15 month old bedtime too late - help!

[mckittre]

I don't know if it's his age or the onset of summer, but I'm having real trouble getting my 15 month old to sleep before 11PM these days. And I miss that evening time!

Here's his schedule:
Wake up around 8:30AM (pretty consistent, regardless of bedtime).
Nap around 1.5 hours in the early afternoon. We've tried pushing his nap earlier and earlier in the hopes of helping bedtime, but 12:30PM is the earliest I can ever get him down, and 12:30-2 still isn't early enough?
Bedtime - we start the process around 8:30 or 9PM - usually my husband tries walking him to sleep, and then I try nursing him to sleep if that doesn't work, and if he pops up from nursing and wants to play, husband will walk him again, etc.... Eventually he falls asleep, but often not until 11. He cosleeps, but will stay in the bed by himself until I come to bed.

Any thoughts? We live in Alaska, so it's light really late, and the skylight prevents us from darkening the room at all. He loves to play (jumping and crashing) on the bed. We don't let him do that at all anymore, but he still remembers. Getting him to be active and play outside during the day doesn't make much difference. Is it a good idea to try to encourage a 15 month old to give up naps altogether?

[ssh]

That doesn't sound like enough sleep. It's not an issue of how late, it's total hours per day. At 15 months it's usually 12 to 15 not just 11 hours. I bet the light is part of the problem. What about one of those tent things that fit over the bed or maybe another room that can be darkened?

[kalamos23]

If it makes you feel any better, DD went to bed at the earliest 11pm almost from birth - she often times would go to bed at 2am and we did EVERYTHING to try and get her to go to bed earlier, so I totally feel you. Finally at 18m, she just started going to bed earlier all of a sudden. Anyway, what I have found that works generally most of the time with her was to just start her day earlier. This of course meant she napped earlier, and usually she wanted to take a really late 2nd nap at like 7pm - we just kept her up until 9 or 10pm because if she got fell asleep at 7, she would be up and it didn't matter the amount of time that she slept that nap, just that if she slept at ALL, she would be up for hours. We gradually moved the bedtime back 15min every couple of nights and tried to keep her nap at the exact same time and it really helped. Some kids just don't require that much sleep, DD is one of them unfortunately!

Hope that helps!

[kalamos23]

Oh, and it sounds like you have a lot of different bedtime routines going on, what about if you try sticking to one? Do you think that would help? I know that worked a lot better for DD - our combo is dark room, I have to pay no attention to her or it stimulates her, nursing to sleep. Can you tape a blackout shade over the hole for the skylight?

[mckittre]

As far as bedtime routines, we used to be more consistent, but it's really not working anymore, which has prompted some of the experimenting. It used to be pjs, story and brush teeth with dad, then nurse to sleep. Now, we do that and he'll nurse for a bit than pop up and want to play in the bed (holding him down does not work), so we've added in the walk.

Darkness is the one thing I really cannot do. We live in a one room yurt with a skylight (at 14 feet high or so). There's a curtain around the bed, but it only dims the area. I know lots of people swear by dark, but he was fine last summer, is fine for naps, never wakes at dawn, and I just can't do it.

Getting up earlier might help. I feel bad doing it, because he stays up so late and seems to need the sleep, but I suppose I could shift it gradually.