Do baths wind up your child?

[Carmela's Mom]

A bath was always a part of my 17 month old daughter's bedtime routine but lately I notice that she's yawning, etc and by the time we give her the bath, she's now all riled up.  I'm not sure if I have the timing wrong or if its the bath itself.  Right now this is our day.

6:00 a.m. wake
7:00 a.m. milk
8:00 a.m. breakfast
11:30 a.m. lunch
12:00 p.m. nap
1:30ish up
3:00 p.m. snack
5:30 p.m. dinner then playtime
6:30 snack, bath, lotion, pjs, book, sing, bed
7:00 sleep (talks in the crib until at least

She only gets 11.5 hours sleep a day right now...which for her is NOT enough.  She gets tired for both nap and bedtime earlier than her "time" to go to bed.

I am also thinking of bringing her nap into 11 a.m. and giving her lunch afterwards.  Right now, she is tired by 11 and I hold her off an hour.  I think holding her off that hour is making her overtired and thus she's not napping well. 

Suggestions???

[Seona1973]

My dd is a little bit older but we also found that the bath wound her up before bed and she didnt settle to sleep as quickly. I've now switched to bathing in the morning (not every morning but every other one) and it seems to be helping to stop her getting so hyper.

My dd also tends to have her lunch after her nap - this is her schedule, give or take half an hour here or there:

6.30am-wake
7.30-breakfast
10.30-snack
11:30/12ish-start of nap
1.30/2ish-lunch
5.30-dinner
6.45-pj's on downstairs
7.15-cup of milk, 3 stories and bed

She varies in the amount of time she takes to go to sleep but is normally asleep by 7.45/8pm

Seona

[tylersmommy]

Bathtime has always wound Tyler up too, even when he was an infant. For awhile, we only did baths during the day. Now we can do his bath closer to bedtime on bath days (we bathe him 3x/week unless he's dirty) and he doesn't get as wound up, but we still watch Baby Einstein afterward to calm him down.

You might also try moving her nap forward 1 hr. 6 hrs is an awfully long time to be awake, and it's probably making her too overtired to nap well.

[Carmela's Mom]

I do think 6 hours is too long as well.  But my fear is making bedtime at 6 p.m.  I guess I should suck it up and try it and see if it makes things better.