Really short nights- should we drop the nap?

[Purple89]

Hi all, my DD turned 2 last month and sleep has been awful for the past couple of months.
She was a terrible sleeper (waking every 45 mins to 2 hours) until she turned 1 when a switch seemed to flick and she became capable of sleeping through the night. Bar teething or illness (which did happen often to be fair) she started sleeping 10 to 11 hours overnight.
That all changed a couple of months ago. We've been through some rotten illnesses but even when she isn't ill our nights have become much shorter - 9 to 9 and a half hours. She's fighting bedtime for an hour or more and then still waking at 5.30am.
A typical day is this...

5.30am wake
Nap typically starts between 12 and 12.30 and usually lasts 2 hours. I've started waking her after 2 hours but she would go longer if I let her. Hate waking her though as she is so grumpy when I do.
Bed time is now 7.15pm but she isn't asleep until at least 8pm, sometimes 9pm.

She falls asleep so easily for her nap and as I say she hates being woken but I've started doing it after 2 hours.

She's also clingier than she used to be at bed time. She also seems to have massively come on with her language and is talking in full sentences. Could this be a leap? Should we drop the nap - but she falls asleep so easily at nap time, does that mean she isn't ready?

I don't expect 12 hours a night as she's never been that kind of baby. But I have barely an hour or so from bed time to sort things out, eat etc before we have to go to bed because she's up so early. She once started the day at 3.45am!

Any tips or suggestions gratefully received, thank you wise MN

Sounds tough! I have a 22 month and sleep just baffles me 😂
I would maybe try and get her down earlier than 12 for her nap before dropping it completely. 5:30 - 12/12:30 seems quite a long time. You could aim for 11 ish maybe? Then she may sleep a bit less in the day and be awake a bit earlier in the afternoon.
I know if my toddler had a 2 hour nap around that time she’d never be ready for bed at 7:15pm. Much more like 8-8:30. She needs about 6 hours awake before bed to make sure she’s tired enough!
worth ago and if not you could try dropping the nap all together if you think she is ready. Good luck x

Mine is about to turn 2 and her nap is 1.5 hours and she's starting to show signs that we might have to cut it to an hour soon (wake ups getting earlier and earlier)

NHS say most 2 year olds need a minimum of one hour nap, they are a bit more realistic that all the american websites that seem to think 14 hours across a 24 hour is achievable!

I would definitely reduce the nap to maybe 1 hour (or even 1.5 hours initially and then to 1 hour if no improvement) before attempting to cut the nap out. It can take up to a couple of weeks to see if a change has improved sleep overall.

Thanks all so so helpful. It's interesting others are having a much shorter nap at this stage.
@teaandkittehs @angelpie33 are you waking yours up after that time (or did you if @angelpie33 yours is older now)? Are they OK when woken after that time?

Thank you also @Brightandbreezey I agree it's completely baffling! I could try bringing it earlier although she hasn't seemed tired earlier. Worth trying to see if she settles x

What I meant was are you waking them or are they just waking naturally- sorry on reflection don't think my question was clear!

@Purple89 I have a 22 month old currently napping around 1.5hours - I always wake her up if she isn't already at that point. Sometimes she is a bit grumpy on being woken but it passes in a few minutes. I am considering if she might need it to be reduced to 1 hour to improve nighttime sleep but probably not imminently. Some people are very against waking up babies/toddlers but I feel it is sometimes necessary to give better more consolidated sleep.

I almost always have to wake her. She's fine 80% of the time but is occasionally grouchy.

Thanks both. We had a horrendous night last night - our first split night in months - awake from 1am til gone 4am and then rearing to go at 6am. I'd let her sleep 2 hours at nap time yesterday after only a 45 min car nap the day before which resulted in a highly temperamental toddler all afternoon. Regret that now!

We had a fucking horrendous split night last week, our little one has been quite ill and sleeping in late in the morning, i knew it would catch up with us the day she felt better and it did, so we are back to routine again now and my gawd i hope there are no more split nights to come! She's slept through the past few nights since we went back to her normal routine so am hopeful. . . .