Hi,
So I am currently really struggling with my bedtimes with my just turned 2 year old. We used to have a great bedtime routine of bath, into pjs and then milk and stories followed by cuddles until she fell asleep. This has worked great for at least a year.
However now she seems to want to fight every step. She refuses to get into the bath so we don’t do it every night now, although on the odd occasion she will happily get in and not want to get out so we have end up having a tantrum either way.
I let her choose her pjs but if the ‘right’ ones aren’t there (in the wash) all hell breaks lose again.
She is happy enough having her milk and story but then when that’s over she is never ready for sleep, always wants more stories or more milk or to go downstairs and play with her toys etc…
She will settle for milk but because I do her teeth after it I don’t want her falling asleep on the bottle and I don’t think she should need to at 2 anyway.
So she just ends up refusing to stay in bed, getting more and more worked up. The last 3 nights she’s been SO upset and I feel so helpless, I try to comfort her and tell her it’s ok to feel frustrated, we will play with toys and read more stories tomorrow etc but she just can’t calm herself down. Eventually she has just been passing out in my arms.
It’s just horrible for us both. Does anyone have any suggestions for improving this please?