Talking before nap - developmental?

[munzle]

I am totally confused by my dd and not sure whether we have a major developmental stage affecting sleep or whether our routine needs tweaking. For the last 3/4 days she has been taking an hour or so to fall asleep for her nap. She goes down looking sleepyish, but then starts talking, and just won't stop. Sometimes she falls asleep on her own, but sometimes she then starts crying and I hae to go in and tell her to go to sleep. I wouldn't worry too much as she's just talking and not crying, but she wakes up after 1hr (usually means OT for her) and wakes up crying. Routine is variable but on a day with a 12hr night we aim for 5.5h A time in the morning and a 5hA time before bed. She's 21 months and on high end of sleep needs - gets OT very quickly. Anyone been through this / got any advice?

[deb]

When we got stuff like this there was a developmental leap occurring or about to. Josie would say a new word or string words together in a new way, or she'd suddenly do a new physical skill, like skipping instead of just walking or running, whatever.

Might also be teeth coming thru, just bugging her enough to keep her awake but she may be distracting herself.

For a few days till whatever it is comes through or till the novelty wears off, just follow her cues as best you can but expect things to be a bit wonky. Keep to the routine as much as she'll let you. You may need to start naptime winddowns a bit earlier to give her time to have her chat time and still get some rest till it blows over.

[munzle]

Thank you Deb. She has lots of words but is really starting to put them together. She practices all the time at the moment - especially in the car. I hope it's that. Thankfully it's not affecting her night sleep - just naps. Having said that, she did wake up early this morning, then lay chatting for 40 minutes. There is definitely some molar action going on too, although it comes and goes. Last week they seemed to really bother her and not so much at the moment, but you're right - perhaps enough to stir her awake after an hour.

[clazzat]

We went through a very similar thing - dd would talk for so long that she would end up OT and EWing.  For us. it was definitely OT - not sure where it came from, but probably a developmental thing - and we solved it by putting her down a little earlier for her nap, and a little earlier for bed.

[munzle]

I think that's a good idea - I'll try a slightly earlier nap with longer wind-down tomorrow. I'm wondering if it's partly due to missing her sleep window anyway, as on Friday night she had a 13h sleep, then went straight down for her nap after 5.5h, so maybe she just needs shorter A times at the moment. Feel like we haven't really got her A times right for the last 4 months, or she just keeps changing the goal posts!