My son seems to have an internal alarm clock for 5am. He usually goes to sleep around 7 -7:30. He sleeps beautifully-until about 5, sometimes a little later. He is pretty cheery once up and then usually naps around noon for an hour....if that. He is perhaps transistioning from two to one nap-sometimes he will crash at 9 or 10 for an hour, but then he won't sleep for the rest of the day. Over all he is averaging 10-11 hours of sleep in 24 hours, which is ok, but not ideal. i feel like if I could get him to nap more or longer, he would sleep longer at night..any suggestions? Thanks

I have been in your situation with my 2 year old,who use to wake at 3am full of it and nap at 10am for 30 mins or so. I just stopped her naps during day and kept her occupied during day and she now goes to bed at 7pm until 7am next morning. It took a few weeks for her to stop falling asleep during the day, but we finally made it!! I hope this will help.

You are probably correct about him phasing out the second nap.

I would try to put your son down for a nap before he becomes overly tired. Typically, small children become tired about 3-4 hours after waking in the morning. And I would try to get him to bed earlier in the evening by about 15 minutes earlier each night until he is getting to bed by 6 or 6:30pm.

I read the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth, and it really helped us.

My daughter always woke up early every morning no matter what time we put her to bed. So when I moved her bedtime to 6pm, she slept until 6 am and still took a one hour nap at about 11am each day.

It may take a few days to get his sleeping hours adjusted, but it is well worth the effort. I had a happier toddler when she got enough sleep, AND she did not fight going to bed.

Good luck!