Sleep training - I have NO CLUE!

[NishiNoUsagi]

Trying to sleep train Ds2..

Ds1 was a terrible sleeper, any attempt at controlled crying was a disater that ended up with him throwing up everywhere.
Ds2 was a great sleeper, then bad after a bout of illness. He now falls asleep if I stay in the room, which is fine on the days he falls asleep in 5 mins. However, he also has days where he takes an hour or more to fall asleep (I have fallen asleep on the floor before him quite a few times!)

In an attempt to get him to fall asleep without me in the room, I thought I'd try some controlled crying. I tucked them in (Ds1&2 share a room) kissed goodnight and left. Ds2 cried for a couple of minutes, but gave up when he realised I was serious.

No crying now, which is good, but half an hour has passed since I left the room and there are 2 very awake boys giggling at each other! Do I leave them to it or intervene? Ds1 seems to be reading a story to Ds2, so they are staying in their room and being quite good.

Do I just wait for them to drop off, or go and tell them to go to sleep?

I would give them 5 or 10 mins, see if they seem to be settling down, then go in if not and remind them to go to sleep now. Or go in sooner if it starts sounding more raucous.

I did pop up after writing that to tell them to get into bed and be quiet, didn't have much effect though! But they did both stay in the room which surprised me!

At about 9pm there was no more noise from Ds1, he'd finally dropped off. Ds2 was left singing Old Macdonald to himself for a while And he's finally asleep! He even managed to get halfway into bed, clearly his head was more tired than his legs..

How old are they? If he/they are preschool or young school age then try and get them into bed a little earlier, say 7.30. aim for sleeping by 8 as the more tired they get, the worse it is.

Purple DS1 is nearly 4, DS2 will be 2 next month. Completely agree with you about getting them in bed earlier They usually go up at 7:30 for story, then tucked up and lights off 7:45. Last night I finished work late so it was quite a bit later than usual.

Frustrating thing is DS2 will go up at 7:30 then quite happily bounce around until 9pm - I can't keep up with that! At least they settled without me in the room, that's a first so hopefully it will keep getting earlier.