How does your toddler fall asleep?

[BabaganooToo]

For the past few months my 17 month old DS has transitioned from being rocked to sleep to laying next to me and falling asleep (it's not ideal but it's a step in the right direction!)

One thing that I find fascinating is watching him try to fall asleep. It takes about 20 minutes and in that time he just does not stop moving! He flips and flops, constantly rubs his eyes, rubs his face on the floor or on me, shifts his whole body around the bed, climbs on me then immediately rolls off, grabs me, grabs his feet, plays with his hands, and then he has little tell for when he's in the final stages - he pulls at his hair ever so gently and then boom. Asleep.

Does anyone else's toddler do the same? He's my first DC so I've never seen this before and just wondered if it was a little quirk or if there's others like me, laid in the dark watching their child wriggle themselves to sleep 😅

I could have written your post 100% word for word for my 19month old.
We also started off rocking to sleep and now lie on the bedroom floor while he thrashes about and then somehow “boom” he is fast asleep.
Most of the time I end up napping too 😂 until I end up with a kick to the face which wakes me with a start.

I too could have just written your post. 1 hour of rocking, placing in cot, stroking hair, out the cot, rolling on floor, sitting up. He is now finally asleep 😴

I think it is normal OP

Very similar here with 18mo. Requires a parent to sit next to the toddler bed for 30-60 minutes, which is progress with last 2 months of actually being in the double bed with him. Constant wriggling, messing about, sitting up, occasional crying, dummy in dummy out. DH keeps saying we should 'teach him to go to sleep on his own' but we have intermittently tried sleep training and it only partially worked. I've made my peace with it, he just needs us there at the moment.

I do feel jealous of friends who say they can kiss goodnight and leave though, or sit there for 10 mins and child is asleep. By the time bedtime is done I feel completely exhausted and get nothing done with my evening.

HiCandles that was my DS ... he was just a great sleeper ... 7pm ... lights out, door shut and that was it until the next morning. I was quite strict with GF routine (which I know is hated on Mumsnet) but I can honestly say it worked for us.

From 9 months ds just got kissed and tucked in. Slept 7 til 7...at 9 yo still loves bedtime...

We just moved 2 year old to her bed, we have to stay with her and yes she’s up and down, kicks the covers off, plays with her teddies, rolls about but somehow eventually falls asleep.

From what age did you introduce the routine?
Due second baby any day now and I'm very tempted to try something different as I cannot cope with a repeat of the hell I went through last time

We did that routine with our child from when they were a baby, to start dh patted our child's back till they were calm, they did have a dummy

But we stuck to it, when older when they got out of bed he kissed took back and left

We did the same thing every night and stuck to it religiously, never had a prpblem

After bed time story that is

Routine from the day we got back from hospital... I know people don't like this these days but my DC had a strict 'bedtime' at 7pm to distinguish from the rest of the day's naps ... look at Gina Ford if you want ideas .... but it is really hated on Mumsnet so I rarely mention it now (& our DS is now in his early 20s so it was more popular years ago). You don't need to follow it exactly but it gives you some structure.

We did routine but it just happened we didn't intentionally do it but they slept 12 hours nightly so weren't messeing with it at all

DS1 used to sing very loudly and then conk out mid song. It was hilarious, and I don't know how it worked!

Same for us with 21 month old, used to be cuddled and rocked to sleep but for bedtime now usually goes to sleep lying down next to either of us/being cuddled. Loads of thrashing around, sitting up, playing, dummy in then out, asking for water - takes usually between 40-60 minutes and is exhausting. We've been doing this for two months and no sign of the time decreasing, it's actually got longer. Although we don't get the 'boom' suddenly asleep.. it's a much more gradual thing

@gentlemum oh bless you that sounds exhausting. I feel we're in quite a good stage now, after 14 months of pure sleep hell, but im sure we're due a change soon... no doubt I'll be in the same boat in a few months! Dyou think your DC is thinking about dropping his nap? I'm dreading that day lol

Oh yes if it's nap time on a weekend I just sleep with him. It's amazing having an almost 2hr nap. Especially as we went through months and months of 30min cat naps

Our DD started dropping her nap at around 20 months, then consistently hasn't napped in the day time from 22 months, it helped her sleeping at night as it meant she was more tired.

We sleep trained her at 11m and it worked brilliantly, started sleeping 12 hours straight, no fuss going to sleep, BUT after that I never wanted to put her in bed until she was tired as I personally don't think it's fair to make them go to bed if they're not particularly sleepy and that obviously revolved around her nap, so bedtime was anywhere between 7:30 - 930pm.

Once she dropped her nap she is out like a light at night, she just rolls over and goes to sleep so we have a set bedtime again.

@BabaganooToo I'm dreading that day too! I don't think he'll keep napping for too much longer.. he does sometimes resist it or skip it all together. I'm due my second in a few weeks and do worry how it's going to work with having to get my toddler to sleep for naps. Maybe the situation will cause him drop them!

I don’t remember dd1s falling asleep quirks. Dd2 is 9 months and when she starts to fall asleep she starts blowing raspberries to keep herself awake 😂She rubs her left ear too.

DD2 is 13m, for naps she likes to make a low growl/humming noise. I guess she likes the vibration on her voice box throat.
For bedtime she likes to play with a dummy in her hand.
She falls asleep within 15 minutes if left alone, if we stay in the room she gets distracted and starts standing in the cot.

DD1 is 3y and was exactly the same and now just lies in her bed cuddling her many soft toys until she's asleep.