Any idea what's going on here with bedtime?

[xav's mum]

Hi everyone,

About 3 weeks ago I decided to transition my 15 month old DD from two sleeps a day to just the one.  She was coping alright with the stretch in the morning so the transition was fairly quick. She now goes down around midday and sleeps for about an hour and a half. Only trouble is now when I put her to bed at night which is and always has been around 7pm, she now mucks around in her cot for close to an hour before she drops off to sleep. She doesn't call out or cry but just sort of rolls around and chats to herself. 

She has always been a good sleeper and up until the recent transition she would almost always be asleep within 10 mins of putting her down, for all her sleeps.  I don't understand why she is now having a little less sleep in the day and taking so long to fall asleep at night. I would of thought that having an awake stretch in the afternoon now of about 5 hours as opposed to the 3 hours previously would mean that she would be really ready for sleep at bed time. Is she overtired? Should i make her daytime nap later or earlier? Any ideas why she would be taking so long to go to sleep???

Thanks heaps,
xav's mum

[Grace's Mom]

You may want to play around with her nap so that it becomes a bit longer than 1.5 hours.  Maybe try a bit earlier for a few days and then if that doesn't work go the other direction.  Right now it's going to be all about trying to figure out that 'magic' number so you know at what time to put her down in order to get her to sleep longer for you.

She may be overtired.  For now, as you are playing with her nap, maybe try putting her down a bit earlier at night (if she seems tired of course). 

Melissa