I think i know the answer to this but.... early wakings in 2 and a half year old..

[mckenzie]

DD is just 2 and a half. She has always been a fairly good sleeper and would regularly do 12-13 hours a night (7am ish bedtime to 8am ish wakeup) with a daytime sleep of between 1 and 1 and a half hours.

We went on holiday back in july and even though the apartment had great blackout blinds and curtains, DD started waking at 6am or earlier and has not stopped sicne we got home. Her bedtimes on holiday were a bit erratic but she always had a decent daytime sleep. Since coming home we tried getting straight back into her usual routine and making sure she always had a decent sleep but the mornings were getting worse (5.30 and 5.40 mainly, 6am is now a lie in). LAst week DH insisted we cut out her daytime sleep to see if that makes her lie in better. It's not made any difference sof ar although we have had one 6.15 this week but still mainly 5.40/5.45 etc.
I would very much appreciate some advice and experience of anyone who has been in this situation please.
I'm thinking now that we should let DD sleep if she wishes during the day and accept the early mornings as a thing she's going through and hope upon hope that she will grow out of it asap.

Anyone?

TIA

My ds was like this and I strongly feel that cutting the daytime sleep won't make any difference - if anything I think it'll make it worse. My three all had a long daytime sleep and all slept well at night until about 3years.

However ds always woke early I tried all the tricks, stickers, taking him back to bed, letting him in bed with me and a light that was on automatic timer with instructions not to get up until it came on. Nothing worked, but he grew out of it eventually. For the last year or so he wakes at about 7-ish and now it's summer hols and the routine's gone to pot he wakes at 8.30. He's 4 1/2 now.

My dcs have always gone through phases of waking at 5:30 for no apparent reason. Haven't yet found a strategy to stop it, they just suddenly seem to snap out of it as suddenly as they started it and go back to a 7am ish wake up.

Personally, I'd just leave her daytime sleeps as they are because if she's losing sleep over night and you cut her daytime sleeps too then she may well end up hideously overtired which makes the problem worse, ime.

thanks for the replies.
I wasn't keen on cutting out the daytime sleeps at all but DH wanted to try it and I had to agree to give it a go. It's been a week now with no difference at all so i think it's fair to say we gave it a shot and it didn't work, don't you? DD has coped remarkably well without the sleep until today when she was so tired this afternoon, it broke my heart.
I dont remember DS ever having this issue although I do remember him going through a period of not waking until 9am!! what bliss that was .