I feel like writing this is going make a lot of mums ask "what's the problem? I wish my toddler would do that!" But I have grown a little concerned about this pattern and wanted to know if anyone had any experience with this being an issue?
My little boy is 20 months and at the start of March when he was about 17/18 months he was waking up every morning between 5:45 and 6am so instead of getting up I would bring him into my bed and let him play there until we we ready to get up because we were exhausted, especially with having no help in lockdown.
The only change we made to his sleep after that was to put him to bed earlier because I felt he wasn't getting enough sleep, it was on about 10hrs and his naps during the day were short.
Suddenly he's started sleeping in late, really late. He goes to bed at 7pm, with absolutely no problems. I kiss him goodnight, put him in the cot and leave the room and he will put himself to sleep, sometimes in seconds sometimes it take 20/30 mins but he does it.
My concern is that he isn't waking up until 9/10am and even if he does wake earlier, will lie in his bed quietly until much later. It is 11:22am right now and I'm watching him just lying awake on the monitor as he as done for the last hour. Not playing, just lying cuddling his teddy. (I never usually let him lie this late but I wanted to see how long he'd actually lie there for)
If I get him up before 10, he'll then usually also take an hours nap around lunch time.
Should I be concerned about how much sleep he is having? And should I be letting him lie awake in his cot like that?
I know half 11am is waaay too late and will end up ruining our routine but during lockdown, with nowhere to go (I'm in Scotland btw so ours is still a little stricter) I'm not sure whether I should be getting him up early to keep a routine, especially if he's still going down OK at night. And should I be worried that he's unwell? Do toddlers need this much sleep/rest?
Sorry for the long one. Any help would be great.