20 month old refusing to nap/sleep in own bed..

[pinkoyster]

Please help. Am going nuts with the frustration and tiredness.

20 month old DS has since 6 months napped in his cotbed and self-settled. He has for the past 4-5 days refused to nap after lunch, or go to sleep at night. He just cries and cries and screams for me. It's absolutely breaking my heart, but I'm 8 months pregnant and can't cope with the sleeplessness anymore. The only way he'll sleep is if I (and it's only me he wants, not DH) sit in his room until he falls sleep. This can sometimes take up to 2 hours+. It's getting to the point where I absolutely DREAD bedtime.

His routine is as follows:

1. Wake 6.30-7
2. Nap 12.30-2 (sometimes 1-2)
3. Bedtime 7-7.30

Can anyone suggest anything? I was planning on moving him to his new big boys room soon, but think the upheaval would make him even worse.

Please please, any advice would really be gratefully appreciated.

Not to dripfeed, but he's also very noise sensitive so even if I sit in his room until he falls asleep, and try to leave, the squeaking floorboards wake him up again and we have to start all over from the beginning.

At that age I had to push my Lo's nap consistently to a 1pm start, as he simply wasn't ready to nap at 12.30 anymore, he'd also started waking earlier & he was messing around at bedtime for ages. Putting him down just that wee bit later seemed to solve all of that, but I did have to accept that he needed a slightly later bedtime too. He ended up doing

Wake 7am
Nap: 1-3
Bedtime: 8pm

& is still doing this routine 6 months later (though he's pushing towards an 8.30pm bedtime now!)

One other thing to mention is that around that age, there seems to be a big developmental leap related to language & asserting independence (i.e. I may need to go to bed but I don't want to), and this can also lead to naptime/bedtime battles. Its a phase that will pass!xx

Thanks so much omama. Useful advice as always. I think you are right about the later nap and bedtime. I think I have to accept that I have to give up a part of our evening (that DH and I used to love spending together) to put DS to bed later. I also agree that he is going through a developmental leap as he's talking and understanding lots more.