Hello ladies,
Hoping to get some advice or hear your experience!
DD is now 22 months, still very spirited, currently having a language explosion, saying new words every day.
Has been independent sleeper since young age, currently sleeps on adult sized bed in her room.
She transitioned to one nap at around 16 months and for a while she took it quite early so that her pm A time was longer than am.
She would get herself into her cot (rails came down when she was 18 months or so) quite happily for nap when she was ready and would settle quickly.
At bed time she generally went down smoothly and was asleep within 10-15 min.
Even before she was one the most sleep she would have in 24 hrs would be about 12 hrs max.
Current issues are:
1. She is very prone to OT and always has been with horrendously long NWs. She seems to be fkactuating between OT and UT.
2. Even when she is tired she refuses nap mainly because she doesn't want to miss out on the fun- even more difficult when DH is around at weekends - we literally have to all 'go to bed' so she will finally agree to go to bed. It's getting her to lie down that seems to be the main problem at nap. Once down she goes to sleep within 10 min max.sometimes in the morning she will drag her pillow on the floor and lie down like she wants to sleep, but is up and running again in 5 min.
She sleeps 1-2 hrs,I find she is very grumpy if she sleeps longer than 1.5 hrs or sleeps too late in afternoon which is understandable. I think her natural rhythm is consistent with 1 hr 15 min of nap time.
Because her nights and WUs are wonky at the moment her nap length varies.
3. She takes 40-60 min to fall asleep at bedtime. Used to be about 15 min. She calls for me a lot, sometimes I stay with her until she is asleep- I don't mind doing this but it takes so long!- during this time she is trying to fall asleep,she isn't jumping around refusing to lie down etc, its more she just can't switch off and stays in that nearly asleep state for 45 min on average. This happens every night now regardless of how long her nap was and what activity she had in the day. She genuinely is tired at bed time, but can't switch off..
The other day she slept 12 hr night which is very unusual for her( the more sleep she has the more grumpy she becomes it seems) woke up at 7 am and I couldn't get her down for nap until 2 pm, she actually agree to lie down but was genuinely wide awake and singing. Eventually she did fall asleep.
It seems that may be I should let her skip nap and do early bedtime, am just very anxious she will be OT and won't cope with it very well..
She has had quite a few EWs in the last few days where she tries to resettle for up to 1.5 hrs sometimes but can't and we get up. So I think she is tired and needing more sleep.
I think the next step is to cap her nap really, to 1 hr probably. I ve always been reluctant to wake her up
But set nap and BT don't work any more
and she can't regulate her sleep.
Most troublesome of all I think is her taking ages to fall asleep at bedtime and I don't know what to do anymore.
She has a wind down routine, we offer books in bed but often she just wants lights off and sleep but then can't settle.
There's no issue like pain or hunger, probably developmental, but is just so frustrating!
Do we just let her skip nap occasionally? This could help her settle at BT a bit quicker, as her taking so long to fall asleep makes her day 14 hrs or so, so whether that or skipped nap she will be OT anyway, so I don't know what' s best anymore.
Do I let her sleep on floor in sitting room- sometimes she really wants to do that! Just so she rests at the right time.
Thank you for any advice
Maria
