My DD is 2 yrs 7m. Until the end of March I could put her in her cot at about 7pm and she was fine, wouldn't always go to sleep straight away but would just chatter away to herself and not need us. When the clocks went forward it disturbed her slightly, but then about a week after that we moved house and she went to nursery FT (had previously been going 3 days a week). Then about a month after we moved she started climbing out of her cot so we moved her into a toddler bed.
Now bedtime is a nightmare and it's often 9pm before she settles. For a while she was happy if we left the nightlight on so she could look at her books, but now if we try and leave her in the room on her own she just gets out of bed. We have a stairgate over her bedroom door and she just stands by that and howls. I have tried leaving her to cry, rapid return, leaving nightlight on, having room completely dark, but nothing seems to work. The only thing that does keep her quiet is if I stay in the room with her, but even then it can sometimes take an hour for her to settle which means I'm just sitting in the dark for an hour!!
I am trying to stop her daytime nap to see if that helps, but when she's at nursery it's not fair on the staff or the other children to try and keep her awake, and it also means that we can't go anywhere in the car as she falls asleep very easily in the car.
Does anyone have any advice? It feels like we have no evenings to ourselves any more!