Attachment Parenting

The last few days, my LO will be so tired and needing to sleep, but she keeps going and going. I nurse her to sleep, but when we nurse, she then gets up and wants to go walk and play. She's 16 months old.

If we go walk and play, then we try nursing again 1/2 hour later, and the same thing happens. This happens again and again from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., by which time she's finally tired enough to fall asleep.

However, I found that if around 10 p.m., I don't let her walk and play and let her cry for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then nurse her, she stays on and nurses to sleep.

I hate the crying part (she's SO sad!), but otherwise she goes to bed at 11 p.m. and gets up at 9:00 or 9:30 a.m.

Why is this happening? Is there anything better that I can do and avoid the crying? Thank you.

I think it's probably a frustration cry that she's not getting her way. My kids went through phases like that too where I knew they were tired but they would just keep trying to go. I had to force them to relax and they hated going to sleep. If it's only lasting 30 seconds to a minute then you know she's tired. I'd stick with that routine. Hopefully soon she'll realize that it's really not so bad to have to stop playing for some sleep!

You're doing the right thing!

Yes, it's definitely a frustration cry of not getting her way (walking around and playing). It's not a sad, scared, or "I don't know what to do" cry like when she was younger.

Okay, thank you, what you say makes me feel a lot better, that she's definitely tired and needs to be guided to stop playing. Thanks!