3 yo plays for 1hr+ at bedtime?

[lunababy]

Hi.  You may have seen my posts addressing getting DS proper nightime sleep.  I think success of our tweaking for him is dependent on fixing bedtime sleep for DD.  They (are supposed to) share a room.

DD is 3 yrs 3 mos.  DS is 13 mos.

We have been putting him to bed in PNP in our room and transferring once she's asleep.  (He takes his morning nap in the crib in their room and pm nap in PNP.)

We have also moved his bedtime forward to about 7 and are moving hers back to about 8.  So I think I have a window to start putting him to bed in his room, do her story routine in our room and then quietly have her jump into bed.

Problem is that since she has been probably 18 months or so she has babbled, sang, rocked around for a good hour or more before falling asleep.  In the 2 months since they have shared a room we have also introduced a very mellow story on CD for her to listen to.   Tonight was the first time she ever walked out of the room into our room.  For the most part she just winds down for a lonnnnnnnng time in bed.

She had been dropping some naps but now I cut them off at 4:30 no matter what.  This has gotten her back into daily napping (1.25 hrs) but hasn't gotten her off to bed any sooner which was what I was hoping to fix. 

Later bedtime for her doesn't seem to have changed anything.  She's in bed at 8:15 (used to be 7:45) but not asleep until around 9:30.

We probably should have nipped this in the bud about 18 months ago but since she was content and going to bed independently I didn't want to intervene.

Also, recently she cries out for boo-boos.  She has ezcema really badly and it's very hard to tell if legit or not.  I think sometime she makes it up and sometimes she's bored and scratches and then it starts to itch.  We have to go in usually 2-3x to apply cream.

Any ideas on what if anything I can do to help her wind down faster? 

(Please move if there is a preschool sleep board.)

Thanks!!!
 

[binxyboo]

Would you mind posting your daily routine with wake time, naptime etc. Waking up from nap at 4:30 pm seems awfully late to me. I have to make sure Riley (21 months) is up from his nap at 2, very latest 2:30, otherwise bedtime gets pushed back too much.

[Mom to M&M]

Agreed - I have to make sure Marisa (20.5 months) is up by 3 if I want to get her to bed around 8 or so. 4:30 is really late - at her age I'd make sure she's up by 2:30 or 3. If she's not asleep by then consider it a no-nap day and do an early bedtime. But please do post her routine with wake time and nap time.

[lunababy]

Hi.  Thanks for the help!  DD has always been a late napper.  Nap has consistently been in the 2-3 pm range since about 20 months.  This is her schedule...

7:15 wake
2:30 wind down
3:00 nap (or quiet time)
4:00 wake (or end of quiet time)
7:30 wind down
8:00 lights out
usually 9:00 or so before she's asleep

I recently started 4 pm as end of nap time. I think I am realizing that she's dropping her nap!  Ugly but at least she is good with quiet time.  The 7:30 wind down is not my idea.  My DH puts her to bed and I do DS.  He starts when I start even though I have suggested that starting a little later might end the 60 min of screwing around.  She's been doing that 60 min playing since around 24 months too. 

Guess we should have tweaked this all long time ago!  Just in the past 2 weeks she's started actually getting up out of bed so until we needed her to share room w/DS and the walking out of bed we haven't been too concerned.  Also, about 2 weeks ago we started putting her to bed in our room so we can work on sleep issues w/DS. 

[Carmela's Mom]

I'm having similar issues with my daughter!  I agree with previous posters.  Move the nap forward to 12:30 and if she doesn't fall asleep, skip it, but if she goes to sleep, then wake her by 2:30 -- nap or not!