21 month old - low sleep needs?

[Tabathagucci]

Hello, my baby girl is 21 months now.  She is sleeping 9-10 hours a night and 1.5-2.25 hours for nap. This seems very low for her age.  She seems happy for the most part.  Gets grumpy on days where she sleeps on the low end of night sleep.  Should I worry about her not getting a full 10 hours at night consistently?  Thanks!
ps sometimes she skips her nap and will sleep 12 hours that night.

[Haribo2012]

Hi otvis quite low but then no 2 lo’s are the same. What time is WU/nap/Bt?

My DS2 is 21 months and does about 11 at night 1.5/2 in the day x

[Tabathagucci]

Hi and thank you!  It's been a bit off since we've had our time change but in general:

Wake 5:30/6
Nap 1:30-3:30
Bed time 7:30 asleep 8/8:30

[Haribo2012]

Would it be worth trying earlier nap and BT for a couple of days so nap 12.30-2/2.30 BT 7 I’m wondering if she’s got build up of OT?x

[Tabathagucci]

She's and early riser so early nap causes issues for us.  She was napping at 1:45, then when the time change happened I kept it the same (which was now 12:45).  This worked for 2 days.  Then she started refusing so I pushed it later to 1, which she also refused so we did 1:15 and that worked.  Tuesday I put her down at 1:15 and she took till 1:30 to fall asleep.  And I've tried EBT also, she just refuses and it takes me an hour to get her to sleep.

[creations]

Hi, I'm stopping by because this sounds a little like my DS although the age was a bit different.
He would also have refused an earlier nap and EBT.
At 21 months mine would have been doing 10-11 (more like 10)hrs overnight and a solid 2hr nap.
At 25 months though the nights started to shorten, 9hr and even shorter I had a post because of the 9hr nights.
It isn't totally unheard of for a LO to start the nap drop early which was what it was in our case and perhaps yours too although she's a few months younger. Some LOs have dropped the nap by 24months. Mine kept his nap until 31 months (so quite a long time, 6 months, after those short nights started).

Options include:
- cap the nap, cap at 1.5hr everyday because that's what she sometimes does and can provide consistency to the nap length so more likely to go towards 10hr night sleep rather than 9hr (this was no good for my DS but it works great for many) and as the months go by cap the nap a little shorter if/when nights reduce again, tweaking the routine until the nap is gone (could be many months off)
- keep the long nap but offer the occasional NND (no nap day) with a long night, can start at 1 every 2 wks or so then 1 per week and increase as needed to keep the mood good
- stick with the short night and long nap (which is what I eventually did after trying other things). IMO the long nap is restorative enough to counter the short night. Yes a night shorter than 10 hrs in not ideal but they *are* still getting a fabulous nap in the day which is really beneficial.
During the long road to dropping the nap my DS needed his sleep spread out like this and was much better rested and in good spirits.  Trying to cap his nap or do NNDs were disastrous for him.  He eventually dropped the long nap cold turkey at 31 months.

hope this helps

[Tabathagucci]

Thank you so much!!  I have a feeling she just doesn't want to/need to sleep.  She's not yawning all the time or crazy tired.  We did have a last canine coming in so I think that may have been responsible for some of the craziness a couple days ago.  Also wondering if she's going through some developmental phase.  She's been challenging herself a lot physically and also trying new words all of a sudden.

[Haribo2012]

We have massive language explosion going on at the min which I think contributes to sleep x

[Tabathagucci]

Good to know... she is refusing nap again today.  Tried at 1:10 tried at 1:25 nonlick woth either. So I guess we will just have the occasional no nap day!

[Haribo2012]

You could always try a 20 min CN later if she seems tired x

[creations]

Yep, big disturbance at 21 months here during a language leap too.  He suddenly had new words and started sleeping like normal again after the leap.

[Tabathagucci]

Oh thank you, I certainly hope that's what this is!  She is driving me batty!
Thursday - after 3 attempts, still would not nap, was horrendously grumpy, fell asleep in the car at 4:46 pm, wilenher at 5:05.  She fought daddy going down a little for bed but it wasn't too bad.
Friday - daddy put her down for nap, she tried stalking, wanted to drink water, wash her hands, get a book, etc but fell asleep within 5 mins of being put down.  Daddy put her down at bed time too.  After stalling again, she went down fairly easily.
Saturday - daddy is not home, She asked to nurse right before nap so I did, but not in her room so as not to associate with sleep.  She fell asleep while nursing and when I tried to take her to her room she started screaming and wanted her pre-nap walk.  We took the walk and then she started screaming again when I tried to take her in her room.  She wouldn't even cuddle in a chair in a dark room.  I finally raised the shade a little and gave her some books so she could at least have quiet time in her crib.  She stayed in there for 50 mins.  No sleep tho.  After I got her up she asked to nurse again and fell asleep in me again!
So it appears she'll go down fairly easy for daddy, not so much for me!  Any ideas on how to handle this till her crazy period passes?

[creations]

She's clearly tired but fighting sleep so much then giving in at the breast!  Hmm..maybe sleep with her for a nap or two, is that possible? It's not something I'd do long term but I do things during craziness that I would never continue long term.

[Haribo2012]

I’d fobthe nap with her too. My DS2 had a sofa sleep cuddling me last week and that never happens here unless he’s ill or in developmental phase x

[Tabathagucci]

I tried this today!  After hubby was unsuccessful in getting her down, I offered to nap with her.  She wanted to lay on the floor with me which worked for a bit, but then she started crying again.  She wanted to read. We read, I sang songs, then she asked for food.  I said after nap and she started screaming again. I tried putting her in the crib with books again for quiet time, more screaming.  At this point (30 mins into trying all this stuff) I just popped her on the boob.  We're leaving for a trip tomorrow so just wanted to get her nap over with! After she fell asleep, tried transferring her, no luck.  Obviously I can't do this (napping her on the boob) every day. I can try car naps but at what point do I try to get her back in the crib? It's waaay too early to give up naps.