16 Month Old with 'Shorter' Naps

[AshleyMegan]

Hi all!

First off, THANK YOU, for all the advice I have been given.  We've finally made it through the dreaded 2-1. 

My daughter had been taking great naps (2-3 hours) once we transitioned, but within the past 2 weeks, she has gone down to 1.5 hour naps. 

She wakes at 7:30, and nap is at 12:45-1 pm.  I tried delaying the nap until 1:15-1:30, to see if maybe she'd sleep longer if she was more tired....but I think I just caused her to get overtired...she'd wake at 1.5 hours, screaming! 

Right now, with nap 12:45-1 pm, she'll wake content, and happily 'relax' in her crib  (which she can do for hours if I leave her, lol).

Do I just have a baby that takes shorter naps?  Anything to suggest to make them longer?  Could it be developmental at this age?  So many unanswered questions!

She does start to get more cranky near bedtime (7:30-7:45pm) when she only naps for 1.5 hours. 

Thanks in advance for the advice!  Now off to get my daughter....who has been singing to herself in her crib for the past 15 minutes .

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, does she sleep well at night? If she does I'd say she's getting what she needs at the moment and and if she's waking from her nap happy then she seems rested x

[Conniesmummy]

I would agree, if she's happy, maybe she's getting what she needs.
I find my now 19 month old can fluctuate between an hour and 2 hours for her nap, depending on where we are or what she's been doing. I was advised that anything over an hour at this age is an ok nap. Anything less, which we do get on occasions, I move bedtime early by about 15 mins, the whole routine that is. Seems to be working so far, don't want to jinx things 
I've tried to stop myself over analysing everything these days and just go with the flow a bit more.
One thing I do try to manage, if I can, is falling asleep in the car. If and when this does happen, way before nap time, then I have a right cranky pants on my hands, who either falls asleep again in the car on the journey home, too close to normal bedtime! Or one very tired toy at bedtime and I opt for a super early bedtime with a good wind down routine.
My hubby thinks I'm mental, working everything out, how little do they know about our daily troubles re sleep!! They just see a good baby, going to bed ok. They have no concept that this is mostly due to mummy's hard work all day to keep baby from getting overtired and grumpy!