How to get this kid to sleep before 9.30 at night!!

[Deb123]

LO is 29 months and her routine looks as below:

7-12.30
12.30 -2 -fixed nap at daycare
2-9.30 (sometimes 10!)

I cant get her asleep earlier to do more than a 10.5 hour night. She's not OT on this so it barely does but I can see she is tired. She would sleep on in the mornings til at least 8 but then wont sleep at daycare as the A+ is too short.
On the nights she does sleep 11 hours she is in brillant form so its what she needs.

I've tried everything to get her to sleep earlier in the evening,put her to bed earlier,later, cut the nap back to 1.30- 1 hour still same problem. She has a cot party!!
Her body clock seems to be set on late nights, happened about a month ago while she was sick and I cant seem to get it sorted.
She is a night owl anyway and we've never had an EW ( everything else but over the last two years!! )

Short of dropping her nap altogether which she's not able for for more than 1 day I'm at a loss what to do
DH is very reluctant to try 45 mins as when we've tried an hour she didnt sleep any earlier and just got OT


Any suggestions for resetting body clocks

[Tweakster]

Nope.  Not that I'm aware of.  We are in exactly the same boat except that my kid IS an EW and we are stuck.  We tried 45 mins, 1 hr then 1.5 hrs, none of it led to a longer night, it only led to OT.  We've just gone back to a longer nap/shorter night scenario.  So we have:
Awake 6ish
Nap 12:30-2:30/3
Bedtime asleep by 8/8:30

Maybe someone else has some insight...

[Deb123]

Wendy, Thanks for the reply

Good to know someone else is in the same boat

Well disastrous evening today- I attempted to APOP to get her to sleep earlier(didn't work but never has ) and now she's upstairs calling alternatively for myself or DH constantly She only slept about an hour nap and she is obviously tired!


My sympathies for the EW that must be awful. Although constantly trying to get everything done after she finally falls asleep at 10 in the evening is no picnic either!

Do you think its a routine problem, maybe they are ready for no nap? One of my neighbors has a LO same age and just went no nap cold turkey because of this problem. Poor kid looks exhausted by 5 every day and has NW so I dont think that's the solution either!! Although it might be nice to have an evening to myself for once!!

Or maybe its a body clock thing- at daycare she has a nap every day ( she started there 2 months ago ) and now even when she's at home she sleeps at 12 no problem-took almost 2 months for it to happen tho.

I notice you have a 6 1/2 A+ time in the morning and 5 !/2 in the evening -thats almost same as my LO except morning and evening switched around.

Oh- I'm baffled as to what to do with this one!!

[Tweakster]

I do think it's a routine problem but I also think some kids just don't comply or handle transitions easily.  For most, trimming the nap means a longer night.  So they go along gently trimming and LO picks up the sleep at night.  Eventually LO refuses a nap one day and then goes to bed and does 12 or 13 hrs. Then alternates nap and no nap until they can finally handle it.  That's the ideal scenario.

However, some kids just don't follow protocol.  Mine for example.  Instead of tacking from a short nap, he does the opposite.  He shaves his night, thus increasing the need for a longer nap.  And yet the longer nap affects the sleep drive at night. So with a nap he sleeps better...but not longer.  And so forth.

We have done no nap days with F but 1) he's begging for bed at about 10 hrs in and although it would be ideal to put him to bed and have him do 14 hrs, he just doesn't ever do more than 11-12 at night.  His norm is 10-10.5. And 2) we can never manage consecutive no nap days.  It's too hard on him and it's not an option as he is at daycare anyway.

He's doing much better on the long nap/short night scenario except that he's really grumpy mid-morning from the short night. It's finding the best option out of several sucky ones.

[Deb123]

Sorry about the late reply, haven't got reliable internet access at the moment

I was thinking back and for the 2-1 nap cutting never worked for us either, she would just have a short nap 40 mins in the morn and then not sleep for the rest of the day and be a total mess.
So we had short nights then too, at 18 months I went to 1 nap cold turkey, I guess will just have to do that eventually.
This weekend she didnt nap saturday or sunday (left her lovie at daycare-disaster!!) and is still tired today after it, even tho she did 12 hour nights. Although the 1st had 3 NW so that prob doesnt count. Anyway I dont think she is ready for it, although maybe on the verge. Who knows with this kid???