Early morning hell and grumpy toddler

[Nessler]

DS is 33 months and we recently took the cotside off as he was climbing out. Now he takes an hour plus to settle at night, bedtime has gone from 7.30pm to 8 or 8.30pm, usually ending with a tantrum. He is then up to start the day at 5.30 (was usually waking after 6). He spends the morning very irritable, lots of tantrums and he is clearly tired. He naps 1.5 hours on nursery days and 2 hours plus if at home.
We used a gro clock before but now he just ignores it. We have tried letting him sleep in our bed when he comes in but he won't lie down.
He can open the door to his room and if we take him back to his bed he starts screaming. We are knackered and baby 2 is due in July....help!!!

By 33 months I'd be dropping the nap completely and seeing if that helped.

I agree drop the nap.

Eek, I thought it might come to that! Do we just go cold turkey on the naps or cut down gradually?

Cold turkey.

Introduce quiet times before bed, mid pm where no tv and just colour or read together for 30 mins. Helps recharge a little but no actual nap

I'd just go cold turkey. At that age they don't really need a nap. Just keep them really busy and move everything forward. For the first few days you might even find bedtime needs to be about 6pm so dinner will need to be earlier. Start the whole bedtime routine earlier.

Ok I will start this Friday,as non nursery day. We have found that he tends to crash by 11am though, so is it a case of just riding it out?

How has it gone? We are having very similar issues and are resistant to dropping the nap...

Maybe just plan a busy full day with 2 or three short outings involved....so if he's absolutely knackered he can grab 15 mins in the buggy in the morning on the way to the library (for example) and then 10 mins in the car on the way home from a playdate in the afternoon , BUT he is not put in his bed "for a nap" at any stage.

So he can grab a couple of micro naps if he's desperate but he will hopefully still be totally knackered by bedtime! Don't do any long drives or buggy walks for a few days until he's used to the new routine: don;t LET him sleep for over 10 mins! Cruel to be kind, for all of you!

He naps at 11am? I'd try just pushing that back to after lunch. So do an hours nap between 2-3pm then bedtime at 7.30.

Have you tried putting a stairgate over his bedroom door so he still can't fully escape?

We'd already dropped the nap so slightly different but the gro clock has worked wonders to solve early morning waking here. I was reluctant to spend £20 on it but DD got up at 8.20 this morning - totally worth it! I've got the sun set to come on at 7.15 so if she wakes earlier she understands it's not morning yet and is happy to go back to sleep - she does still sometimes call out to me but when I point out that the sun isn't up she's happy to go back to sleep now whereas previously she wouldn't settle back down at all. We've only had it two weeks so I'm hoping she'll stop the calling out soon and just put herself back to sleep herself!

Having resolved to drop the nap, it went slightly pear shaped with a few complications in the last months of pregnancy and the early arrival of dc2.
Now things have gotten worse as ds is struggling to adjust to the new baby. We are in his room over an hour, he is getting closer to 8.30 before he drops off! He actively resists lying down and even if knackered/short nap, takes forever to settle.
Will aim to drop the nap in next few week, any tips re the how to manage the extended bedtimes?

Also, the gro clock makes no difference for us!

Make bedtime.much earlier if you've dropped a nap. Leave it too late and they get massively overtired so don't settle.

If he gets out of his bed at bedtime try just picking him up and putting him back in with no words, smiles, kisses - don't even look at him then leave the room. Repeat as long as necessary. I did this with DS when he came out of his cot. First night did this about 40 times then got less and less until he went straight to sleep and still does. Not sure about early rising though - he's 4 now and still up before 6 most days. Gro clock made no difference. Only plan we have now is to ride it out until he's old enough to entertain himself first thing. Sigh.