19 month old changing bedtime aaargghh

[ella kays mum]

Hi all, have been having a few problems with my 19 month old daughter at bedtimes. Last week she started teething again and , predictably, she got earache which led to a few sleepless nights. The last couple of nights she has been fighting bedtime at 7 and i have ended up taking her downstairs, her room is very hot and she was getting so worked up. As soon as downstairs she playing happily. till about 845 then looking tired and taking to bed where she settles down with no trouble at all. Last night same thing happened at 7 o clock she just didn't appear tired but at 9 o clock she was ready for bed.She has always gone to bed between 630 and 7 and always gone down awake and settled herself down.
My query is do i force the 7 o clock issue or do i accept that she just isn't tired then. She has a nap in the daytime of about 11/2 to 2 hours between 1130 and 2 ish. Should i cut her nap down. Yesterday tried to do that and woke her after an hour and she was sooo grotty. We are also having a bit of a heatwave in the UK and it is very hot still at 7 , could this be a factor??

Am  a bit stumped as to know what to do. I would like my evenings back


Tracey and Ella x

[Florencia]

Hi Ella!

I wouldn't touch the nap. It doesn't seem to be the problem as she needs her sleep and the nap isn't too long or ending too late in my opinion. But an 845 pm bedtime seems a bit late for her, since it would mean a 6+ hours awake time and i think she might be too young to handle that and it could cause you further problems of overtiredness or night wakings.

When we go to our holiday cottage, ds has also a probblem settling because of the heat. In some occasions i've had to spray some water  on his sheets (with an athomizer) to make them fresher and help him settle sooner. I would tend to think that heat is playing a huge role here so by all means try to keep her room as fresh as possible by opening the windows and putting on a fan to help air waves to circulate (you can go in later in the night to close windows/turn the fan off if it gets chilly). Do it at least 1 hour before bedtime so the room is fresh enough when it's her time to go down. Allow her to have a drink of chilled water/milk before bedtime and do a longer wind down (extra 10 mins in the bath, extra stories) and see if this works. If you can avoid to take her downstairs i think it's more likely to work. Offer alternate low key activities (listening to classical music while she looks at books, etc). Let us know how it works. Remember that you can't force her to go to sleep but you can always think of a better option to help her going to sleep when the circumstances are adverse (i know i can't sleep well when im too hot). Put her to sleep in a oneeasie or fresh clothes. HTH! and keep us posted!

[imsmum]

My dd is super sensitive to the heat as well.  Especially if she has lost some sleep do to teething I would say that she needs to keep an early bedtime.  My dd starting going through a bit of a blip around this age as well with late nights.  I just kept putting her down as usual and she wentback to sleeping earlier for the most part with only the occasional late night.

[ella kays mum]

Hi thanks for the advise, it confirmed what i thought that 845 way too late for her. Last night she looked tired at 715 so took her up and she went to sleep for about 15 minutes then woke up and sme thing again wantedto play. I didn't take her out of her room , looked at some books with her and let her look at them in her cot on her own.This kept her happy for about half an hour then she cried again, went up to her but didn't take her out the cot, we sang some songs and looked at some books , left her at 845 and she went to sleep . She is sleeping through till 730 ish in the morning. The weird thing is she doesn't appear to me over tired. Before if i was ten minutes late after she atrts yawning all hell would break lose and she would try and go to sleep onthe lounge carpet!! Very strange behaviour but have to keep telling myself that toddlers like to change.
Have a problem with windows open as i have an acrobatic cat that can get through them , but have been putting a fan in her room before bedtime and she is going to bed in a nappy and sleeveless vest.

Am hoping to get my evenings back soon , but i also don't want to make a battle for no reason. A friend of mine said her dd did a similar thing for a few weeks  and she just made sure she did lots of activities with him in the afternoon to tire him out. Might try that . ingers crossed

Tracey and Ella xx