16 month old taking 2hrs to fall asleep?

[tilly2019]

Hi,

For the past month or so 16 month old DD has taken anywhere from 1 to 2 hours to fall asleep!

She has one lunchtime nap, lasts anywhere from 1-2hrs, often 1hr 15. Would love for her to have 2-3hrs but she wakes up, usually having poo'd, and even if left will happily babble in her cot.

At night we do dinner 5.30-6. Little play in garden or a cuddle and cBeebies then bath at 6.30. Story, milk (almost falls asleep on bottle) then bed for 7pm.

Sometimes she will go straight away, but 90% of the time she'll lie still for 10 mins then begin her acrobatics - lies on front but flaps her legs against mattress, sings to herself.

She loves her cot which is good, but just cannot seem to switch off! My hypnobirthing mum friends have always remarked at how nosy and alert she is (all our babies are same age so they have a comparison). She's saying quite a few words now and stringing 2 words together - could she be struggling to switch off? Restless legs? She does talk in sleep sometimes.

Sometimes I'll go in after an hour to cuddle her and she'll be doing everything to stay awake (playing with my necklace, neck, saying my name etc) but when I put her back down it does seem to have helped relax her to then sleep.

What am I doing wrong?

Ps once asleep she doesn't really wake till 7.30ish.

Thanks 🙁

I would suggest staying with her.

A firm hand on her legs to help her still and calm her body. Then some rhthymic patting to comfort and relax her. All done with her lying in the cot.

My DD is older but is very much the same- she can't figure out how to settle herself down to relax and sleep by herself in her cot (although she can self-settle if she wakes in the night, 80% of the time anyway). I just bite the bullet and cuddle her til she drifts off, she seems to bed that help to relax. She is a livewire too, very busy and talkative so I do think it's a switching off/processing thing.

The other thing you could try is to put her to be a little bit later, maybe just half an hour? I've resigned myself to DD being a late sleeper and, given the chance, quite good at lying in in the morning. She sleeps through and very rarely wakes naturally before 7am so I see her 8/8.30 sleep time as a price worth paying. I know many others get them to be by 7 but then have a dawn wake-up to contend with, I've got used to her natural timings now! If she goes to bed early she tends to wake in the night and struggle to get back to relaxed mode.