what do i do with her!

i put my 21 month old daughter to bed today at 12:15 cause she was acting tired and she usually has a sleep around this time. it is now 1:40 and she is not asleep! she has been throwing her blanket, pillow, dummy, cuddle toy off the bed. standing up on bed, playing, talking to herself, drinking her water, calling out etc, this whole time. i have been in there probably about 10-15 times! she hasnt been crying during this, she seems quite happy.

what should i do now? presume she wasnt tired and get her out of bed to play in lounge room til she is sleepy? but then it will be too late in the day to have a sleep and she will be up all night if she sleeps past 3:30!

or should i keep her in her room until she falls asleep? what if that is another hour! i feel b ad for cooping her up in her bed for so long (though she seems happy enough).

plus she will be getting hungry soon!

i'm confused as to what to do with her!

Personally, I would take her out and be done with it. You've given it over 1.5hrs which in some rule books is the length of time they say to keep them in bed for. She's been happy enough to play quietly in her room and therefore giving her some reasonably unstimulated quiet time which as they get older is all they need if they are done with the napping.

She may get tired a lot earlier tonight, but if it was me, I'd keep her up to her normal bedtime (give or take 30min), do normal routine at bedtime and I'd imagine she'd be off in a tick and get a good nights rest.

You may find towards the evening she'll get grumpy and a little harder to handle but there's nothing much you can do about making her have a sleep, sometimes it just doesn't happen especially seeing as she's getting close to 2. Sleep cycles change all the time.

Good luck.

Yep, Amy's advice is what i'd do too. I have a 22 month old (who has just woken!) and occassionally he won't nap. The Witching Hour is awful but hopefully you'll be able to settle her down earlier than usual tonight (not too early because somethimes i find they wake up in the middle of the night). usually the rule is that "the more they sleep the more they want to sleep" is true meaning that just because they don't get a day-nap doesn't mean they will sleep well at night. But at least she's had some quiet time :) you've done all you can do darl.

We have this happen quite regularly here and the only solution I found was figuring out the exact time to get him to bed is between 1.15 and 1.45 otherwise there is no way he'll sleep. This might be the same for your little one, too early she won't sleep & too late she wont' sleep. It really was a juggling act to figure out when.

However if we've been busy & can't manage that time Zander still goes to his room for a rest. He stays for two hours & generally I don't go in to him unless he's making too much noise to be resting. Most of the time he lays in bed reading his books or playing with a few cars. I don't mind as long as he's having some quiet time. He needs to rest & with I need the rest too (being due with another baby next month). When he hasn't had a day sleep I try to make dinner earlier & bedtime earlier. Usually around 30-45 minutes so he gets that extra sleep, but isn't up too early in the morning.

HTH

well its almost 2 now and she is still not asleep, so i went and got her out of bed. i hope she doesnt put two and two together and resist sleep time cause she knows i will eventually let her out of bed from now on. i am not ready for her to be awake ALL DAY!

to tell you the truth i am sort of feeling angry towards her cause i really like having that time to myself to get a few things done around the house and have a rest etc. today i was just sitting around waiting for her to go to sleep so didnt really get to do any of the things i had planned.

plus she is gonna be so tired and cranky now! and i was gonna take her out to the shops this evening (wont be doing that now)!

so frustrating!

Obviously she's been talking to mine today because she's just done exactly the same thing!
I've given up and at least she's having some down time laying on her fold out lounge.

Hollo - I know how you feel. It's incredibly frustrating. :wall: You feel robbed of your only free time in the day. I never fully relax mentally unless I know she's asleep, but I've found I relax a lot better if I just accept that she's not going to sleep and let her have her 'quiet time' and don't disturb her.

I wouldn't worry its going to become habit forming. As long as you keep to the regular routine and keep her in there for a specific time (1-2hrs), she'll know she can't come out for that length of time. You've just got to be strong and not let her out earlier unless of course she is in distress. When they move to a big bed it can become a little more tricky (they like to get in and out of bed and open doors etc) but teach them the ways and they'll learn eventually.

I've had it happen on and off since my DD was 2 (or just before) and she's never got 'cluey' so to speak, she accepts she has to stay in there for quiet time until mummy says she can come out. More often than not she will sleep though and if she's only slept for say 40min, I still make her stay in her room for at least another 30min of quiet play, but everyone is different.

:hug: hope you get your rest tonight.

P.S. I've never had no sleep during the day affect the night sleep but again every bub is different.

One trick I used to do when i just had one child was to lie down and have a nap with her. The sight of you lying next to her with your eyes closed can be very soporific (sleep inducing). I can't do that much these days because i have another child to care for and he would just wander in on us and ask for something to eat etc just as we were both drifting off.