15 month- what's going on??

[Deduct37]

So my 15 month old daughter has never been the best sleeper but I do know she's not the worst. Recently we are all over the place with naps. Some days she has 1 and other days 2. Naps vary in length from 30 mins to 2 hours. She never has a consistent wake up time so it's difficult to know when she should be napping as she doesn't show clear signs. She can make it to lunchtime on 1 nap but doesn't always have a long one (over tiredness I think). She has been waking around 4.45/5.30 and I'm trying to get her back to sleep which sometimes is and sometimes isn't successful. Bedtime is usually 6.30/7 but I have been trying a 6pm bedtime yo see how this works. She falls asleep pretty much immediately upon going into her cot which I think is because she is so tired even if she's still running around before bed. I don't know what's going on because she is very grumpy when she wakes so early so I'm assuming she hasn't had enough sleep. Any suggestions on what to do please?

She has been waking around 4.45/5.30

Waking in the morning? Or waking from her afternoon nap?

In the morning. She can sometimes have a nap in the morning and then that be her done until bedtime. That's why I think she falls asleep immediateky

That may well be why she drops immediately at bedtime.

I wouldn't be happy about my child not having an afternoon nap at 15 months. If it was me I would work on creating routine (but then I am a routine freak!).

I would have the same bedtime every night. Plus the same lunchtime nap time. At this age I would go for 11.30am for a sleep - so this means lunch is early. This would stop over tiredness.

I would try and aim to co-sleep for the nap at first, until it is established. If sleep is a battle instead you could at least encourage lying quietly and relaxing from 11.30-12.30 every day. Like a "rest hour".

If you make it relaxing and boring enough, she may eventually start falling asleep.

Once rest hour is established, try lengthening it and see if you can make 90 minutes or maybe 2 hours.

If she only has one sleep around 11.00/12.00, there isn't an issue falling asleep, it's keeping her asleep. I do lie with her in the hope I can get her back over. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If she has a morning sleep around 9/10 in the morning, it can sometimes be a fight getting an afternoon nap even if she's only had a 45 minute nap. That's why I've brought bedtime earlier in the hope I can prevent over tiredness. I'm so confused as to what is going on with her. She's always been a rubbish napper but it's getting really bad lately

My dd is 14 mo and sometimes we have 2 naps sometimes 1. I too sometimes have the problem of a long morning nap and reluctance to nap in the afternoon and bedtime meltdown.

I would suggest having a really busy distracting morning and pushing nap until 11:30/12 earliest then pushing through til bedtime. If you're consistently doing this, she might start sleeping longer in the naps.

I've got to say since about 13 mo night time sleep has always been 11 hours so a 6pm bedtime would just perpetuate the early wakings.

I definately think she's ready for 1 nap. She only had 45 minutes yesterday and that was in until bedtime. No crankiness or meltdown in the afternoon. Just quite happy to play. Put her to bed at 5.50 because she'd been up since 11 and she slept through until 6.20. When I put her to bed at 7 we seem to have more restless nights and 5am wake ups. Think I'll stick with 1 nap and early bedtimes until she adjusts properly

I wouldn't be happy about my child not having an afternoon nap at 15 months.
Both my sister and my daughter stopped napping entirely at around that age. Believe me, I wasn't happy about it at all.

OP, would it be possible to put her to bed a little bit later in hopes that she wakes up later? And then maybe substitute one mid-day nap for both morning and afternoon?
Although I'd probably suggest that you don't change her whole routine in one go - ease into it a bit.

oops, obviously didn't read that last post very closely at all. Early afternoon / mid-day naps still seem like they'd be the way to go, to me. So she's up for around the same amount of time in morning and afternoon.

We certainly are trying. It's just getting a decent length that's the problem. And a later bedtime seems to make nights even worse and still early get ups. We were on holiday last week so was having 2 catnaps and a bedtime of 7.30 ish. She was very unsettled during the night and up at 4.50 one morning!!