BT refusal...getting a bit desperate!!

[laurenhendo]

Hello lovely ladies,

My DD is 18 months and even though I am aware we are also facing the 18 month regression, just wanted some eyes to take a look and see what else I can do to help deal with this horrid phase we are in.

Day is normally like this (although it's been wobbly now for weeks!)

WU - 6:30/7am
Nap - 12-2
BT - 7:30

At the moment, it is taking DD 2.5 hrs to get to sleep at night!! She has been a somewhat ok sleeper, needs a bit of a cuddle before bed, but generally ok, but lately, she's totally wired and not nearly tired enough at bedtime.

We have tried:

Putting to bed 1/2 hr later at 8pm...no luck.
Bedtime snack in case dinner wasn't enough....no luck.
Running her ragged at the park in the afternoons so she is tired before bed...no luck.
Capping the nap to 1.5 hrs....very grumpy DD and no luck with early bedtime or regular bedtime plus she was cranky all afternoon
etc etc.

The only think i'm wondering is if the 12pm naptime is too early and if she is ready to perhaps go down around 1pm...only issue is, is that i need to leave home at 2:20 to pick older DD up from school....

Any ideas? Getting a bit stressed about the whole thing 

[Lolly]

How long did you try an earlier bedtime for? It can take a good week+ of EBT for it to make a difference.

If she is wired at bedtime then I wonder if she is actually OT and has a second wind - that's what my two are like if they are actually OT and I have missed their sleep window, it's fun

Laura

[laurenhendo]

Hi Lolly, EBT was the first thing I tried...probably for about 9 nights in a row...but it was a bit of a joke, she wasn't even interested in sitting down to read bedtime stories, just tearing around the room. I tried even earlier in case i missed the window too the next few nights but got nowhere.

I'm trying a later nap today to see if a longer morning might help...do you think this is worth a shot?

LH

[Lolly]

It's worth a shot! She may well need a longer morning A time, see how she goes!

Laura

[laurenhendo]

Well we did a capped nap today 1-2:30pm...went down like a dream and was happy all morning. Was a bit cranky getting up (maybe because i left it till the last second and grabbed her out of the cot, popped her in the car and raced to the school to be there in time for other DD pickup) but was happy soon enough.

Bedtime shenanigans again tonight but it only took her 30 mins to go off, she put up a bit of a fight but got there eventually....so maybe we are heading in the right direction? I'm hoping that maybe after a few days of capped later naps she might be a little more ready to settle down...

[Lolly]

It can take a good few days to see if it works. I'd say if she is still monkeying around after 5 days come back and we will have a re-think!

Laura

[laurenhendo]

Thanks Laura, hopefully it works

[laurenhendo]

Right, i'm back. We have had an unusual situation occur and not i'm not sure what to do!

We still had the monkey business at bedtime over the last few days, except that yesterday, older DD accidentally woke DD up at the 1hr 15min mark during her nap and we couldn't get her back down to finish the nap so we did EBT at 7pm. For the first time in months DD went straight off to sleep within 5 minutes, didn't hear a peep out of her. We had NW, but i think it may be from the heatwave we were in (it was 36.5 in the house last night..very humid also..yuck).

Today i put her back on her regular nap schedule and she's still bouncing around her cot now, an hour after we put her down....so what to do? 1hr 15 is waaay to short for an 18 mo...isn't it??

[Lolly]

Maybe not - their sleep needs do change a lot. You can try it for a few days and see how she goes, it may be that after a day or two she starts to get a bit OT so you need to give her a longer nap to catch up.

Laura

[laurenhendo]

I  hadn't thought about a catch up day every few days if needed, that's a great idea.

Thanks so much for the advice, will give it a shot and see how we go