Is it a summer thing??!
I only ask because I remember having a not dissimilar issue with DD last spring/summer when she was 15/16 months, she'd just take up to an hour, sometimes even more, to drop off...
Now she is 2 and a bit and it is a nightmare getting her to go to sleep at night. Average of an hour and MULTIPLE visits back into her room for 'water' (which she doesn't really need iyswim, it's just another way to get me to go back in), 'kisses'. 'tuck me in', 'need mummy etc etc'. She doesn't get distressed as such but she starts to if I don't go.
It took a long time to get her to be a good sleeper in her cot and we did it all through v gentle gradual withdrawal so I don't want to destroy all those good associations by letting her cry in there now.
fwiw until this past episode (ever since clocks changed) she was (after all that gradual withdrawal work when she was 1ish) an amazing sleeper, would drop off happily by herself in her cot about 20 mins after I left the room.
Is this a developmental thing, too, maybe...? As well as the lighter evenings...?
We have moved her bedtime back so that she is going into her cot around 7.30 instead of 6.45/7. In an ideal world it would therefore mean she was asleep (without all the goings-in!) at 8pm.
I fear we may also need to look at her nap length/timing too (dreading this) but it's hard to know if this is the main cause of the problem, nap timing/length was working brilliantly until clocks changed!!
She naps from 1pm until 3pm and I have to wake her from deep sleep at that point!!
Should I shorten her nap or make it earlier? Might that help??
She was 2 in March so I know many begin to drop their nap around this age BUT she still really really needs a decent nap, even if 2 hours may be too much. Without a good nap she gets overtired and begins to wake earlier and earlier in the mornings, and becomes impossible in the afternoons.
Any advice much much appreciated!!