20 mo old taking forever to get to sleep and loooong NWs

[lesorl]

My short napper (used to be 40 mins or so from the time she was about 6 weeks) has finally gone to 1 nap and usually sleeps about 1 hour 20 mins- 1hour 40 mins.  In order to get a nap longer than 40 mins, I need to push her A time to about 5 hours 50 mins.  I've tried getting her to sleep about 4.5 hours after nap, but it takes about 30-60 mins (and sometimes longer) for her to get to sleep.  Then she'll wake in the middle of the night for about 2 hours, tossing and turning.

I know she's OT, but I don't know how to fix it.  If I shorten the A time, I'll get a much shorter nap.  Can anybody help?  We're desperate for some sleep here.

[yaya]

Yikes, that' s a toughie...she does dound OT and the only way to fix that is break the cycle so IMO bring that A time back to about 4.5hrs-5hrs max , work on extending the nap (what are you doing to extend?) and do a super early bedtime
What is your current routine like?
DS used to go for a nap around 2pm (almost 3 yrs old) and take anything up to 45mins to go to sleep this week I have put him down at 12.45 and he's been going to sleep in mins...... and he shows NO tired signs.

[lesorl]

I think she'll only sleep about 50 mins max if I bring the A time back, and I've never been successful in extending the nap. 

Here's our current routine:

6:30am ish Wake
Nap around 12:15pm
Bedtime about 4.5 hours post nap

[yaya]

how about inverting that? having shorter A time before first nap and longer A time after?

so she's going to bed about 7? have you tried other bedtimes?

[lesorl]

like I mentioned, she doesn't nap much if I shorten her morning A time.  she'll sleep better at night if she goes to bed earlier, but i can't seem to get the A time right.

she'll go to bed around 6:15pm-6:30pm, and sometimes she falls asleep right away, but usually she's not asleep til 7pm ish.  Last night it was 7:45pm, and then she was up for 2 hours b/t 2:30am and 4:30am, and up for the day at 6:30am.

[trisharushbrook]

just marking my spot - I could have written your post.... I'm in this cycle too.  My DD is ok to go down for a nap but does take about 30mins to get her to sleep but she will only nap for about 45mins and will then have NWs for 2hrs (like last night). Just today I managed to keep her up until 12:30pm (if she's awake during the ngiht she is usually ready for nap at 10:30am) and she is still asleep after 1.5hrs so that's good but we'll see what tonight brings.

Hope someone out there has some advice for us.

[yaya]

any sign of teething?

[lesorl]

no outwardly signs of teething, but a big swollen gum where her last 1 year molar is coming (it's been coming since January, I swear).  And I have given her motrin on different nights, and it seems to have no effect. 

[yaya]

teething is a pain (scuse the pun!) in that it's hard to work out thats the culprit till aafter the tooth has popped....
What have you tried to extend naps?
Do you keep a food log?

[lesorl]

WI/WO only serves to get her ed after she wakes from a nap, and I've tried leaving her for awhile and even rocking her b2s, and she'll have none of it.

No, I don't keep a food log.  Though she hasn't been eating any new/different foods lately.

[yaya]

how does she do when she only does 50min nap? Does she go straight to sleep at night?

[yaya]

Just remembered: when my DS did this for a bit ( i think he was learning new skills of some kind...) I used to stay in the room with him, reminding him every 10 min sor so in a frim voice that it was sleep time

[lesorl]

Yes, she goes right to bed when she's only slept 50 mins.  Last night I put her in bed after only 4 hours after her nap of 1 hour 20 mins, and she was asleep by 4 hours 15 mins.  She woke about 3 hours 15 mins later, I gave her some Tylenol and then told her I'd be right back. Well she fell asleep about 15 mins later, and then slept til 5:52am this morning.  YAY- almost 12 hours last night.

Maybe she just needs significantly less A time post nap???

[yaya]

possibly....try it for a few days but watch out for tired signs... well done you X

[lesorl]

Why oh why did it take 1.5 hours tonight to get her to sleep?

I suppose we're in for another 2 hour NW. 

Good times here.