What am I doing wrong?

[traceyturnblatt]

Sorry I feel at the end of my tether! My DS (16 months) seems to have flipped back to being weeks old when it comes to settling at nights!

We used to be settle him at 6ish and he would sleep the whole night through (massively lucky I know) but for the last few weeks he's fighting it and getting himself worked up into a state! We still do bath, bottle and book the same as we do every night but when he's in his cot he starts to shriek and scream.
I'm in the midst of graduated sleep training so sit in the dark in the room with him and settle him without speaking to him but the last few nights I've ended up bringing him into bed with me( I have horrific morning sickness!)

What am I doing wrong? I hate to think of him being so upset about something I could change

Whats his daytime sleep like? 6pm is really early for bedtime. I wonder if he'd benefit from a routine change. At 16m I'd be expecting 3-4h of daytime sleep and 11ish hours at night.

My youngest routine at 16m was
7am ish wake
9.30-11.00 nap
1.00-3 00 nap
7.30 bedtime

However my youngest loves her sleep. My others were on one-nap days by 16m. I'd be expecting 7.00-7.30 bedtime and wake times with a 12-3pm ish afternoon nap.

Sorry I meant we start the bedtime routine at 6pm. So bath,bottle,book so he's in bed for around 645-7pm. He sleeps til around 0730-8am. He's just started having one nap a day though around 11 for about an hour or so that seems to be the only new thing?

I'd guess at him being over tired at bedtime and that's why he's hard to settle.

If he's not stretching his nap past an hour, maybe try for two hour long naps. Say 10-11am then 2-3pm.

Your current 12pm through to 7pm is a massive, massive chunk if time for a toddler to stay awake.

If you don't think he'll do two naps then I would resettle (more easily done if in the pushchair - jiggle back to sleep) to lengthen the nap and also push it later - aim for a wake up time around 2-3pm.