How can I persuade my two year old into earlier nights?

[alittleteapot]

DD is just two. Whatever we do at the moment she doesn't go to sleep till at least 9pm. This is not the end of the world as in other ways her sleep is pretty good these days (has not always been so) but I'm struggling not to have a bit more evening time. I'm pregnant and really need to be in bed by 10pm myself but fitting in a few jobs and then a bit of time with dp is tough in the time.

She gets up quite late. This morning dp had to literally drag her out of bed at 7.30. Otherwise she'd have slept till 8/8.30 (lovely but on balance would prefer earlier start and earlier bedtime.)

She would like to nap for an hour at about 1pm but if she does it can be 10pm before she's asleep at night. So, I'm trying to get the nap earlier or not at all and am waking her after half an hour max. She's not thrilled about this but once awake is refreshed to last till bedtime.

Our bedtime routine is pretty solid - bath, bottle, stories. But she gets this second wind in bed and wants to get up, bounce, play, anything except curl up for slumber.

I've just bought a blackout blind as I think that would help.

I'm going to buy some kind of in-between lighting so that we have something very calm between bedside light and dark.

But it feels like whatever we do it's 9pm for her and right now it's feeling a bit tough.

As I said to dp last night, actually it's not a biggest problem in the world by some stretch and maybe we should just ride this phase as it will disappear like others.

But with a new baby due in three months I could do with a bit of time before it all goes haywire again.

Sorry this is a bit rambly, any thoughts would be welcome.

[stickylittlefingers]

if her body clock is very "set", rather than changing that, would it be possible to get her into a routine where you do leave her at 8pm, but she's allowed to look at her books, play with her toys in bed (quietly not rampaging round the room!) til she feels sleepy? My dd1 is quite a bit older, but has been doing this since about 3yo. Dd2 is the other way around, she goes down fine, but is allowed to play in the mornings - she's 2yo just like yours. They both have night lights.

[DesperateHousewifeToo]

Wake her up every morning an hour earlier and don't let her sleep much/late during the day.

[alittleteapot]

Thanks for replies and sorry delayed response.

I kept her awake all day one day and that started a new cycle of much earlier nights and early mornings. Seems she needs no more than 20 mins nap in day but this is really hard if we're out and in buggy or car for unavoidably longer as she'll sleep for longer and then we're back with really late nights.

Anyway, is feeling like we're getting there and I'm understanding her changing needs a bit better...