23 month old with difficult naps

[stheo]

Ainslee has always been good sleeper, sleeps 12 hours night and 2 hour nap.... independent sleeper since 9 months old.. we always read a book and rock and sing songs in dark before nap or bedtime.. always put in bed awake and sleeps on own. the last couple of days she has been giving me a little trouble.. either not settling very easy ( crying, fighting with me) or she goes in her crib and then talks to herself for a while ( the other day up to an hour b4 she went to sleep) she usually goes down after 5 hours of A time or if she shows tired signs earlier... when she does finally go to sleep she will sleep for at least 2 hours and then I have to wake her since she took so long to go to sleep. is this just a phase ( think she is cutting 2 year molars) or does she need more A time..

[becky1969]

If its molars coming in, then there's a chance that she's a bit OT by nap time.  Teeth can knock the stuffing out of LOs and make them more tired than usual.  You might try a slightly earlier nap (15-20 minutes) and see if that makes a difference.  If that doesn't work, bring it forward another 15 minutes (total of 30) and see what happens.

Of course, OT and UT often look the same!    If the 30 minutes doesn't make things better, than go the opposite direction by 15 minutes and see how that works!  But my *best* guess is that the molars are making her more tired than usual.  My son is a great sleeper like yours, and those 2 year molars gave us 15 hour sleeps for awhile!    We moved his nap and bedtime earlier by 30 minutes each, and he started having 13 hour nights.    Sadly, those days are over.  But maybe you'll see something similar!