advice re sleep/napping 19 months

[Mummy252]

have read all the officisl info but its really not working in our situation so hoping someone on here can help.
DD is 19 months. she has never been a great sleeper but neither am I, and has always needed the minimum recomended amount of sleep of not less. that said, heres my query.

pre 18 months dd would wake up at 8am, nap about 2ish for usually an hour - 90 minutes, and then would go to sleep at night about 9pm. if we put her in bed at 8 she would never sleep until 9ish anyway or the odd time she did she would them wake up at 4/5am ready to go go go!!!! so this is theroutine we fell into.

so the last 3-4 weeks she has just not been tired at 2, shes now seeming to get tired about 4;30-5;30. i've done everything to encourage her to nap earlier but she just isn't tired enough.
Prob is, shes then totally untired at night and is still awake at 10;30-midnight before she will settle, and is still waking up at 8am.

i've tried shortening her nap to 45 minutes but it just means she is cranky for 45 mins when we wake her up and still isn't tired later on, so we cut it out totally for a few days this week and she slept 9ish until 8, which cumu;atively is longer than what she was getting in total with the others,
but, she does get naturally tired about 5-6pm and today and yesterday has fallen asleep, 0so i'm back to square 1 with a toddler running round her room/singing until midnight.
I just don't know whats the best thing to do. just to add we are VERY active so its not that she's not doing enough in the day, she also doesn't use a pram anymore so she walks far more than any kids her age i know. we get outside every day etc

so what should i do??? the best seems to be cutting out naps but she seems so young for that and although somedays she seems fine with none, on the days she does drift off what do i do? let her run round until midnight??? is it worth trying a 15/20 minute nap??? shes so cranky though when she is "artificially" woken up rather than waking up naturally??

You could try waking her earlier in the morning, say at 7am. That way she should drop off earlier in the evening.

She may be ready to drop her nap - try some chill out time (e.g half an hour of quiet stories) after lunch to allow her to recharge. That might stop her getting so tired in the late afternoon.

Was going to say exactly the same thing, get her up at 7am and give her breakfast. Do what you usually do in the morning then after lunch have a quiet half an hour, then try a nap. If she won't go down try sticking her in the buggy and taking her for a walk. 19 months seems very young to be dropping a nap.

Another thing that you might want to tweak is her meals. One of my friends swapped her toddler from 3 big meals plus milk and snacks to 6 small meals. Took a bit more planning, but not too much really and her dd started sleeping much better.

DD is pretty similar, other than the morning wake up being at 6am, and the nap around 4pm. Certainly doesn't sleep in a buggy, increases the chance of there being no nap at all in fact which happens maybe once a week now.

Food doesn't seem to make any difference (although she's very much on the many small meals) and she's also very active when awake.

Yes was going to say the same and get her up at 7am! That is how I have adjusted my children's routines if needed, got them up a bit earlier so they became tired earlier.

My ds is just 20 months and is exactly the same, I just go with it though and be thankful for the lie in in the morning. I've tried allsorts to alter his routine and get him to bed earlier but nothing's worked and whatever i have done has only made him cranky. I've stopped stressing about it and let him sleep when he's tired. I actually quite enjoy my evenings with him up anyway, dh works late so he gets to spend some quality time with his dad, which he'd miss out on if in bed. :)