Opinions wanted: Should I move his naptime?

[TS123]

DS is 19 months old. He's always been an early riser. Typically gets up between 5:30 and 6am. He's been having a nap about noon and it's usually between 1 1/2 -2 hours. But I find it hard to get him to last until 7pm. Do you think it would help to move his nap a little later? I'm just worried because he wakes so early that making it to noon is tough enough and I don't want his nap to fall apart because he's overtired.

Napping for around 2 hours, from around noon I feel is quite usual. You could try pushing out my say 30 minutes, but he may not make it to nap time. Is 7pm the start of bedtime routine, or end? If start then perhaps it is a little late... push back to 6.30pm and see if that makes any difference.

When making changes, only make one change at a time... leave it a week, then evaluate.

I rise early at the moment... the sun wakes me up. So if your DS does not sleep in a pitch dark room with blackout blinds etc... then look at making the room darker, so that the rising son does not affect the light level in the room as much. Also, when he wakes early, encourage him to play, rather than wake you up. Then he may play for 20-30 mins and drop back for a nap.

Thanks Nannynick. Noon is usually when he's most tired. The bedtime routine ends at 7pm - that's the time lights are out. In the morning I will wait until 6:15-6:30 to get him out of his cot. His room is pitch black. I guess I'm covering the bases. Maybe he just has to "grow into it" - ie. maybe as he gets older, he won't seem so tired all the time? I just keep wondering if the sleep times are wrong because he's always sooo tired (not just my own observation but other people's too).