Syd-Lon with 2.5yr & 10month - Stopover or not?

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I'm looking to book flights back to the UK (from Sydney) next March/April. My DD will be 2.5 and DS 10 months. I'm trying to work out if it's worth doing a stopover or if that actually prolongs the pain... We hope to start the flights at night so they will sleep until Singapore/Bangkok, but then with the second part of the flight, the airlines often turn the lights off again and my DD will not sleep straight away!!
Has anyone done both? What worked? Any advice?

My main worry is having 2 nightmare flights over 2 days instead of just getting it over with 1 day of flights... HELP!

I have only flown with one child (aged 7mo on way there, 9 mo on way back), flying Auckland-UK and I did the journey on my own so I had a stopover simply for me to have a rest - though dd slept for some of the flights I only got a couple of hours.

We got a room at the Transit hotel at Singapore which you can book in four-hourly blocks - so we had 14 hours or whatever between flights, booked the hotel room for 12 hours, had a shower (bliss after 12 hours on plane with small baby), slept, got something to eat etc. Singapre airport is great, swimming pool, kids playgrouds, free internet etc. Singapore Airlines were excellent with me and dd too.

Opinion is divided on this topic, some people do think it's best to get it all over with at once but I preferred the chance to have a sleep/shower/meal etc at the airport (also if you stay at Transit Hotel you don't have the hassle of clearing immigration/customs etc)

Mine were 2 and 5 when I did that flight with no stopover. We flew at around 11.30pm and arrived here in the morning. The excitement kept them going that whole first day and then hey went to sleep at the ordinary time at night time. and got up at the normal time in the morning. No jet lag at all.

My DH will be coming too. So we may need to tag team my DD on the plane. She's quite a handfull and never really slept through until she was 20 months. Hence the post as I'm thinking 'get it over with' and he wants a stopover...

You'll get lots of different answers but I also favour the stop over. I try for the last flight in and first flight out or visa versa. Approx 12-16 hours in transit. Check into transit hotel, shower, sleep, eat (semi) civilised food, walk, let littlies crawl and run around. I just can't go straight through. I find when one sleeps the others awake, I don't sleep, get tired and irrational - not a good mix when the kids are over excited, tired and emotional too

Thanks for your help... We found a free stopover with Sinapore airline in the paper with flightcentre so will try and do that. Cheers!