Oh god - how can I make her go back to sleep?

[DitaVonCheese]

DD is 16 months and will generally nap for 2-3 hrs in the middle of the day, unless she gets woken up, in which case she seems to think she's completely refreshed regardless of how little sleep she's had.

This morning we've been out to the local shopping centre so she could walk up and down with her mini-buggy thing and get nice and tired. Brought her home, changed her nappy, fed her to sleep. She was asleep within ten minutes and snoozing peacefully in her chair. Five minutes later the phone went. ARRRRRGGGGHHHH! AARRRRRRGGGGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH!

She now thinks it's playtime and is dashing around the floor pretending to be a lion and talking to her shoes. I have so much to do and am actually going to cry if she doesn't go back to sleep

Give her, her lunch at 11.45 then put her to bed at 12.15 she should be tired by then

DD was like this. She gave up napping entirely at 13 months but prior to that (and even now at nightime), if she wakes up at any point, that's it, she thinks she's had the requisite amount of sleep and it's playtime.

She's 2.8 now. It's just the way she is.

That was helpful wasn't it?

Mine is like this. She is the incredible non sleeping baby and if she has even a couple of mins doze in the morning she will refuse to nap at all the rest of the day. Blinking annoying isn't it! Her 3 year old brother will still merrily nap for a good 2 hours or more after lunch! I have tried telling her to be more like him but she just won't listen (she is 12 months)

DS1 was like this at that age too... sorry!

I would put her in front of CBeebies for half an hour after lunch, if you're lucky she might drop off again, if not at least you can get your stuff done!

Lol @ SOH - it did actually make me smile so not entirely unhelpful!

Apparently Salvador Dali used to fall asleep sitting in a chair holding a fork in his hands over a metal plate, then when he fell asleep the fork would hit the plate and wake him up. He claimed that the amount of sleep he got between dropping off and the fork hitting the plate was all he needed. Clearly our DDs are made in the same mould!

goldfish That's a good idea, will try that.

Gosh, lots of Dali babies!

Thanks for the replies, going to chase her round the living room then give her some food and keep my fingers tightly crossed.

Ds tries to get up at night if he wakes sometimes, at least now he is 3 he understands "no, it is night time, daddy is asleep, mummy wants to be asleep, have a drink, read your book but just don't wake me up!"

I always try putting dd to bed after lunch even if she has slept in the morning, even if she doesn't sleep she usually chats to her teddies long enough for me to do the washing up or something without her emptying the recycling bin or getting in to the cleaning cupboard (it has a child lock on it, ds can't open it but she can ).

Unfortunately if I put her in her cot then she'd scream the place down - she usually naps in her chair and she's quite capable of climbing out if she doesn't want to sleep. I desperately need to do some cleaning and tidying, which I suppose I could do with her awake, but it's a little demoralising trying to tidy while someone walks along behind you undoing whatever you've just done!

If all else fails then I guess she'll fall asleep on the way to my granny's this afternoon, then the old girl and I can sit in silence and look at her (we tend to rely on DD for conversation these days!) ...

Did not sleep after lunch.

Did not sleep on way to granny's.

DID fall asleep on way home from granny's, just after 5 pm, for about ten minutes. Then slept like a lead weight on my shoulder for about ten minutes while I did a quick shop in our local Co-op (she has never slept through that kind of thing before - kept checking she was still breathing! ). At this point I realised that if I could get her back in the car still asleep, I could probably just put her straight down and skip dinner + bath etc.

Did not get her back in the car still asleep

Took about 90 min and the combined efforts of me and DH (I say combined, was mainly DH to be fair) to get her down. Argh!