HELP = My gemini daughter is noctural.....

[silenceischocolate]

Am I the only one with a 2.5 yr old who simply is never tired...She only is tired if I take her running daily which is sometimes impossible (if she has had to be indoors due to illness etc) today she did have a little nap in the afternnoon which is rare but it is now 22.19 and she really shows no sign of being tired and we have tried almost all evening to get her to bed. She suffers a little from separation anxiety and seems to have US trained...I feel like a cr*p parent. Some days she can be fine, however on days like this she just will not settle. I have tried nearly every trick in the book. She is a clever little thing and her mind is very active - she is now putting all her toys to bed and tucking them in....ahhhrrrr.....Do any other parents of Gemini children have this....I do not normall bring star signs into it but I am now clutching at straws!!

You need to find DorrisMcWhirter - her dd has gone through a really difficult patch with her sleeping (although I think she's much better now).

If I see her on mumsnet, I'll send her over.

please do - any help/advise success stories would be helpful!

I was like this as a child and guess what... I am a gemini, lol. Not sure how my parents coped really. As I got older my parents couls start to put me to bed earlier as I got better at entertaing myself and not tearing round the house. I remember going to bed but staying up thinking and reading for hours and hours. Even role playing and 'acting' out little dramas and plays in my mind- maybe I had an over active imagination or maybe I was a little nuts but I did grow out of it but even now I rarely need more than 5-6 hours sleep a night.

my my, I too am a gemini and was exactly like this as a child lol
I'm not sure what my parents did so I can't really be of too much help but I'm pretty sure I needed a looooong wind down at the end of the day, no TV no over imaginative books NOTHING!!
however I think they just gave up and let me potter around the house doing whatever (which mainly involved 'reading' or the like) whenever I woke up which obviously isn't very helpful sorry..
but I've heard that CBT can be really helpful (though not sure if this would be helpful for a 2.5 year old?)

I think the problem is the over -active mind, well it is with me anyway

to this day I function best on 4 hours of sleep a night and still have periods of time where I just won't sleep for days on end

weird about the gemini thing thou eh!!

Nope, sorry! I'm gemini (through and through!) and I sleep like a log all night every night, within a minute of my head hitting the pillow. Always have done, too, according to my mama.

I have a pisces who's like this and a gemini who loves her sleep.
Some children just need less sleep than others.

I have exactly the opposite to you juuule - a pisces who has been a fab sleeper for all of his 8 month long life (wakes briefly once or twice for a bf then straight back to sleep - 12 hours a night!) My gemini daughter however (who is also 2.5!) is exactly as you describe silenceischocolate. Most days her bedtime is between 9 and 10 and if we have so much as a hint of a visitor any time after 4pm, then she can keep going until midnight. I think it's exactly that she can't switch her mind off. It's like it's racing and I'll start winding down, creating a calm atmosphere etc, and she'll start to get calm and cosy and then all of a sudden it's as if something pops into her head and she'll suddenly jump up and do whatever it is and we're back to square one.

(My dad and my sister and my aunt are also all gemini's and are also mega active 'survive on 2 minutes sleep a night' sort of people, so maybe there is something in it!)

I realise there wasn't a shred of advice in that answer, but just to let you know you're not the only one (also agree, telly doesn't help, in fact activity in general.)

On the other hand, my brother is also a gemini and could sleep for England - but then dd, aunbt, sister and dad are all early gemini's (May), whereas my brother is a much later gemini, maybe that's the difference?!