Overtired toddler....any advice to get him to sleep longer?

[gillybeanmum]

My DS1 is two and a half and has been getting up at approx 04:30-05:00 for the last 8 weeks. The early starts coincided with the arrival of his baby brother and the clocks turning back. He was never a late riser but usually more like 06:00. When he wakes up he is full of energy and seems genuinely ready for the day. The trouble is because he is getting up so early he is exhausted by 16:30 and keeping him going until bedtime is a struggle. He used to go to bed at about 19:00 but now it is more like 18:00-18:15. I made a rod for my own back by taking him out in his pushchair for his naps, I know I should have been firmer and made him nap in the house. Now that I have DS2 I can't regularly take him out for nap walks. I thought that he would either get so tired he would nap in the house or sleep of much longer at night, but no! So he is chronically sleep deprived and it really tells in is behaviour, the more tired he gets, the more he plays up and resents DS2.

Does anyone have any advice to break the cycle of going to bed early/getting up early? We have a gro-clock and he understands it but he still wakes up before the sun.

Thanks in advance.

He needs to be going to bed later again, what would happen if at 4.30 he had half hour sleep and you then put him to bed at 7.30?

Then once he has been getting up later for a few days he won't need that nap.

Yes I would allow the late nap dd has done this and late nap followed by a later (slightly) bedtime usually followed by quite a lye in usually rights it. Our only trouble is dd really fights any nap so we have to wait for the day she just decides to fall asleep.

Thank you, I will try that. Anything is worth a go because he is just so tired and I hate seeing him like that, it might reset is body clock.