How to get the wee bugger to sleep beyond 5am?

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My son is nearly 2. He has always been an early riser but for some reason it's really grinding me down right now. It varies between 4.30 and 5.45. Once in a blue moon he'll sleep past 6 and I panic that he's died in his sleep.

Routine:
5ish - wake, come into our bed for a boob for as long as possible usually 30-60mins
6.30 - up, breakfast
10 - he's shattered and ready for his nap. Feed to sleep. Will sleep 1.5-2hrs. Often needs woken after 2hrs.
12 - lunch
Afternoon snack
5 - dinner
Bath
Somewhere between 6.30 and 7 he gets fed to sleep.

I don't particularly want to stop feeding him for various reasons but the main one being that I can't imagine having to get up to get him breakfast an hour earlier than I already do. Can't leave him in his cot as he shares with 3yo sister and don't want her woken up too. No other bedroom. He is currently fed to sleep but is fine being put down without it when I'm not there so at nursery or with DH or his grannies. He's not long outgrown his sleeping bags so has a wee duvet now which he often kicks off so I've got him fluffy jammies and also have the heating come on at 3am for a boost in case it's the cold waking him. He's still in his cot but is close to climbing out so the side will need to come off soon.

I don't know if I should be trying to push his nap later? He's so ready for it by 10 and will cry for a feed or just curl up in someone else's lap and go to sleep. He would sleep in the pram or car too so can't even really take him somewhere as a distraction.

Someone please help!

I would just put him to bed way later

Agreed. Push bed time later. Try 15 minutes at a time if it seems hard to get him to stay up.

You can try later bedtimes but I’ve never found that works here, or for anyone else I know to be honest.

Sympathy, OP, my DS is an early riser (not quite as early as yours) and it is exhausting. I can just about cope with after 530, preferably 6, but it’s on the odd occasion when he wakes and there’s a 4 there, even if it’s 459!

I am about to try a Gro clock!

How many hours does he tend to sleep in total? If he’s sleeping 6.30-5 or 7-5 then he’s sleeping 10-10.5 hours. Plus two hours for the nap so he’s sleeping 12-13 hours in 24. That’s pretty normal. If he doesn’t need to sleep more than this, then if he goes to bed at 6.30-7pm, he is going to wake up when he’s finished sleeping. If you want him up later it might help to shift his routine back.

He's shattered by bedtime and tbh he ended up going to bed 30 mins later both days this weekend. One resulted in a 6.20 wake which was amazing. But the other was 5.20 so think the first was a fluke, or possibly cos he'd been at nursery all day on the Friday and was knackered from that.

Yes, I'd say in average he has 10.5hrs overnight then 1.5-2 during the day. Except today where he woke at 4.30am and then had 30 mins nap and was asleep for 6.30 this evening. Who knows what that means for tomorrow morning.

His sister needs her bed for 7 (she'll sleep 7-6.30 usually, no nap) so don't really want to be dragging bedtime out for too long for him as well all need to be upstairs doing stories etc at the same time. Appreciate he's waking up when he's done sleeping. But why is that sometimes after 9.5hrs and sometimes 11? Here's me sitting moaning on MN rather than actually just going to bed at a reasonable hour. Gah. Not sure why it's getting to me so much this week.

The 4 is just awful isn't it? It was 4.55 the other day and it seemed miles worse than 5.01 say. I had been wondering about a gro clock. Not sure he's quite old enough to get it. Wouldn't mind if he could lie quietly but he's prone to singing twinkle twinkle at the top of his voice when he wakes and not sure it would solve that! Trying to decide if taking the side of the cot off is a good idea? Then he can come to me himself so I don't need to get up, but then he has the freedom to get up at whatever oclock and not sure I'm ready for that!

Try reducing the nap maybe? But early risers always seem to stay early risers sadly! My son was always up at 5-5.30. We dropped the nap and it's now 5.15 - 6, very occasionally 6.30 (which feels amazing when it happens). He goes to bed at 7. Later bedtime just means he gets less sleep... he doesn't sleep later.

Not related to sleep but when my boy around the same age started waking early we changed his nappies to a bigger size and to specific night nappies and it made a huge difference. We also discovered he slept a bit better when he was warmer so we got him some fleece suits for over his pjs.

I had this with my DS who is now 4. From 18 months - 3 years old he woke up at 5am. We tried everything: Bigger dinners, later bedtimes, earlier bedtimes, longer naps, shorter naps… I’m sorry to report that nothing worked!
So, DH and I just went to bed earlier and adjusted our life around it. When we were in the thick of it it SUCKED because we were in bed by 9pm every night and could never do anything in the evenings. However, in hindsight, it went by quickly, and now it’s 6:27am here and I will have to go and wake up my DS for school.

We started potty training recently and he's been waking up dry which is amazing. I don't think he's waking cos he needs to pee though cos he can easily hold it til 7am and he's been up and had breakfast before he goes to the potty. Is he dehydrated? Is he just a camel? Who knows.

Thanks. It's almost reassuring that there's nothing I can do. When he slept in til after 6 on Saturday morning I was obsessing about what we'd done the night before to try and replicate it the next night. Refused his dinner and had a small bowl of mince before bed. Protein keeping him going maybe?

I did a Google and it says 2 year olds need between 11-14 hours sleep over 24 hours.

if he’s getting 10.5 hours at night and 1.5-2 in the day then he’s getting all his sleep needs and your only choice is to move bedtime later slowly so that his sleep window falls over a more palatable time!

I would push the bedtime and nap back a bit later - but you need to do it consistently for about a week before expecting to see results. It’s like jet lag, it takes time.

My DS (21 months ) has always gone to bed at 7 and up at 7. Recently he started waking up at 5 too.
We pushed his bedtime back to 7.30 and he seems to be sleeping to 7 again..

Start putting him to bed at 8. Don't give up after it doesn't work after a couple of nights. Stick to it for two weeks or so and I think you will see a difference.

We had this with ours and it was infuriating to read the sleep blogs which tell you to use white noise / black out blinds etc when you’re already doing it and they still wake up!

we moved bedtime to 8pm, moved the nap to after lunch and that solved it, she slept until 6.30.