2 year old routine?

[Mondayblues23]

Hello. My DS has never been the best sleeper, he goes through phases. I've been googling and I am now wondering if he's overtired & not getting enough sleep? He does still need his lunch time now but he's so hard to get to sleep. Does my routine look ok please? Anyone care to share theirs please?

5/6am- wake up
12.30-2.30 - afternoon nap
8pm - bedtime (often messes about tossing and turning until about 8.45!!)
1amish- wakes up for a bottle of milk! (I know he is a bit old for that)
5/6am - wake up

I often wake him from his lunch time nap or he'd sleep until gone 3.

Other people with children this age seem to do 7-7. Am I putting him to bed too late??

My 2 year old doesn’t nap regularly now. Hasn’t for months, otherwise he takes hours to sleep. Occasionally falls asleep in car if out for 20-30 mins.

wakes -6-6.30am
Bed -8-8.30pm.

if he naps 2mins then add an hour to bedtime

Never ever had be done 7-7. The odd time he’s fallen asleep early at 7pm, he’s awake by 4.30-5am

My 2yo is roughly this during the week:
Wake 6/7am
Nap 12-2pm
Bedtime 8/8.30pm

Some days he won't nap and will usually then be asleep by 7pm but he'd struggle not to nap at all anymore so we do a mixture of both.

Thank you both for your replies.

So what I'm thinking so far is that the 7-7 crew are the lucky ones, but our routine is more like everyone else.

I was hoping not to drop the nap anytime soon.....but maybe it is that getting in the way.

Damn.

Mine does do 7-7 (roughly). She generally naps for about 90 minutes, though we're struggling with getting the timing of that right at the moment. So she was napping 11:00 to 12:30, but we're now trying more like 13:00 to 14:30. I think she may be closer to dropping her nap than I'd like!

Ahhh @110APiccadilly awwh I wish mine would sleep longer! I'd love the 7-7 routine.

Do you wind them down at night? Mine likes to face plant our bed for 20 mins before going to his cot, I don't think such "silliness" is helping

I know where you mean, the nap time is such a magical time for us adults isn't it. Ha ha. I don't want to give it up!

@Mondayblues23
Would he sleep for his nap if you put him down at 11/11.30? Then put to bed at 7? This worked wonders for my son and he has a morning brunch around 10.30 and then a lighter lunch when he woke up. He'd sleep 11.30-1.30 and then be tired enough for 7pm bedtime. If your son is already waking at 5/6 after sleeping at 8.45 I doubt he'd wake much earlier than that anyway

Mine dropped the nap totally at 25m and I capped it to 45m in the 2m before that because bedtime was a nightmare. And any sleeping after 130pm would cause chaos at bedtime, also.

Wakes up - between 7/730
(Naps if poorly for 45min around 12pm)
Dinner 5pm
Tidy toys and ore-bedtime stories x2, 545/6pm
Bath/teeth/wash/nappy on by 630pm
645/7pm in the cot (asleep in 5min)
Sleeps through to next morning.

Mine was an awful sleeper waking at leads 3-5times a night until we started capping the day nap and slept through when we cut it out.

I don't miss nap times as much as I thought because now I get time in the evening instead 😄

I might be a lucky one in the 7-7 crew too. Plus a 2 hour lunchtime nap anytime between 12/1-2/3.

We do dinner at 5/5.30pm then up for bath at 6pm. He spends ages playing in the bath and then a few stories and in bed between 6.30-7.

Could you try an earlier bedtime? I think they sometimes get a bit hyper and crazy when overtired which we mistake for not being tired? I might be selfish but I love putting the kids to bed early so I get a nice long evening to relax

We have a fairly consistent bed time routine of bath, story, bed. When she's in bed we put the light out and I sing her a song (by her own request, always the same one). So I think that helps her wind down. She can be a bit silly after bath while we're getting her in her PJ's, but generally the story helps her calm down. If she's being really silly during story time and not listening, I tell her she needs to listen to the story or I'll stop reading. Oddly enough that seems to get her listening - I don't know why because if she's not listening I'm not sure why she'd care if I stopped!! But she does.

I would bring the nap forward to 12

Turned 2 in December.
Wakes 6:45/7ish
Naps 12-2 (always needs waking), less at nursery as tends to be later going down).
Bed 7:30
If short nap then tends to have split nights so think defo overtiredness is issue with her.

Not long after turning 2 we needed to cap the nap to 2 hours and enforce awake by 2 - partly selfish as seems she needs 5.5h awake time before bed and we like more of an evening!

Thanks all for the replies.

Will try an earlier nap and capping the nap. Yesterday I had to wake him up at 2.45 so he didn't go to sleep until after 9pm

I prefer to have an evening too, I'm missing out on watching Love Island all of my cultural programmes.

Definitely try an earlier and shorter nap and see if that helps

My 2 year old son has been a terrible sleeper from birth. Currently, on the days he has one nap he will fall asleep at 7 but then be up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours, then go back to sleep and get up around 6/7. If he has 2 naps he sleeps 9 to 5.30/6.30. I am SO envious of the parents that have a 7-7 child.

Btw, my son also has an overnight bottle. We’ve been seeing a paediatrician and dietician due to some eating issues and I thought they would tell me off for the overnight bottle but they weren’t fussed.