My daughter is 21 months old and just about from the day she was born she has always been an early riser. Her naps have always been wonderful, but lately they seem to go about an hour once a day. I don't have a problem with this except for the fact that she does end up in bed for the night by 7pm because she is exhausted, and then up by 5 or 6 in the morning. I am just exhausted havinf to get up so early everyday. I have tried leaving her in there and all she will do is cry until taken out. I am at the point now that I am thinking of cutting naps all together to see what happens, but I am afraid that she will end up so overtired she won't know what to do with herself. I guess I am wondering when if anyone else has dealt with this? I realize that all babies/kids are different, but at what age do they sometimes give up all naps. My daughter will be 2 this April.

Thanks :)

If you want her to rise a little later in the morning, push back her bed time 30 min every 4 days until she is on a schedule that works for her and you! As far as naps, they are really important and the longer you can get her to nap, the better. Lets say, you want her to wake up at 7am, than she needs to go to bed at 8 or 8:30pm every nite! Make sure she plays really hard for about 30 min an hour before naptime or take a long walk. Then you should semi follow your bed routine, like: make the house as dark as possible or get blackout/dark colored curtains for her room, don't let her watch tv or play with noisy busy toys an hr before nap, everything should be calm and relaxing, color with non-messy crayons, read books, rock her to lullabies and sing quietly, then put her in her pjs and follow your normal nite time rituals for laying her down. She should nap about 2 hrs once a day. If not and she only naps an hour, thats great, as long as she is resting for a while in the mid afternoon. If she is waking up at 7am, than a 1pm nap is the best for maximum rest. I have been a nanny for over 13 years and I now have an 18 month old and this has been our routine for quite sometime. If you find that your daughter is truly done with naps, which hopefully won't be until she is 3 years old, than implement a rest time for 45 min to an hour everyday, where she lays on her bed with books, a doll, stuffed animal or other quiet toys. This way she won't have so many melt downs from being so tired! I hope this helps!

My son is on the same type of schedule. He goes to sleep at 7:30 and rises around 6:00 (mainly because he is potty trained now and has to get up to pee). You might want to try putting an alarm clock that lights up in her room. Whenever my son wakes up before six, I show him the clock and tell him that he can't get up until the clock says 6 0 0. It seems to work because he goes back to sleep. As for the naps, you might want to try a nap halfway through her day. If she is waking up at 6:00, try a nap at 12:00 or 1:00 (and only one nap). Get her to do lots of stuff in the morning to wear her out. In the summer, I take my son to the park and let him run around for a good hour or so. Now, we do lots of activities inside since it is so cold out. If she still decides not to nap, you might want to just try putting on some soothing music, laying down on a blanket with her, and having some quiet time in the middle of the day. That way she has slowed down a little during the day instead of go go going. Hope this helps and good luck!