21 month old taking about 90 mins to fall asleep

[MonkeyChicken]

For the last few weeks my 21 month old DD has taken about 90 mins to go to sleep from when I put her down. She's as good as gold about going to bed (cot bed) by 7pm but then starts, chatting, singing, thumping, sometimes reading for about an hour and a half. She'll call out to me when she's chucked her teddy/dummy out and when I stick my head in and tell her it's time to go to sleep she lies down and closes her eyes but begins all the crazy business soon after. Should I worry or do anything about this? She's been waking slightly earlier in the morning (from 5am but I won't get her up till 5.45am at the earliest) since she's started sleeping later. She naps for about 2 hours in the day, but a shorter/earlier nap seems to make no difference to the night time antics.

Hi, I posted something similar to this a few weeks ago. My then 22/23 month old DS was going to bed fine but taking ages to go to sleep - he was just chatting, banging, playing for at least an hour before going to sleep. No crying though - so in the end, I just left him to it. This lasted for a few weeks but it seems was just another phase! He's back to going to sleep pretty quickly again - no idea why, not changed anything in particular. Though he definitely goes to sleep a lot quicker if he's not had a nap in the daytime (which he is doing more and more at the minute - arggh!).

I'd leave her to it, if it's not upsetting you or her. Shouldn't do her any harm.

For me, this signalled the start of the end of the daytime nap. I had to drop it altogether when DS was just over 2 as he wasn't going to sleep til 9-10pm, just lying there singing/chatting like you say for a couple of hours which wasn't very relaxing for me! You could try shortening the daytime nap in the first instance, maybe don't let her sleep past 1pm and make her walk lots in the fresh air in the afternoon to tire her out?

Another idea could be that she's teething and not in pain but a bit too uncomfortable to drift off. My DS has this occasionally (not solidly for a week though, just the odd night here and there) so I give him calpol if he's not asleep by 9

Hmmm, she didn't go to sleep till 9.15pm last night and then was awake at 5am (luckily she went back down till 6) she looks shattered and has been telling me all day she's tired. I've put her down for a usual day nap (1pm- 3pm, getting her to sleep earlier is almost impossible) and she's doing the same crazy business although manically tired and it's now nearly 2pm. My brother is putting her to bed tonight, which should be interesting as he's never put a child to bed and has only seen my daughter about 4 times in the past year! I predict a VERY late night. Tomorrow I'll have a crack at putting her down early and then taking her out in the afternoon.

You need to reduce her nap to 1 hour I think.