16 mos wants to chat at bedtime windown

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Hi all.  It's been a while, returned to work in Aug, so not much time to play.
Olivia has been wonderful & growing into a very beautiful & independent little girl.  I was worried about the time change this fall to be honest, but managed to slowly change her bedtime to 9pm from her usual 8:30pm (actually asleep), so come time change (is this confusing yet), she was not in bed at 7:30, but 8pm instead, giving us time to spend with one another & not feel so rushed after supper.  Thought it was a great plan, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.  She now is asleep at 9pm (really 10pm old time), but shows no signs of overtiredness??...but then again, she is not 5 months old anymore either...
So, now she seems to be getting 9.25 - 10.5 hours of sleep a night & still an average of 2.5 hours of nap time...I find the later she goes to bed the earlier she wakes, but 8:45/9pm asleep seems to be ok with her but I’m concerned about the amount of sleep hours she gets in.  Up until the time change it was 95% of the time 10.25-11hours a night.  This just seems to be bothering me at the moment :?

Is it developmental, the wanting to stay up & chat about her day during windown?  I've tried earlier to give her the chance to chat, but she is not ready for "nite nite"

Should I cut back on her nap?  the sitter says it's taking her longer to get Olivia down for her naps lately too. 

Her routine has changed a bit at night for the last few weeks also...we let her get all of her bath items ready, she picks jammies & books she wants read...dh & I take turns as well with night times, he does it about 70% of the time & I get feed back via him or the monitors. 

I'm not quite sure if I should be implementing little changes or just ride it out, what do you guys think?

[Jayri]

hi there hun, we had a sorta dilemma in our household with our 2 1/2 yr old. He would take forever going down for a nap and for bed, so by his age we figured that he could go without a nap totally thro the day.
I would say for your lo tho, maybe a shorter nap could help, maybe you could set a time that she doesn't sleep past, in our home it is 3:30pm, so that includes waking from naps and if Jayson hasn't napped then he doesn't get one.
It could almost be developmental too, I'd say give the shorter naps a try, if she is not going down for naps then maybe that is her way of letting you know she is ready for a change.
HTH, give me a shout if you need anymore ideas.

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Well, Olivia only did a 2 hour nap yesterday & she had about 2hrs less sleep the night previous so that seemed to help her last night, and the fact that we took her out to a store so she could observe new things & walk around to tire out seemed to help as well. She has WAY much energy! She went down at 8:45pm last night  (1/2 hour later than her 'norm') & woke at 7 this am, so she got her 10 hours in.  Hopefully she won't be so grumpy today.  It's just so funny though, with the time change, she should be asleep by 8/8:15pm latest, but seems to go later now :shock: ...7am is great, but it rushes us to get out the door by 7:45am, so breakfast seems to be a challenge these days as well, since she likes to be up for at least an hour before eating at a leisurely pace of course :roll: . 
I need new breakfast ideas too.  She eats toast, waffles, cheerios & fruit - refuses/hates oatmeal, scrambled eggs & any other cereal.  Healthy & vitamin packed is my goal.
Getting back on topic, maybe I should wake her at 6:30am, this way she may go down that 1/2 hour earlier the next few nights after & we can get back on track.  I really think a 2 hour nap max should be the way to go, unless she is sick...just hate waking the child if she wants to sleep, since we had a difficult time in her earlier months with multiple night wakings due to so many issues at once...the life of a parent eh?  It truly is a labour of love isn't it? 
Thanks for your advise, any other ideas welcome.

[tylersmommy]

From 12-18 mo, babies sleep an average of 13.5 hrs per day, so it sounds like she's getting enough sleep. She may be on the low end of the scale, and that's okay. Is she happy, or does she seem tired during the day? We've figured out through lots of trial and error that we have to wake Tyler from his nap by a certain time or bedtime is out the window. He also likes to chat about his day while we put on his pajamas and cuddle in the rocking chair. We made it part of the routine so it's become a cue that it's time to sleep. Is she fussing or crying when it's time to sleep, or just chatting away to herself?

Tyler eats the same stuff as Olivia for breakfast, but I spread stuff on his waffle before I cut it up. Peanut butter, oatmeal, even veggie puree help pack it with more nutrition. French toast is always a good one too. HTH!

[Cecilia~Olivia's mom]

Hi Tyler’s mommy.  I wish Olivia would eat french toast, hates cinnamon.  She pretty much eats everything else for lunch & supper, can't say she's picky, maybe just bored of her choices, but hey, 9 teeth can only chew so much...
Olivia does not seem grumpy in spirits, & does not cry when being put down.  she is not being mischievous (yet), but it seems like she is not ready to sleep, but is relaxed.  Unfortunately, we do not leave the room while she is awake (nighttime), it's always taken 15 min & she's out, 1/2 hour at the most during tough nights, but this is just different.  We can try going up to her room 1/2hour earlier, but still it's almost 9pm or later before she is asleep.  The later she goes down the earlier she wakes, so this tells me she is not ready to stay up later.  :roll:.  I'm going to ask the sitter to monitor her naps...if Olivia seems to be going down for her nap later, she must still be awaken by 3pm, hopefully having her 2 hours of nap time.  Some days, not often, she has 1.5 hour nap & seems fine, so this could very well be a phase or her trying to set a new schedule.  Funny thing, this only seems to worry me while everyone is just fine & happy...so far :wink: