My ds (2.5) dropped his afternoon nap about 10 days ago. He'd been having 1.5 to 2 hours 1.30ish to 3.30ish. It had got to the point of him only going to sleep if he was in the car, so we decided it was probably time to let it go. We brought his bedtime routine forward by about 15 mins, the difference being that instead of going for bath at 7 and taking up 2 hours to finally get to sleep, we were going up at 6.45 for a bath and he would be asleep by 7.30.
But over the last few days, he has been waking up really early - 5.30 ish, which is too early for me. Or we have had broken nights, midnight to 3 am last Thursday for example - I go in to try to settle him and he's wide awake, asking for the light on, or saying 'Look, Mummy!' etc.
This morning, after an 8pm fast asleep, he woke at 4.30, calling for me. I went in to him, he asked for a cuddle, he had a quick one to stop the tears and I laid him back down and told him it was still night time and he had to go back to sleep. He was still awake an hour later, despite no interaction, and then started crying when I left the room. I left him to it. DH eventually woke up and said he'd have a go at settling him. Ds asked for a cuddle, and got one, and then was laid back down. DH left him to it. he went back to sleep and woke at 9 this morning. I'm hoping that this will have 're-set' his sleeping pattern.
I can't understand why dropping the afternoon nap of at least an hour means that he wakes up 3 to 3.5 hours earlier than he did before, as although he falls asleep a bit earlier, we haven't actually moved his bedtime forward. Last night, if we'd got up at 4.30 (it began to look like we would have to) he would have only had 8.5 hours sleep, which is no where near enough. We'd had a reasonably busy day yesterday, plenty of fresh air and walking, so he should have been quite tired.
Any advice/empathy gratefully received!