Ideas to tire Duracell bunny baby

[PrincessChick]

dd is 12 months. She has been walking for a couple of months now and is incredibly active, very sociable and into everything. She is a nightmare sleeper at night but naps brilliantly in the day and providing she's up at 8 (has to be woken) she'll consistently nap at 11-12 and 4-5. We have a bedtime routine of dinner (as a family) at 6/6.30, bath at 7ish and then up to bed for a feed and stories at 8ish. She rarely settles to sleep and can feed for ages. Occasionally she will fall to sleep, then I move her into her cot and then she wakes 2 or 3 times before midnight, then at 4, 6, 7.30 and left to her own devices will sleep till 9.30ish. On a bad night (like tonight) after feeding she gets off the bed, explores the bedroom, open drawers, picks up books, and generally causes chaos and is back and forth between feeding and exploring. Tonight, we're back downstairs an hour after going up and 45 minutes of on/off feeding due to hysterical screaming because I refused the boob having had enough.

We were at a music festival over the weekend where she was really happy all the time (big wide open spaces, loads of children and I guess interesting sights, smells, sounds etc) and slept at night from 11 - 6.30 with just one very short sleepy feed at 12.30. This is unheard of. It's made me wonder if she's not getting enough exercise / stimulation during the day. She napped for 45 minutes that day and was running around from 12 - 5.15 and then 6pm til 10.30. I've tried to replicate this today. She helped with chores from 8 - 11 and then napped and then we've been out doing outdoorsy things all afternoon from 1, then she napped at 4.30 and then we did all the normal bed time things. It's now nearly 9 and she's not the slightest bit tired.

I do a lot with her in the week (2 of these each day): park, groups, soft play, swimming, national trust places for running around, chores (get her involved!), friends houses, playing with toys, horsing around, books, singing...

Any ideas? Activities? Food? Where am I going wrong!

[BigPigLittlePig]

It sounds as though she's not quite tired enough at bedtime. But rather than over stimulate her (and wear yourself out in the process) by doing more, I would try to drop to one slightly later nap. Perhaps an early lunch at 11.30ish, then to bed for those couple of hours, and then no more napping til bedtime. I know if dd (19m) slept after 3.30, even at 12mo, she would have been a nightmare for bed.

Our bedtime routine otherwise goes - into pjs, teeth, offer milk (she has a bit), stories, offer rest of the milk wih the light out, then cuddle and into cot. We try to make it v boring, so even if she were to make a bid for freedom, there'd be nothing to interest her.

Good luck!

[PrincessChick]

Thanks bigpig. We just let her spend herself downstairs last night, ended up giving her an extra supper and she went to bed like a dream at 10.30 and stayed asleep till 6!

I'm going to try and stop her napping at 4 today. However, if it's unavoidable I don't think I'll bother putting her to bed at 8.

[mandbaby]

I would try bringing everything forward by an hour or two. Have the family dinner at 5/5.30pm. Bath at 6pm, story/milk/cuddles/calm time at 6.30pm, and ready to be put in her cot by 7pm. She will probably wake earlier (7am) , but at least you'll have your evenings back to yourself.

I think she needs to drop the morning nap and have her afternoon nap soon after lunch. You might find she then naps for a couple of hours in the afternoon (say, 1-3pm). I would never let her nap after 4pm.

[minipie]

Agree about the afternoon nap. My duracell bunny DD would not sleep at bedtime (and would be more prone to night waking) if she had a 4-5pm nap.

I agree with bigpig - try to switch to one nap - can you push her through to 12? If you can push her through to 12 (or even 12.30) she may sleep for longer than an hour (hopefully). You might have a few days of her falling asleep mid lunch while she gets used to it! If she sleeps for 2 hours after lunch she should be just about ok till bedtime. (you might need a slightly earlier bedtime while she gets used to it).

If that isn't possible then I'd try cutting down the 4pm nap to 30 mins and see what effect that has.

[idontlikealdi]

I'd lose the 4-5 nap and go for an earlier bedtime, she'll probably start having a longer nap in the middle of the day but will then be tired for bed time.

[PrincessChick]

That's a unanimous vote for dropping her late nap then! She's asleep now, as I made her stay to the end of a group this morning which we don't normally do. Distractions all the way this afternoon and hopefully we can settle her anti earlier. Last night she wasn't asleep until 11!!

[BlueChampagne]

Swimming is usually a good way to tire them out, as well as being lots of fun!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Agree with the others, give her lunch around 11.30 ish, then nap and drop the later nap altogether.

[Kafri]

Another vote for dropping that morning nap.

DS dropped his morning nap at 12m which really surprised me. I really thought he'd still need it for much longer after the way he was for naps in his first year sooooooo grumpy the second he got tired
He started having his one nap at around 12, sometimes needing it even earlier. Now at 18m he has it around 1/1.30 usually and has anywhere from an hour to two.
He kind of decided himself that he only wanted one nap - he started to just flat out refuse a second nap so I then had to try to push back the morning nap so he was having it at a better time to get him through the rest of the day.

[PrincessChick]

So, today is the first day we've managed to drop the late afternoon nap and, voila, she was asleep by 7.45 tonight! Thanks for the advice. At least I know what to aim for now and that it WILL work :)

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Glad it worked yesterday. How have things turned out today?

[PrincessChick]

She's currently playing her tambourine . Couldn't extend the lunchtime nap, couldn't stop the 4pm nap. She looks like she's on the wind down now though...

Thanks for asking though