Utterly losing my mind at preschooler bedtime - please help!

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

Our twins are 3y4m. They are active, good eaters, mostly sleep through fine. Can be cheeky but pretty decent kids for 3yos.

Bedtimes are awful though. Before the clocks changed it'd be pop them into bed, sing a song and call "night night". Close door and not see them again for 11h.

Now, it'like they've become possessed. They have the same routine:
Dinner around 6pm, nothing sugary apart from fruit for afters
Up stairs around 6.40, shower or just strip wash
Loo, stories, milk, teeth
Into bed around 7 or 7.15
Sing a song, lie down.....

Then, all hell breaks loose. BoyTwin has started doing very messy raspberries that are basically spitting. He does this continually at bedtime. GirlTwin jumps up and down in bed and shouts about needing a poo when she clearly doesn't. They play hide and seek and shout and sing. The whole bloody performance goes on for an hour, sometimes more.

They get consequences for misbehaving such as favourite teddy can't be in bed or losing a sweet treat the next day. But these are not really that effective tbh.

I am so tired of it. Today I came within about an inch of properly losing my rag when I was trying to get one into bed and the other was leaning over laughing and spitting in my face.

Help! Why are they such demons and wtf can I do differently?????

Oooh no advice but sympathy. I have a small bed-demon too. Wonder if it's something in the air. He used to go to bed, bottle, once finished he stood up, handed me the bottle, proclaimed "dummy" with outstretched hand and once given the dummy he took all 4 blankets turned around and off.

Now...

He stands, jumps, runs in the bed up and down like a hamster possessed, sings, repeats all million words he knows in random order (that part is actually funny as he is trilungual so this makes me laugh) then cries, throws things out of his bed and requests to have them handed back, pulls curtains off window, screams to wake up his sister... so. Takes him anything between 1 to 3 hours to actually fall asleep by which time I just want to die.

As I said. No advice, but sympathy!

I don’t bother fighting against it. My 3 year old is my youngest and she stays up until she is tired. She plays with her older sister or watches a cartoon. Eventually, it gets to the stage where she is tired and she drifts off on the couch or asks to go to her cot. It works for us as we never have any stress over bedtimes but I understand this way would not be for everyone.

Naps gone?

Curtains drawn downstairs for calm time. Blackout blind in room with little light on. They sometimes have trouble with light evenings. Failing that only 2 weeks til the night starts drawing in

Hi all, thanks. The no bedtime thing wouldn't work for us we need the evenings to be getting on with stuff.

They don't nap and have blackout blinds. Admittedly downstairs is not a zenlike environment but it's not crazy either.

Sigh.... thanks! Yes, holding on for shorter evenings!!

You have my sympathy as similar here but only one to deal with. Can you easily separate them? I imagine they could whip each other up into a frenzy quite quickly but if one doesn't know what the other is doing it might be a start to be able to start ignoring the less desirable behaviour and praising the good stuff. I find if DD can get into bed and lies down then despite her ridiculous demands she will drift off quickly if she's tired enough (the challenge is getting her into bed)

Have you tried putting them to bed earlier? Maybe they are getting overtired and hyper? At that age my daughter had to be in bed by 6.30 or else she was a nightmare.

Could you split them up - put one to bed in their room and one in a spare bed (or your own bed) and carry through an hour or so later when both are deeply asleep?

That is what my mum used to do because DSis and I would talk and play and wind each other up for hours

If going into your bed would be desirable then you can alternate which one does it each night. I used to be the one to go to bed elsewhere because I was older, which made perfect sense to me at the time!

I always read stories from the landing, they had to lie still to hear me, three kids in separate rooms, twins and an elder one.

Worked!

Also if they played up instead of a story I read them recipes (there happened to be one on the shelf when they were being annoying!)

That sounds awful. Can you man mark them with your DP? I read on MN one parent who did this and sort of held them in place with their duvets tucked in. I don't think sanctions work at bedtime because they are too hyped up. I let my DD play quietly until she's tired but I would not be happy with spitting / raspberries / screaming etc.

When mine won’t go to bed he’s either overtired or undertired and I can usually tell which it is. Either try and earlier before time or something to wear them out.
We have just bought a stomp rocket and he shoots the rockets then fetches each one individually.
He must run miles but sleeps well after it