18 Month old.....Help with too long of wake time causing excessively long days

[IndigoJaguar]

I have an 18 month old who is very advanced for her age. She has always needed less sleep than others her age and has been able to manage longer A times than others. She dropped her second nap at 1 year and had been doing a 5 to 5 1/2 hour A time with a 1 1/2 hour nap for the last 5 months. About 4 weeks ago, she started doing EW and some NW, so I increased her A time and that took care of it, BUT she now is having a 14 to 14 1/2 hour day and is borderline overtired. Her schedule is usually up at 8 or 8:30. Nap 6 to 6 1/2 hours later at about 2:30- 4. She then is able to stay up another 6 hours or more. I am tired of fighting to get her to go to sleep. She just plays and plays in her bed. After awhile she will fall asleep on her own, but by then it is late. I don't want to have to get up at 6 am to get her to sleep by a decent time.
Any suggestions on what I could try to shorten her day? I have tried putting her down earlier for a nap and bedtime, but she just plays in her bed for hours. I have tried shortening her nap to get an earlier bedtime, but she can still stay up easily 6 to 6 1/2 hours on a 1 hour nap and still be happy. I've tried holding her down in her bed.

[pinkladyangel]

Hi there.
Our dd was very advanced and lsn. At 18 months her nap was only 10/15 mins and she would do a 12hr night. If her nap was longer she would be awake for ages or she would wake to early in the morning. Have you thought about capping her nap.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

My daughter was also slightly lsn and I had to start capping to 1hr max nap not long after she turned 18 months.  It took us a while to figure that out though!  She actually started capping it herself to 45 minutes most days at around 20 months and that worked best of all.  Have you tried capping it for a few days in a row and seeing if she builds up some tiredness over time?  Maybe cap at 1hr initially and then cap further if things are no better after a week?

[IndigoJaguar]

I haven't tried capping her nap. I need to try that.
I have been trying a set bedtime the last few nights. That seems to be working well. No matter what time her nap ends we are shooting to be asleep by 9 or 9:30.
Thanks all. This gives me some things to try.

[IndigoJaguar]

What is lsn?

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Sorry, it's Low (er than average) Sleep Needs. Set naps and bedtime work really well here, though I occasionally have to tweak to get the nap at the right time (my lo likes a really long first A), but once we find something that works I try to stick with it as long as possible.  Good luck with the nap capping!

[IndigoJaguar]

Thank you! I am going to try capping the nap a little and also a set bedtime.