So there’s a new reason I’ve been slack on my blogging this month. For 19 months, we had the same routine for bed, with a 6pm bath, milk, story, lotion, pyjamas, and she would be fast asleep 99.9% of the time pretty much straight away. I’d then head to bed with my own book, or write my blogs, do some homework, or Jon and I would watch an episode of the Walking Dead.

Fast forward a month, and it’s 9.20pm. She’s had her bath, story, milk, lotion etc etc, and is now sitting in a laundry basket in the middle of the living room, singing her version of ‘row, row your boat’ at the top of her voice, while drumming on the side with a plastic asparagus. 

Not an ounce of tiredness, sleepy face rubs or grizzly snuggles. She’s more awake than the rest of us put together.

Attempting any kind work is just impossible, with the pen quickly stolen from my hands, reading can’t happen without the kindle being reset to factory settings, and an episode of the Walking Dead is probably not appropriate (nor going to support any kind of productive sleep for a child).

It’s not that I don’t want to be spending these precious extra hours with her, and I do love listening to her version of ‘row, row your boat’, but the sudden jump from 6pm til after 9pm is a bit of a shock to our system… and without a later wakeup call to make up for it the next morning! 

She’s not even any more tired at lunchtime for an earlier nap to try and shift bedtime back, but I do find I need to make the most of that lunchtime nap time to get ANYTHING important done! 

We tried to compromise by giving the 7.30pm bath instead of 6pm (yes it was early and she is getting older), but to still be drumming the plastic asparagus at 9.20pm, I am wondering if there’s anything else I can do. 

This isn’t just a selfish ploy so we can catch up on Walking Dead, but I admit I do enjoy the quiet time after bedtime after a very long day (is that selfish?) and a bit of chill time with Jon which we don’t often get. 

To be fair on her she does sleep pretty well when she has the later bedtime, and doesn’t usually need resettling as much (ok I’ve jinxed that now), plus it’s not so much of a rush between getting home from work and putting her to bed. 

But if anyone has advice for maybe getting bedtime back to a more appropriate time for a 20 month old, then I’d love to hear it. 

With a wedding weekend, hotel, move to a new house and a holiday to France all in the next few weeks, I know her sleep will be all over the place, but I guess it’s just sticking to the consistency and eventually she’ll get used to it again, right?