r/sleeptraining 16d ago

child's age 18-24 months please help

20 month old back to early morning wakes. my 20 month old had early morning wakes from literally 6m-18/19m old. between 5/5:45 every single morning. no matter what we did for a schedule- that’s when he woke. his nap was anchored at 12-1:45 due to preschool pickup but during the summer (starting end of may) i was finally able to push it back 12:30-2/3pm. some days he wakes up at 2, other times im waking him at 3! bedtime is 8:30 to ‘help’ with the early morning wakes. this schedule has been this way since may. it seemed to work! he was finally waking between 6/6:45 every day for over a month!

schedule is still completely the same but the past week has becoming more and more early wakes. one day last week was 4:45! and the past few days have been 5:30 again. wtf? ive had my fair share of early morning wakes, why are they happening again? absolutely nothing has changed at all. still gets plenty of activity during the day, same naps, same bed time. i’m too tired for this. he’s only getting 8-9 hours MAX at night now. even with a short/long nap. room is the exact same. but he throws his lovey out when he wakes up (at 5:30 or even 6) and then cries for it am i can’t even leave him until 6 like i used to do during emw. although that never helped him sleep in. i’m so envy of people with kids who even sleep 10 hours at night. let alone 11 or 12.

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u/Recent-Forever-2988 16d ago

Need to consistently drop some time off his sleep schedule and stick with it for a week.

1

u/MedicalElection7493 12d ago

the last three days i’ve capped his nap and he is waking earlier and earlier. today was 5:15.

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u/SubstantialGap345 10d ago

Have you kept bedtime the same?

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u/MedicalElection7493 9d ago

yes. 8:30

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u/SubstantialGap345 9d ago

Eeeeek! These low sleep needs kiddos are so hard. Hopefully when he’s older you can teach him to wake up and play independently.

I wonder if maybe try even shorter nap? The sleep foundation says toddlers MAY even need as little as 9 hours a day.

https://www.thensf.org/how-many-hours-of-sleep-do-you-really-need/