Going to Bed Late, Waking Up Early

[MissM'sMom]

My 21 month old DD, who used to be a pretty good sleeper overall, has recently started to fall asleep quite late and wake up really early. She usually went to bed around 8 and now we can't get her down until about 9, 9:30. She is wired, and it takes a car ride to get her to sleep (an issue in itself-I'll save for another posting). She usually would wake up about 7, but now wakes up about 5:30-6 asking for a bottle (another issue-I seem to have lots of issues!).

She is getting a two hour nap in the late morning/early afternoon, and has a regular routine before bed. We think she is getting enough to eat for dinner.

I think it might be linked to the fact it's still light out when we put her to bed, but we try to keep everything dark and as calm as possible. Once she is asleep, she'll wake up maybe once for a diaper change, but sleep through until her early wake up.

Any other ideas of what may be causing this? Any tips or tricks for getting her to sleep? Thanks.

[tiapam]

Maybe she is getting her two year molars? DS doesn't go down much earlier but he sleeps later. The only thing I would suggest is tweaking the nap time earlier or later to see if it has any effect. Also, I have always used a fan for white noise, you never know it might help.

[SpaceGal]

I do think it's hard for the kids to go down when it's light out longer in the summer. My kids usually are late sleepers 10pm and wake up around 9am...but even with the summer sun, it throws them and I have a hard time getting them down at 10...so they've been pushing to 10:30pm.