Taking 45+ minutes to fall asleep at night

[skatty]

Hi Shannon, Leorah will also be 2 shortly and I went through a terrible upset with her sleep recently but it manifested as no naps and EW  It just so happened it was a matter of needing to increase her A times which have always been very short for her age and a tweak of her routine and now she is doing very well on the whole. The wierd thing is her sleep needs have only decreased about 60 mins and sometimes she could really do with an extra half an hour on her night (today we overslept by ½ an hour and she was fast asleep). She used to do 13-14 hours at night and a 1-1.25 hr nap now she does 12-12½ at night and a 1½-2 hr nap, I have started to wake her at 7 in the morning because she can easily sleep until 8 and that doesn't leave anything over for a nap. Anyway I just thought you'd like to hear you are not the only one at this awkward stage 

[irish3680]

Thanks Skatty!

[irish3680]

AAHHHH, Ella is still waking early before 7 am. We know she is not getting enough sleep because she looks beat. She is only getting about 12 hours in a 24 hour period and we still really think she needs 13. I'm wondering if she has a "magic" time she needs to be asleep at night in order to be able to sleep in to her normal waketime. She has always favored an earlier bedtime and has a tendency to rob night sleep for day, but needs a longer night in order to stay well rested. I'm wondering if I need to nap earlier, say 12:30 and bed at 7:30. What do you all think? WOuld you continue capping nap at 2 hours?

[Sima]

Irish:  My lo went to one nap at 14 months and at 18 months she started waking up earlier--like 5.30-6 because she needed less sleep I think.
Maybe if she slept less for nap and more at night???  But it is hard to wake lo from nap...
Not sure..let us know how you make out.

[irish3680]

Thanks everyone for all of your insights! The past few days have gone well with the nap 12:30-2:30 and bed at 7:30. Ella has not been too happy about being woken from her nap, but she gets over it. She has been falling asleep MUCH quicker at bedtime, no more than 15-20 minutes between us putting her down and she being out. I decided to wake her at 7:30 if necessary to accomodate the earlier nap and yesterday I actually had to wake her and this morning she woke on her own just a few minutes before I was going in. She is falling asleep with no problem within minutes of being put down for her nap at 12:30. So far so good, I hope it stays like this. But we all know it usually never does, right? 

[Casseopea]

Yea!!  I am so glad that things are going well.  I hope they keep up.   

[LisaM]

Just to let you know that my dd 2 in September has also recently started taking 30-50 mins to go off at night.  She used to go off nicely in about 10 mins.  DD1 also went through a phase of this around the same age where she would chat for ages before dropping off.  I remember at the time that lots of other mums posted to say that their los were doing the same.  Dd2 is doing this now too, I think it because they are busy practising their language skills - it is cute to listen to but not making things any easier because same as you she is not making up for the later nights, infact has for the last 4 nights only slept 9.5 hrs at night.  For us it is not a case of shortening naps as her naps mostly average 1.20-1.30 mins but she has always been a EW and bad napper.

Good luck - hope you get it sorted soon.
Lisa

[irish3680]

Lisa, how is DD doing?

It seems that Ella will take between 30-60 minutes to fall asleep at night no matter what her day is like. The 12:30 nap is working fine. So I am thinking about keeping nap at 12:30-2:30 and put her in bed at 7 pm with the goal of her being asleep at 8 pm.

[LisaM]

Hi

Still the same with us - Gracie is taking normally 30-60 mins to go off, although last night was a bit quicker.  She has had a couple of really good lie-ins for her though as slept 11ish hours last couple of nights so at least made up a bit for the 9.5 hrs she was having for a few nights.  Only had 10 hrs last night with a 1.15 min nap yesterday so not a great total but I am used to that with her and try to stress too much about it.

I agree with what you say about bed earlier - thats what I have been doing - nomally now trying to get her into bed at 6.30 cos it can take til 7.30 for her to go off.  Is she just chatting away to herself before she goes to sleep?  Let me know how you get on.
Lisa x

[irish3680]

Good to hear she's sleeping in a bit for you. She is happy and talking or just silently cuddling with her blankie until she falls asleep at night, which is good. Most nights I think she is already asleep because she's been quiet for so long and then I sneak to check on her and up she pops, still awake.

[LisaM]

Wow - you dare to go into her room once you've put her to bed!!!  I wouldn't dare try it with Grace she would be up bouncing around I'm sure if she thought she'd got some company! 

PS - just seen your ticker - Happy Birthday for yesterday to Ella - hope she had a great day.

[Sima]

Awesome!!!! I am glad it worked!!!
Is it still working out???