Earlier bedtime? Help?

[Amy214]

My 2 year old currently goes to bed at around 9pm but can take up to an hour to fall asleep, she has an hour nap in the afternoon at 1.30pm after her lunch and she wakes up at 8am, her bedtime routine is a bath at 6 or 7pm, snack (whatever she fancies, nothing sugary), some sleepy cartoons on baby tv which she loves then a story and i say goodnight switch the lamp off and close the door, i do have to wait outside because she shouts for me and i quietly whisper 'shh its ok im still here' a few times and shes fine, i do hear her fussing and banging her hand on her mattress but its always to keep herself awake, ive tried cutting out her nap but she fell asleep eating her dinner and would wake up all through the night screaming, shes starting playgroup soon and i need her to wake up early enough so she can have breakfast, get dressed and be ready to leave by 9am, she always takes ages to eat breakfast

Can you start waking her earlier and that could lead to an earlier bedtime

I would also try waking her earlier. Awake an hour earlier and hopefully in bed an hour earlier.

I'll try that, when she does wake up earlier she does nap a lot earlier then in turn goes to bed early, hoping it works

I would switch the bedtime routine up. You get her nice and sleepy with a bath and then re-wake her with snacks and tv. So I would keep bath time the same but before you go up for bath give her a snack in front of the sleep cartoons, then bath then book and bed.

Our dd has a banana and warm milk, she's told she has one cartoon to watch (usually scooby do or Tom and Jerry because she's odd like that!) then bath, story in a quiet lowly lit bedroom, then bed. It's a gradual removal of stimulus. Even sleepy cartoons are stimulating to the brain.

I'll try the different bedtime routine tomorow, she hasnt had a nap for the past 2 days and has went to bed early and woke up early