Tips for 18 month old sleep routine

[onionlove]

Hi everyone,
Would love to benefit from anyone's experience on this and get some new ideas. Our DS has never been a great sleeper but a month or two ago we finally got into a good routine, bath, milk/stories, cuddle, put in the cot and he would lie on his side and drift off with me/DH still in the room, sometimes wake 4/5 am and we snuggle him in with us until a better time to get up :-)
Over the last month or so DS has started to squirm and monkey around for about an hour before going to sleep, if we leave the room for him to get on with it he cries until we come back but then starts messing around again. Controled crying isn't for us but I was wondering if I should try leaving the room and only coming back in to lie him down then leaving again but I'm not sure if this is a solution and will get him into a good habit or not or whether we will end up in and out of his room for hours. I'm 50/50 as to whether we are encouraging him to try to stay awake just by being there.
Any ideas anyone?
Thanks
Onion x

[ToysRLuv]

I have a 20 month old DS and he has sometimes been like this. If he is messing around, is he tired enough? I found that DS just was not tired enough to sleep when he was being like this. I would read to him for a bit longer and try to put him back to bed again when he starts yawning etc. He would then go to sleep quite nicely.

Or could he be overtired? I know some tired toddlers get really hyper. I would experiment with bedtimes and try a more boring approach when putting him to sleep, i.e. pretend to sleep on the floor (works for us when he needs us in the room) or go out and come in every couple of minutes to lie him down (or you can also just stay in the room but not look at him and lie him down every time he gets up). There is always one approach that will work better than the others - see which one is the least distressing for you both.

Good luck!

[Iggly]

DS does this sometimes (20 months). After making sure it's not wind (of the bum variety, by wiggling his bum a bit), I tell him to lie down and go to sleep. Then I'll either leave the room and he calls out or cries (but not proper crying), give it a minute and he'll start babbling so I know he's ok and falls asleep in ten minutes. Other times I'll get to the leaving his room bit but he doesn't calm down so I go in, cuddle, lie him down and sit in the room and tell him it's bedtime. He'll usually drift off or will settle with me keeping a hand on him.
He does get a bit hyper and I find that an earlier bedtime of even 5-10 minutes makes the difference.

Around 18 months there is a developmental spurt making their brains doolally - is he talking more or changing in how he plays? Other thought is teeth.

[SilkySilky]

Some good ideas here. We aint had more than 2 hours undisturbed sleep in last 14 months.