Would dropping 3yo's nap mean later wake-ups?

[Highlove]

My 3yo has started getting up much earlier - it was 7/7.30 but recently it's 6/6.15. She still has a nap most days, typically about 60-90 minutes. It's increasingly a battle to make that nap happen - she can lie in bed playing for 45 minutes or more before nodding off.

So - is it time to drop it and would it resolve this new early waking? At the moment, if she has no nap she can be pretty grotty by bedtime but I guess she's fairly quickly adjust?!?

(She has blackout blinds and gro clock.)

It may not solve the early morning, but it does sound like he is ready to start dropping the nap.

Your issue may be that dropping the nap makes bedtime earlier because hes knackered - which perpetuates the early mornings.

I would swap 'going to bed' at lunchtime with 'rest hour' on the sofa. Make sure that you are never out at rest hour, always be at home. Put something on the TV for him and offer a cushion/blanket for him on the sofa. Don't insist on sleep, but accept that sometimes he will, sometimes he wont but he will always have that quiet hour lying on the sofa.

There's going to be a transition period. Once not having a nap is established (which could be several months transitioning) then it will effect night slerp. At first that will be at the wrong end of the night for you though - he'll probably go to bed earlier and get more over night sleep that way.

Once established and he is not so exhausted at bedtime, moving bedtime later will probably be your best way if tackling early mornings at this age. But you won't be able to do that for quite a while yet.

Iv e said "he" throughout and I've just seen she is a "she". Sorry

It's ok, I won't tell her.

Thanks - helpful advice.

It's swings and roundabouts here with naps. DS is 3.1 and if he naps his night sleep is 8.30 - 7.30, if he doesn't then it's 7.00 - 6.30. He naps every few days generally, just to 'catch up' on sleep. I'm looking forward to him dropping it altogether but he just isn't ready yet.

Also, I know when he is over-tired and due a nap day as he gets up earlier and earlier until I let him have a nap then he gets up later the next morning.