Really fed up with DS and bedtime. Feel like a horrible mum.

[Deadonmyfeetstill]

I feel horrible as I am just completely fed up of DS and bed time. He’s clearly shattered but refuses to go to bed until 830. By which time I’m ready to go to bed, so I get no evening at all. It’s not just no evening, it’s an evening with a fractious, fretful toddler who gives you no space.

I’m horrible I know

He’s 15 months.

Everything is a phase, just keep aiming for earliest bedtime and eventually it will fall in to place. Its no fun whilst you’re in the middle of it but it will end eventually.

It gets better. Once they start dropping naps you can start getting them to bed earlier, around 7pm.

Stick to the bedtime you want, they rarely do well past 7pm bed at this age. It def all a phase, even they last toooo long!

Thanks, the thing is he’s only on one nap and has been for some time. Today he woke up at just after 7, then he napped for just over an hour and a half (1230-2.) so he must be tired?

Def must be tired. There’s a chance he might wake earlier than 7 but if you stick to 7pm then the rest will shift around that. I am with you, alone time in eve is precious. Otherwise it’s just sleep and parenting! It’s too much!

Before this difficult patch, how much sleep did he tend to need? Has he generally slept about the average for his age? I ask because DD has never needed much sleep, and so for us at that age, sleep was a 1-2 hour nap and about 10 hours overnight. We picked 8pm-6am as the least worst ten hours – occasionally she slept until 6.30 instead of 6 or went down 15-20 minutes earlier if she was clearly tired, but that was pretty much it.

He may be overtired. Have you tried putting him to bed much earlier i.e. half hour or an hour earlier than you normally try?

The other thing to try is waking him earlier in the morning and moving everything forward an hour.

Sounds hugely overtired!

6.5hrs awake for a 15month old is far too long. You should be aiming for 4-5hr wake windows. I would be starting bedtime at 6. How does he go to sleep? Do you have to stay with him or does he self settle?