19 Month old STILL won't sleep thru the night

[Shayleesmom]

I am so tired and frustrated (as I am sure many of you are).  I usually find the answers I am looking for by reading other posts but at this point I need to ask for help (I'm not a big poster).
My 19 month DD won't sleep thru the night and it is driving me crazy!!  She was really good from 12 months to about 15 months, then right before Christmas she was really sick and she hasn't slept thru the night since.  We have tried everything, all the tricks that we know of, but still it remains the same.  We have kept her up later at night, put her to bed earlier at night, gave her more to eat before bed, wi/wo, pu/pd (more  pd then pu), tried to sleep in her room with her but then all she wants to do is play, wake to sleep but because she doesn't wake up at the same time every night this is hard to accomplish.  She is up roughly around 11:30, 12:30, 1:00pm etc. every night and is awake for 2-3 hrs at a time.  Wide awake, like ready to play awake.  I just can't get her back to sleep let alone to sleep thru the night.  And on top of all this, she still gets up at 5:30 - 6:00 am everyday ready for her breakfast like she was the most rested little thing.  Because she is up so early she still gets a morning nap and I just can't break her of this.  We tried today to not give her this AM nap and she fell asleep eating lunch!  What am I going to do?  What else can I try?  Please help! 

6:00 am - up for the day
6:30/7 am - breakfast
9:30 - 10:30 - AM nap (no more than an hour)
12 noon - lunch
1:30/2:00pm - afternoon nap 1.5 - 2 hrs (never past 4 pm)
5/5:15 pm - dinner
6:45pm - head for bed (after stories, songs and milk we try to have her in bed by 7:15/7:30)

She sleeps great the first half of the night until that dreaded time frame mentioned above.  Of course, right when I am getting ready for bed.  Anyway....

[mari]

She is having 3 hours of sleep during the day, so I think that she needs less daytime sleep as it could be robbing her night time sleep.

Could you just try her with a short power nap in the am.  She might be cranky when she wakes but just let her have about 20 mins and then a nap at 12.30ish and an early bedtime of 6.30-7pm. 
HTH

[Layla]

I would try to get rid of the morning nap. At 19 months most are on 1 nap so I think this might have something to do with her not sleeping well at night as well.

You could try what Mari suggested and lessen the morning nap and bring the 2nd nap forward. You could also try not offering the morning nap and give 1 nap, say starting at 11ish and push it every 3 day till it gets to midday (so add 15 mins every 3 days until you get to 12pm). Starting the day at 6am is early but really they can start anywhere from 6-8am so its not uncommon. Isabella is an early riser and starts her day at 6am as well. I have her take her nap at 12ish (lasts 2hrs) and her bedtime is 7pm.

Lunch might be a bit off until the nap is settled so maybe offer 1/2 lunch before nap and the other 1/2 after or maybe a big snack before nap and lunch after.

So I would make the transition to 1 nap and see if that helps.

Layla

[becky1969]

I completely agree with PP. I think you're hitting the 2-1 nap transition period, where 2 naps can be too much sleep, 1 nap not enough.

Limiting the first nap is the key! I had to learn this the hard way. We had tons of NWs from about 10-14 months old, and I know now it's b/c I was letting him sleep too long in the morning, and then his PM nap would occur too late in the day. I never let him sleep past 4:30 (to preserve a 7:30 bedtime), but it caused NWs! I now limit his PM nap (if he has 2 naps) to no later than 3:30.

Layla also has a good suggestion to just try 1 nap to see how it goes. When I first did that with Owen, I was shocked that he could do it! He's always been a sleepy little guy, so it was a real eye opener to know he could do 5 hours of awake time before a nap! Before bed, though, he usually can only do 4-4.5 hours. You'll definitely need to experiment a bit.

We now mostly are on one nap during the day, and he's sleeping SO much better! Actually, as soon as I limited that AM nap, he started sleeping thru the night again. The 2-1 nap transition is so hard. There's a buddy group in the Sticky section of the Naps board that talks about it regularly! Stop by if you want to hear more ideas on how to get thru it!

Good luck!

[Shayleesmom]

Thanks so much ladies - I will give it a try because at this point I'll try anything.
I am always so relieved and feel so much better after coming to this site - makes me feel like I am not alone.  Much appreciated!