19 mo wont sleep... plays in cot for ages!

[HayleyWarren]

My daughter is 19 months old. Has always been a good sleeper since she was very young.

So good even that when she's tired she will sit at the bottom of the stairs pointing up for me to put her to bed!!

But recently she has been playing up, she screams when i take her upstairs, I walk away and she soon settles down, but keeps playing for hours! She turns her mobile on, presses the buttons on her musical teddy etc. I have tried taking all of her teddies/mobile etc away but she will still just sit in her cot babbling to herself, talking/singing, kicking the end of the cot (not violently)

I can put her to bed about 7/7:30 and she will be awake till about 9:30/10 and will wake again when i go to bed about 11/12 (i go EXTREMELY quietly). When i go to bed she just jumps up as if she's waiting for me! If i get her out of her cot she will run round excitedly, dancing etc or if i leave her she just goes back to babbling/talking again!!

Even with this lack of sleep she will still wake at 7am!

Does anyone else have this problem??
Any tips?

If she is playing quietly and not distressed I wouldnt worry, it shows she is happy in her cot and able to settle herself. If you think she is suffering from lack of sleep than that might be a different issue, but if not Id leave her playing quietly

Thanks, Yeah she seems happy! It's just frustrating when I want to go to bed and she just wants to play! lol!

I don't think she's sleep deprived, she's more grumpy and quite impatient during the day than she used to be but I'm putting that down to an early case of the terrible twos!

Hopefully she'll just grow out of it!

Are you in the same room? Could you sleep somewhere else for a few nights to see if there is a difference?

Mine did this for a while (now 4 and 5) and I found they slept better in a bed with a stairgate on the door, having the run of the whole room wore them out quicker.

My DD is a little younger but if I look on her when I go to bed she is often sitting in her cot awake. She often sleeps very late as well from 8.00pm to 9.00am - I think she may be awake half the night talking to herself!

No, I can't help I'm afraid - DS has been exactly the same from a similar age, quite happy to stay up and play quietly, refuses to sleep, doesn't seem tired, he still does it and he's 2.3 ... only problem being that he doesn't sleep in a cot, and if I put a stairgate on upstairs then he stands at it and wails - he has to have the run of the house. Thankfully he does tend to play alone and leave me to it.

Cutting down on naps, always getting up early (even if he's gone to bed late) and keeping mealtimes at set, regular times helped quite a lot but some nights he still goes to bed late and it doesn't seem to matter what I do, I can do everything "right" and he will still do this. It's infuriating when we have to be up early the next day!

If she's in a cot though surely you can go to bed even if she's awake?

Thanks everyyone.

We are not in the same room. I can go to bed but it's like shes waiting for me and when i go to bed she'll start crying!!

I think i'm going to try cutting out her afternoon nap. I tried before but just found her falling asleep at 5ish which is not ideal!
She may be a bit more ready for it now though.

Thanks again everyone.
It's refreshing to know she's not the only one! lol :)