18 month nap slipping

[newbian]

My 18 month old needs a 1.5 hour nap or else she is a very cranky girl by about 6 PM. Wakes up 7 AM goes to bed 7:30 PM. She cannot stay up past 7:30 PM, she will actually shut the story book and say "sleeping" if I go any later, so that's her natural bedtime.

Lately her nap has started slipping, not wanting to go down until 2 PM or later sometimes. Additionally she's starting a playgroup that's at 2:30, and when I signed her up she was napping 12:30-2 so that wasn't a problem (it's close to home). I'm worried if I consistently let her nap 2-3:30/4 it's going to push bedtime later and I don't really want to do that.

My thoughts are:

• wake her up at 6:30 instead
• insist on nap time by 1 and if she's not down by then move on and she skips/gets cranky

I don't have any other bright ideas though. What do you think?

What happens to get her to sleep at lunchtime?

So Do you have meals at routines times?

That "so" wasn't meant to be there.

Mine dropped her nap at that age. Can you have an hour of 'quiet time' instead of pushing for a nap? She might size off but if not just crack on with your day! Bed at 7 instead of 7.30 while she adjusts?

Doze off not size off!

We have had a pretty good routine going that I adjusted as she dropped naps. It's currently

7 AM wake up
7:30 breakfast
9 snack
10-11 playground
12 lunch
1-2:30 nap (in theory)
4 playground
6 dinner
6:30 bath
7 milk, story
7:30 bed

She normally has a bit of milk right before her nap too.

Is she just out in the cot wide awake and left?

I (or babysitter on the days I'm at work) put her down and basically if she cries/refuses to sleep for 10 min we just take her out.

She self-soothes to sleep at bedtime and when she does nap, so she is put in her cot sleepy but awake.

While I wouldn't leave any child to cry, she's older now and it's not unreasonable that she might take longer than 10 mins to go to sleep.

As long as she's not crying and is happy to be in her cot while still awake, I'd carry on putting her in the cot at 1pm and leave her there.

At the other end of the day, it's useful to get baby used to having 20-30 minutes of quiet time in the cot in the morning too. It established that it need not be the case that "not asleep = out of the cot". Nothing wrong with wind-down time or coming-round time in the cot.

I should clarify there that I mean upon first waking in the morning, before getting up.

Interesting FATE. Normally just because I'm sitting in the toilet/brushing my teeth/etc first thing in the morning I don't rush to her so she lies in her cot babbling to herself for 10 min or so. Maybe I should make it more of a "thing" so she's more comfortable in there?

You're right she is old enough that 10 min of grumbling is probably not much, just hard to hear her moaning. Got to toughen up!

Got to toughen up!

Oh no, no. I don't mean that

Grumbling is just another word for crying. I'd never leave a child alone in the cot unhappy, upset, anything like that.

Good sleep habits would be to promote her feeling content and happy to be in the cot whilst winding down before going to sleep. Likewise when coming around in the morning. That doesn't mean leaving s child to cry/grumble. That is likely to discourage them from feeling happy and content in the cot, not encourage.