resetting 2 yo's bedtime clock?

[Nova0929]

Until we finished our final stage of weaning about 2 months ago (nursing to sleep), our 2 year old son went to sleep relatively easily by 8:00 to 8:30pm and slept till 6:30am or so (10 hours). Now he's having a really really hard time getting to sleep. We kept the same bedtime rituals ending in lights out at 7:45 with hopes for an 8pm sleep .... but instead he is wide awake for hours. He crawls around in bed trying to climb off, cries and cries and cries when we keep him confined to one area, and basically ends up crying for about two hours till he falls asleep around 9:30-10pm. One or both of us stay in bed with him this whole time. We do give him a bottle of almond milk which he loves and it really soothes him down .... but he still doesn't sleep. If we decide to just go with it and read him stories but still keep him in his bedroom, he falls asleep easily around 9:30-10pm. We've tried making bedtime earlier -- starting bedtime earlier and earlier, lights off at 7:30, 7:15, 7pm .... but he still won't sleep till 9:30-10pm. He wakes up around 8am (10 hours sleep). Naptime has been 12-2 for at least 5 months now. 

We *really really* want him to get to sleep no later than 8:30pm. My husband and I need the evening times to be together, and we want him to wake up earlier so morning time isn't so rushed and crazy. What do you think about waking him up around 6:30am to "re-set" his nighttime clock? Would this work? This is sort of what we do when spending a long period of time on the east coast to get him re-set to east coast time. Maybe if we wake him up around 6:30 it will re-set his clock and he'll be able to go to sleep earlier.

Anyone tried this? Any other ideas? Thank you so much!

[Caterina]

I don't have answers, but I'm curious about what will come up. My 2 yo still really needs to nap, but is starting to fight them (with me, not with DH, but only if I'm not home) If she naps, about 1-3pm, she'll stay up til 9:30-10pm no matter what time we start bedtime. If she doesn't nap, she'll go to bed around 7:30-8 - whatever what time she goes to bed, she's up 6:30ish. So her total hours asleep are about the same but if she doesn't nap she's terrible to be around from about 3pm onwards. I love having evening time, and her late bedtime is frustrating, but so is being with a grumpy toddler for so many hours a day. I think we're going to move to waking her up from her nap earlier, so she only sleeps 45min-1hour, to see if we can change the bedtime a bit without the grumpiness.

I wonder experimenting with his nap would be better than waking him up earlier? 

I took the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers out the library a while back, but think I'll get it out again and see if there are more tips to try.

[Nova0929]

I am the OP - today a friend told me that whenever her 2 yo's bedtime starts creeping later and later, she resets his clock by waking him up early *and* skipping the nap that day. So it's just one day of her son being overly tired and miserable by late afternoon, but then he's back to a reasonable bedtime. Hmm ... maybe I'll give it a shot tomorrow!

>..n$

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