Please help with my DD

[grounddown]

DD was an amazing sleeper until she hit 23 months and climbed out of her cot. As soon as she realised she could escape and run around all hell broke loose.
That was 2 months ago and we have tried her in a toddler bed, a single bed and now she's in a double bed co- sleeping with her dad. We tried a child gate at the door to stop her escaping but she just screamed and screamed until she was blotchy and inconsolable so we haven't done that again.
The problem is that even though she cut her daytime naps out at 19 months she just won't go to bed. She is clearly shattered but does anything she can to keep herself awake - singing, scratching, lifting her legs up, bashing the wall anything at all.
I have a DS who is 6 months old and he is a rubbish sleeper, he still wakes twice a night and is up at 5. I am literally sobbing every night with the stress of it all. I'm back at work 2 days and I am so physically shattered I just don't know what to do.

I suppose I'm just asking for some tips to make bedtime easier. She has her nappy on, a story and her milk all in her bedroom so she does know what's coming. If we let her have a nap in the day she s up even later, I thought it was over tiredness but it doesn't matter what I do she just won't settle.

Thanks

Bump :(

DD1 used to get up repeatedly when we moved her to a bed. After some despair we just had to out her back in bed again and again, for hours every evening. We would do it with minimal talk, no playing etc. and same words each time. It took a while but in the end she just stayed in there and stopped getting up so much. It was like a kind of compulsion though, as if she could get up so she had to, iyswim? Good luck, I found it very hard and shouted a fair few times, but she did get used to it in the end.

'Put' her back in bed, stupid phone.

I would just keep putting her back. Don't engage, don't answer questions, don't negotiate, don't get drinks.

Look at it like a job that you are going to take on and get done. It might be hard but it will be worth it.

Thank you all for your messages. I put her back in her toddler bed and made a big fuss about how brilliant it was. I am still sitting with her when I put her to bed but I'm putting her to bed later (about 8.30) and its not taking anywhere near as long, she seems much more relaxed. I just perch on the end of the bed and don't look at her or talk to her, she soon gets the message!
She has been waking in the night and getting in the bed with her dad but last night she didn't wake once!!
I feel a bit better about it