My DD goes to bed too late at night, and we have been trying for the last 3 weeks to change that, but no luck, so I need some suggestions. Here is her schedule:
7:30: wake-up, BF 10 min, get cleaned up and dressed
8:15: have breakfast (cereal & fruit)
8:30: activity (playing with toys)
9:45: BF 5 min & settle-down
10:15: morning nap
11:15: wake-up, activity
11:45:BF 10 min, story-time
12:30: lunch (protein + veggies & fruit); activity
2:00: BF 5 min or 3oz bottle; settle-down
2:30: afternoon nap
4:30: wake-up; BF 10 min or 4oz bottle
5:15: dinner (same as lunch)
5:45: activity
6:45: begin bedtime struggle with aim for sleep no later than 8pm, preferrably 7:30
ritual: 15 min walk with mom, dad or nanny, getting dressed for bed, story-
time, bed (theoretically)
9:00: finally falls asleep
We've tried getting her up earlier, making her morning and afternoon naps shorter (which makes her crankier but doesn't get her to sleep earlier), we've put her down and left her to play by herself, which leads to crying, which leads to an hour of PU/PD. We've cut the after-dinner activity and tried settle-down earlier. We tried each of these things for a full week with no difference.
At approximately 8:50, she settles down, quiets, babbles a little and pets her lovey, then falls to sleep on her own. What other things can we do to get her to go to sleep earlier?
