DS has been in bed for over 2 hours!!

[Flossam]

And is still awake. He has got into the habit of playing with his toys before sleeping. He usually then goes to sleep as and when. He sleeps in late in the mornings (mainly our fault - lazy shift workers). Tonight has been different. My issue is though that other than get him up earlier in the morning how can I stop him playing? Its not really a problem mow, but when he is in his own bed undoubtably will be. He is 15months.

When is he napping and for how long?

CHANGED to afernoon nap straight after lunch for around 2 hours.

limit nap to no more than 1.5hrs.... worked wonders for Jess. She was sleeping up to 3hrs in the day, and refused to go to bed at night.

Since limiting nap, she has been out cold by 7pm every night and not waking til 7.30am! (Was 8.30am yesterday!)

Hmm, not sure. Nap time and length sounds about right. Think average sleep requirement for his age would be about 12 hours at night and 2 hours during the day (that's what my ds2 does). Just try to engineer it so that he's quite tired at night time. Anything else bothering him? Teeth? My ds2 has been unsettled at bed time recently too, not sure why, may be teeth, may be just getting more aware that it means a long sleep and he wants to carry on playing. He had a shortish nap today and settled much more quickly tonight though so maybe need to adjust the nap. Trouble is they change all the time, sometimes need more or less sleep for a while, you just have to adapt to the current phase IYSWIM.

BTW, if you get him up earlier, can he last till after lunch? You may have to do late morning nap/late lunch for a while (some days we manage till after lunch, others not).

oh and jess naps from 11.30-1pm and has late lunch

Oh, BTW, cutting nap by 1/2 hour can mean they settle 1-2 hours earlier at night...bizarre but true!

Interesting! tonight I think it is his teeth. he's still up but has been chomping on his finger and has bitty poo like he gets when his teeth are a problem. His bottom started to bleed when I changed it just now. So he has been given a remittence tonight. Will make an effort to get out of bed earlier to see if that makes a difference too. If not, less of a nap for DS then!