Please could someone come an help me sort out bedtime for my 18 mo DD?

[Suchanamateur]

I've written about this before but it's still not sorted. DD just takes forever to settle at bedtime. She goes to sleep on her own - and is mainly quiet after I lay her down (she sucks her thumb) but with the odd cry out every now and again. Usually about 50 mins from put down to actually asleep.

I wouldn't mind but (a) it pushes her into overtiredness and we already have early wakings and (b) she pulls her hair out to twiddle as she sucks her thumb and the prolonged settling mean she is getting a bald spot!

All this happened after we finally moved to 1 nap only. Can't work out if undertired or overtired. And perhaps I should just move to a set bedtime instead of fiddling around with different timings depending on when she wakes from her nap. What do your 18 mo do?

She gets up between 5.30 and 6 usually, and naps at 12 for 1 hr 10- 1 hr 40 ish, depending.

Any ideas?

DH put DS to bed tonight as I was out at a work thing (although I had to come home early as I've got some sort of hideous fluey bug) and of course he was asleep in 15 minutes....

Maybe try limiting the daytime sleep? I cap DS at an hour 15/30...

Are you still away? Hope you're having a nice holiday :-) I'm feeling like shite and in my pyjamas :-(

Hope you feel better today. I think some limiting and pushing BT a bit may be our next try (feels weird to cap naps when for so long I've been trying to extend them!).

I thought I'd try an earlier nap today in the hopes she could have a long sleep but without it knocking bedtime too much. But half an hour on she's still kicking around her cot, singing an taking off her sleeping bag. So that backfired..

Haha! I am feeling a bit better now thankfully, I took the day off work and DH and DS went to London and had a boys day out of fun. Basically they went to look at trains all day and DS was exhausted at bedtime. DH put him down at 6.30 and he hasn't made a sound since! So I have come to the conclusion that DH needs to do bedtime every day!!

That's fab! Maybe I hold get DH to put DD to bed!

Another crap evening tonight. 1.5 hr nap and then for 1 reason and another I couldn't get her down before 7. I thought she'd be nice nd tired and pass out. But no. 40 mins later still awake and will certainly be OT now. Just cannot get it right. Back to 6.30 I think. Maybe she just needs a long time to wind down? At least then she goes to sleep by 7.30ish usually which is reasonable.

I should just get DH to do everything t I think whilst I lie on the sofa eating kit kats and drinking tea...!

Does your DD have any wind down time before bed? We force DS (as in we strap him into a chair) to have stories and milk and ceebeebies downstairs before we go up for bath so bedtime is really boring and not drawn out...