Hints and tips for settling 2.5 year old DS in his own room.

[Ishtar2410]

Hope someone can help with the tricky task of settling DS to sleep in his own room.

He moved in there 2 months ago and still needs (or wants) me to lay on the bed with him until he goes to sleep. As I'm exhausted at the moment I also fall asleep and when I wake up its usually gone 11pm and yet again I don't have an evening. He was breastfed to sleep (I know, I know...) until almost two years old and laying with him just seemed to be a natural progression from that.

The routine has become very set, so I need hand holding practical tips on how to break this down a bit. With DD I followed the supernanny approach of moving gradually closer to the door, which worked really well. With DS, though, if I sit on the floor he sits next to me chattering and doesn't go to bed....

He doesn't spend the full night in his own bed either - we co-slept until he moved into his own room and I guess he just gets a bit lonely at 3am. I don't mind this aspect as I know it will stop eventually, but I do want to spend a bit more time doing the things that I want to in the evening.

Any tips gratefully received....help me to reclaim my evenings!
Thx

I don't really know as we don't have enough rooms for DS to be in his own!! Do you think it may help if he chose a duvet set & maybe a picture/poster?? Make it 'fun' to stay in the room? An animal shaped nightlight? Or you could try good old fashioned bribery!!

you could try story cd for him to listen to in bed? if you think he will keep getting out of bed if you're not sat there, cd can sometimes keep them in their bed long enough to fall asleep

My MIL - who runs a nursery - gave me a tip for getting toddlers to fall asleep. She says read a story aloud to them, but get slower and slower and quieter and quieter and watch their eyelids droop close.

I tried it on my DD (20 months) and she's right - it works like a charm.
Get DS lying down, all tucked up and comfy and perhaps kneel by his bed and hold the book up for him (it works even better if you angle it so the LO's looking slightly downwards..) then read.

If it works, hopefully you'll be able to sneak out of the room and leave him to it.

Worth a try, anyway!

I hope you get your evenings back soon.

Brilliant! Thanks very much for your tips...I'll give them a go and see what happens....

Cheers!

Just to add, Elizabeth Pantley has written a book called 'The no cry sleep solution' - there's a version targeted specifically at toddlers and preschoolers which is really helping me with my 3 year old at the moment.
HTH

Yes, the No-Cry Sleep Solution for toddlers is much better than the baby one IMO.

Possibly not!! I must admit, since the first few times, the story-reading has become less effective every time, although it does seem to relax her at the very least (if she's not getting too impatient at how slowly it's going...)

Hmmm, maybe I'll stick with feeding/rocking for a while then. :)

Ahh...there's a no-cry sleep solution for toddlers. I'll grab a hold of that one - couldn't see where the babies one could be made to fit!

As I type, he's still up....arrrgh! We've tried to put him down twice, but he just screams.

I love to have children who know their own minds, but I also want my evenings!