21m old taking ages to get to sleep at night

[princesssmartypantss]

DS has been a 'challenging' sleeper, but we seemed to have sorted this with advice from hcps and also reading no cry sleep toddler solution (and baby version), so he has a really consistent bedtime routine and then we kiss him goodnight and leave the room, he used to roll about for a bit and after about 10 minutes go off to sleep. This all changed about two weeks ago, and now he will roll about and wriggle for an hour, and sometimes more. He moved onto a full size mattress which is on the floor at about 18 months, and has a stair gate on his bedroom door.
Its not a disaster, but would be nice to think he is more settled and not struggling to get off to sleep.
Does anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening and if there is anything we can do to help him?

Do you have blackout curtains? Maybe close the other curtains in the house leading up to bedtime too.

we do have blackout curtains, but are thinking that enought light still gets through, so am about to order a blackout blind to make it a bit darker, think the idea of dimming the incoming light is a good one, thank you!

We've doubled up our blackouts since the clocks changed, which seems to be helping. Today DS really struggled to settle for his nap and when I went in I realised that the blind had slipped and the room wasn't very dark... He's so nosey, if he can see anything at all he can't switch off! I also have built it into the routine that we turn all the lights off upstairs as I put him to bed so it gradually gets darker.

What is really strange, although i suppose he may be exhausted, is that he goes down absolutely fine for his daytime nap, after lunch, with curtains open and sleeps well! we will try getting the upstairs a bit darker at bedtime.
Does anyone think this might be teething related?

What's his nap schedule?

he wakes up between 6 and 7, not very consistent then has a nap after lunch, timing depends a bit on what we are doing that day, it seems like he would sleep for longer, but i usually go and rustle about around 2.30, so he has about 2 hours, sometimes he sleeps until 3, but even if nap much shorter he is still struggling to get off to sleep. he had a day in last two weeks where he only rapped for 45mins and still didn't fall asleep quickly, do you think he might be overtired?

Any consolation - my 23 month old is exactly the same. No trouble at all at nap time, but bed time can be anything up to 90 mins of messing about. I'm hoping it's just a phase!

I have considered trying to reduce the lunchtime nap but on days when she only naps for an hour its exactly the same (and def not ready to give up her nap). Has the bedtime routine changed at all - maybe more wind time time?

He'll be used to napping in the light during the day though x

How long is his bedtime routine? Apparently if it goes on longer than 30 mins they can get a second wind.

My boy, now 26 months, always went straight to sleep in his cot bed the moment his head hit the pillow, even after a two hr nap after lunch.
The last week or so, despite major blackout blind and heavy blackout big curtains, he's sometimes awake for an hour, or even longer. It doesn't bother us, as he's chatting and laughing to himself like a loon!
I generally don't go in, if I can help it.., but sometimes I've gone in at 8.30 and he's still awake (!) and he's thrown his dummy's on the floor.
Last night he went straight off.. So, definitely something is going on.
The main thing is he's happy and not over tired during the day, otherwise we would be worried. So, we're just going with the flow.

DTs have no more than an hour and I wake them by 1.15pm, otherwise they wouldn't go to sleep until about 10pm! I have a horrible feeling they may be transitioning to nap at 21months...

I would try shortening his nap, or putting down earlier to wake him earlier, say by 130?

Thank you all for your messages, he is in bed now, and seems to be asleep, blackout blind ison window making room much darker, and just in case it is teething we gave him some powders, which he seems to like, so not sure which has helped, will try no powders tomorrow to see!

What time are you trying to put him to bed? If its 7pm he's likely not tired given he's having a 2hr nap, so i'd prob try shifting bedtime 30mins later & see if that improves things

We had similar at this age & was a combination of developmental leap & not quite being tired enough. We tried pp's suggestion of capping the nap but our ds got very overtired & started waking earlier. He was also resisting his nap a bit so we found a combo of slightly later nap (1pm instead of 12.30) & slightly later bedtime (30mins later) worked well for us & gave a consistent 7am wake up.

Watching with interest as my 2 year old is exactly the same!!