18 month old taking forever to go to sleep at night

[allyson]

I usually put my 18 month old down at 7pm. well we start the wind down at 7 and she is usually sleeping at 7:30pm ish. now for some reason she is not falling asleep until 8:15pm. she just rolls around and plays in her crib until then. I don't want to go in there again because I don't want her to get used to it. this is just not like her and I feel it is a bit late for her age.

she usually wakes at 7-7:30 ish. and naps for 1.5-1.45 hours in the afternoon. but the problem is now that she is going down later she is taking a 1.15 hour nap instead and this is less sleep than she usually gets. anyone know why this is?? what should I do? or why is this happening?? I still leave her at her afternoon nap for the remainder of the time to give her quiet time even if she wakes from her nap early. I don't want her to get used to waking and getting up from her naps early.

any help?? 

[mari]

What time is her nap in the afternoon?

[allyson]

1 pm

[mari]

Tracy advises in her book not to let them sleep until later than 3.30pm as this will mess their bedtime, but I find that 2.30pm is late enough for Alex so in order for her to have a good nap I need to put her down at 12.30 and I wake her at 2.30pm, she then (usually) can be off to sleep at bedtime at 7.30pm.  Perhaps you could try her nap slightly earlier, it might work for her if she has long enough a little earlier.

[allyson]

OK thanks but she is usually up by 2:30 or 2:45 the latest. I am wondering one thing, she has been sleeping later in the morning lately and I think that may be messing her up a bit. she used to get up at 7 the latest and now she is waking at 7:15-7:45 sometimes. should I wake her at 7 to keep her on track? I am leaving her because she has been falling asleep so late I think she needs the rest? maybe I should concentrate on getting her back to the regular 7:30 bedtime and 7 awake time until she is back to the norm.

tonight my husband is out so I rocked her and chilled her out for a bit before going to bed and she fell asleep at 7:30  he usually plays with her after coming home from work so maybe that gets her wired and makes it harder for her to settle at night??

Tomorrow I am going to get her up for 7am and see if that helps.

[Katet]

With my 18mo I am noticing he is A LOT more alert & active & have needed to have a longer wind down... after a run around to burn off energy.
What we do is game of chasings 6.45pm bath, quiet play with family, then 7.30pm into room for stories & into bed & asleep by 7.45/8pm... that said with disrupted routine this last week it isn't as smooth sailing.
Anyway by the sounds of it with the rocking & chilling her out a bit longer & falling asleep at the normal time it sounds like the play time in her cot was her need for more of a wind-down

[Diegos Mama]

YES!  The husband played before bed sure wires up my kids. They then need a really long wind-down. 

The average amount of sleep for her age is 13.5 hours. My children always slept slightly less than the averages.  She's not really that off track.  Any developmental stuff going on?  Is she chatting a lot in bed when she's rolling around? Maybe a language surge is on the way and she's practicing talking? 

I'd definetly leave her be if she's falling asleep on her own and not upset.  Then, as you say, you can shorten her morning time, then move up her nap, but really, I don't consider 8:15 to be a terribly late bedtime.  She's sleeping late in the am.  Is she well rested and happy during the day?  I always kept a slightly later bedtime for my boys so they could have good quality Papa time in the evenings.

Good luck!

[allyson]

She really is going through a HUGE developmental talking stage. so much  in the last week even and that is when this all started. can this effect her going to bed?? she is sleeping throught the night and late in the morning so she is still getting about 13 hours or so total with naps so she is not too bad. I just worry because I am due to have another baby in 6 weeks and I want her to be able to go to bed easily without too much wind down from us.

In order for me to totally wind her down it takes 30 minutes and that seems like a long time to me?? is it?? she used to go right to bed. Will this pass if it is developmental??

tonight she did not fall asleep until 8:30pm!!! that is so late for her. and when she did fall asleep she crashed. she was exhausted. It seems like it is just hard for her to get there..

 

[Katet]

Speech I think is a big developmental stage so yes it probably is impacting.
30mins is on the long side, although there are times I'v done longer with both my children & my almost 19mo is definitely needing at least 20mins worth of stories & cuddles from me at the moment... while our 3yo would have had more at the same age I think as both dh & I did stories.
I actually think it is likely she will need the longer wind-down when the baby comes along, as at 6weeks to go, that may also by playing a part with your daughter, she can probably pick up that things are changing & most people seem to find that their children need that extra time at bedtime when a new baby comes along to "cope" with the changes. One book I once read said that that - the closeness of reading stories & cuddles at bedtime, allows children to "transfer" negative energy to the greater body mass of a parent & relax for sleep, if they don't get to do that, then crying is the way they release negative energy. I certainly hold that as very true with my children.

[allyson]

thank you for that note. I think I may bring her up a bit earlier at bedtime and give her more wind down time to fall asleep on time. I do think something is going on developmentally and having the baby soon also. It will be hard through the holidays but I will try to keep her chilled out before bedtime and help her more. I do think it will pass. whenever she did any new deveolpmental things it really impacted her sleep  so it makes sence that this would also. oh well she is happier than she has ever been these last few months so that is the most important thing. thanks

[yaya]

Just wanted to add shes prob waking later in the morning as shes falling asleep later in the pm. I would continue to wake at usual time in the am so that her body needs to 'catch up ' on the sleep in during nightsleep and naps, does that make sense??? Does in my head

[allyson]

well even though she fell asleep at 8:30 last night she still got up at 7am this morning, which is her usual time and she was very tired for her nap today. so hopefully she takes a good one. and if not I will put her to bed earlier tonight even though it is Christmas Eve

I did read in Weissenbluth that you should still wake them at the reg time to get them on their usual sleep track. so we will see how she does and tonight I wil really wind her down.