Daytime Nap - 19 month old! Please help!

[Twohootsunderthemistletoe]

My DD has always been an awful sleeper through the day - as a young baby she'd have at best 20 minute cat naps twice a day! She started walking at 15 month and from then until about a week ago she's been a lot better with day time sleep (until about 3 weeks ago she'd have half hour in the morning and then 1.5-2 hours afternoon), but then in the last 3 weeks she's gone down to just an afternoon nap which is gradually getting shorter - this last week it's been 50 mins - 1 hour max.

She is tired and I do try to re-settle her or let her cry it out (just whinging crying) but she just gets louder and louder and I end up having to get her up!

She sleeps from 7 pm ish til 6.15 - 6.45 am ish most days (although it took her until 10 months to sleep thru!).

I am sick of battling with her but know she needs her sleep as by 6 pm she is a whinging wreck as she's so tired. And I never have time to get anything done as she's always with me - i.e. no time when she is asleep....

I am sick of listening to mothers at toddlers saying "oh Jonny sleeps for 2.5-3 hours in the afternoon" etc!!!

She won't sleep anywhere other than her cot - hasn't slept in her pushchair since about 8 months old (so walk not an option) - has the odd snooze in her car seat but tends to bawl for about 20 mins before going to sleep!!!

When do you put her down for her afternoon nap? Have you tried putting her down at different times. I'm wondering if she has an optimal time to sleep and you need to find out what that is?

pp - I put her down between 1 and 1.30 pm depending on where we are/have been. It's always about 20-25 mins after her lunch. She's been fine with that the last few months and has pretty much gone off to sleep no problem - until this last week!

At what age do they start to drop their afternoon naps? I have heard some do it alot earlier than others - as she's always slept so little in the day, I'm wondering if it won't be long for her?

Must admit got her into a night time bed time routine v early on and it's paid dividends but I've always struggled with her during the day - she just doesn't seem to want the sleep! But it's been lovely the last few months having a 'normal' sleepy child - I just don't want it to end yet!

My dd is 18 months and for the last couple of months or so we are going through phases of long, regular naps and then no naps at all or very short ones. She always used to go down at 11am and sleep for 2 hours or longer. Now she won't usually settle before 12 and sometimes sleeps less than an hour. Other days we're back to normal and every couple of weeks we a have a day or 2 of no sleep. On those days she usually goes to bed around 5pm but this doesn't seem to affect when she gets up the next day.
I've given up fighting it and if she's particularly annoying or I need a break I put her in her cot and tell her to read or play for a while and generally she's happy to have a kind of "time out" in there to recharge her batteries. I also try to keep busy in the morning with lots of activites/classes etc to tire her out then nothing in the afternoons.
In case of a really bad day I have a special toy hidden away (one of those water tables) that I can bring out if I'm really tearing my hair out with her.
She may well just be dropping her naps as my mum delights in telling me we all had by that age!

bobblehead - sounds quite like my DD apart from mine won't amuse herself for any longer than about 1 min (and I'm not joking). She used to be really good at it when younger but not now. I put her in her cot today to hang some clothes up to dry (gave her some books and told her what I was doing etc) and she just screamed - eventhough I was in the next room! So I'm afraid she just had to scream - I really can't anything done it's just awful.

I have had a really bad week with her this week and I think part of it is the lack of sleep - she becomes very destructive when she is tired and that time after tea until bathtime can be horrible

Btw I also go to lots of toddler groups/activities with her almost every day in the morning so she IS knackered when she is having her lunch but she just won't sleep for long. It's almost as though she wakes up at 50 mins on the dot and just won't go back to sleep. I used to be able to rush in at the first squeek and stroke her face a couple of times and she'd go back off but now even that won't work!

As soon as she's in bed tonight the wine will be out - it's been a SOD of a week! (and the best of it is - there are still 2 more days to go - I just love 24/7!).

The way I get through non nap days is by visualising that 5 pm bedtime

Sadly I can't think of the wine as I'm pg!

I find dds sleep tends to be around the time she takes developmental leaps. We've had bad nights this week but she somehow seems more grown up as well and is using a lot more words.

Hope you have a better week next week (dd often seems to make up for it for a bit after with extra long sleeps, hope thats the case for you!)