nap later in the day could you work towards a later bedtime? This might get you to 6am eventually?

My DS1 is 23 months and will nap for anything from 1.5 hours to 3 hours during the day, usually starting around 11.30am ish. I tend to leave him to it - figure if he's asleep, he needs it.

Although he sleeps well at night (7pm ish to 7am ish) he can be unsettled due to teething discomfort with his back molars, which seems to have been going on for months, so although he gets a good quantity of sleep, the quality often isn't good.

Thank you everyone, these are all unbelievably helpful. I'll try to push her nap a little later, but tbh I really need some me time by 7 so don't want a later bedtime. The overwhelming message I'm hearing is don't tamper, it might get worse!

My DS has a similar schedule. Early riser (anything from 530-6am) and has a 2/2.5hr nap any time from 1130 depending on what we're doing in the morning. He can go until 1230/1pm at a push. He usually has lunch after he wakes. Goes to bed @7pm and asleep by 8pm latest. I nap when he naps. He is 2.3 now and slowly starting to wake a little later now so it's getting better.

I had exactly this problem - personally I could absolutely not stand the early mornings, so I do think it's worth tinkering. I actually don't think it's the length of the nap but the early timing - that is an early time to go to sleep - it used to drive me mad that DS would wake early then fall asleep at such an annoying time! So we could never go out in the morning.

you say she is reluctant at 7 - that's an early bedtime, I found that I was able to push morning wake up time slowly towards 6 by bringing bedtime nearer 8 - yes, its a pain as you dont get to relax till later but - honestly it's one or the other - sleeping 7-5 is obvoiusly her allotted amount of sleep...

like you I HATED getting up at 5! I was often in tears sitting there that early - so personally I accepted a later bedtime....

IF she wakes later her nap will shift too and the whole process will be easier.

I know people say oh it makes no difference to when they wake but I don't believe that - it's the same as clocks changing, in the end their body clock will change - not overnight, but over a couple of weeks - obvoiusly if you take a child into a new time zone they will eventually switch - so you just need to switch her block of sleep hours to 8 - 6 rather than 7-5 . .....later naptime could help with that too.

its grim I sympathise.