Since weaning my toddler off the dummy, she is taking a long time to fall asleep, especially for her day sleeps. She rarely seems to get upset now, but just takes ages to fall asleep - sometimes up to an hour. During this time she is chatting to her stuffed toys, calling out to me and playing. At night she has a very calm bedtime routine involving bath, massage, bottle, teeth, stories, then bed. We spend a few minutes stroking her hair and talking to her before we leave the room. Any tips on how I can help her to wind down more quickly and fall asleep in a shorter period of time?
ETA she used to fall asleep practically as soon as her head hit the pillow most of the time when she had the dummy, but I definitely do not want to give her her dummy back.

I do a modified wind down for the day sleep: I sing a song, we have a cuddle and I stroke B's hair for a little bit and talk about what we have done so far in the day. I then talk about what B might like to dream about, give a back rub and walk out

B is usually asleep with no fuss within 15 mins but we have never used a dummy

I agree with LovelyMum, DD has not had a regular daytime sleep since 18mths - however, on the days that she does not sleep, we have quiet time where we read a book, she plays in her room with her dolls or does a puzzle or two. This usually lasts as long as DS sleeps.

If she doesn't sleep I also try to have a quiet afternoon, either just at home, or if I have to go out, it is only to the supermarket or something similar, we don't do too much that is physical.

Good Luck.

Sal

Maybe when you read read in a very quiet voice to her, almost a whisper, and when you're giving a massage, changing, have the room dimly lit and not talk, keep everything quiet....

Thanks for the replies. She definitely still needs that day sleep - there is no question of that. She is very tired by nap time.
haylele: we do try to have a quiet bedtime routine, but Daddy tends to encourage splashing and noisy play in the bath. She does love it so much though and doesn't get to see her Daddy all day so I cannot deny them this playtime. I will try being quieter and calmer when reading to her and see if this helps. She was pretty good when going down for her sleep tonight though.

Hmm maybe try give her the bottle b4 bath then clean teeth then bath and continue as normal except finish with a bottle of warm water and a cuddle b4 putting her down.

Hope this helps

Carol

I have spoken to a few friends lately and it seems to be a stage that some of them have gone/going through. They seem to get to a stage where they are reliving everything they have experienced while they were up.
We got to the point where it was taking nearly 2 hours for her to fall asleep (she would be talking and giggling the whole time!).
She seems to be good again now though - so perhaps its just a developmental stage??
Hope she gets passed it soon for you