2 year old taking an hour to go to sleep

[Liskee]

DS is very nearly 2 and since about 7/8 months he's been able to self settle and since 10 months or so he's been an excellent 7.30/8 to 6.30/7 sleeper. He also has a nap in the middle of the day.

This last 6-8 weeks or so he's often been taking up to an hour to fall asleep. Bedtime routine hasn't changed, and we limit his daytime nap to 90 minutes. At nursery for 3 days he sleeps an average of one hour but at home the other 4, he was often sleeping 2-2.5 hours so I figured limiting naptime at home would help make things more consistent and might help.

But no! Tonight was an hour with 40 minutes of chatting, singing, thumping, shouting and kicking and 20 mins quiet but I could see awake glowing eyes on the monitor. No crying, as he's not upset at being in bed. Just takes ages to go over. I wouldn't mind if he slept a bit longer in the morning, but wake up times can be anything from 6am onwards meaning some nights it's a 9.5 hour sleep when we're aiming for an optimum 11. I know some people have it much worse, but this is about DS getting the sleep he needs to be the happy wee guy we're used to, not the tired grumpy demon that appears ally to often these days.

Any thoughts? Is bedtime too early? Too late? Is the daytime nap the issue? Advice welcomed!

Gosh I could've written your post! Only thing is that DD doesn't wake til 7-7.30 and is perfectly happy to be left in her cot for a while. Even with taking an hour to get to sleep she gets nearly 11 hrs at night so I just live with it.
Does he ever have days without a nap at all? If so what happens that evening? I used to find DD would refuse to nap about once a week, and so I started limiting naps to 90 mins too and now she naps almost every day. Days she doesn't she's out like a light when you put her to bed. Maybe shorten nap again to an hour?

We've had this the last few months. DD is 2.9. We've now cut her nap down to an hour max and awake by ideally 2ish and - touch wood - last couple of weeks bedtime has been much better. Bedtime is 7.15-7.30. She wakes about 7ish most days.

We had this with DS 1, fiddling with his nap times made no difference at all. He only did it for two weeks or so and then stopped, thank God. Perhaps it's just a phase they go through.

Thanks for the replies :) even just the reassurance that others experience the same makes me a bit more relaxed. I think we'all stick with what we're doing for a few weeks and if it doesn't make a difference maybe take nap down to an hour. Thank you!