Need a new sleep structure for toddler

[camberwellred]

Hi there my dd is 2.5 yrs old & I really need to change her daily routine so wondering if anyone could help...

We have followed an AP approach with her & consequently she does rely on us to stay with her whilst she gets off to sleep (which can take ages - from 40mins to 3 hours) however recently my partner was away with work & not only did I find it much easier/quicker to get her down but also she slept through for around 7/10 nights!

The problem is since he's come back, it's been near on impossible to get her down as early as she was before as the house is just busier (food isn't cooked, partner arriving, small noisy house etc etc)...Also, due to the fact that she skipped her daytime sleep (when she was 1.5yrs) Past 7 o'clock she's completely past it, overtired and set on a whole new cycle.

No matter how hard I've tried to reign her in & get her to sleep earlier, it fails & I am utterly baffled as to what to try.

The problem in all of this is that it's taking over 2hrs to get her to sleep & she's waking frequently in the night (I believe it's because she's overtired)

I think we need a new daily routine or structure. Her sleep has always been terrible and a real fight, but I know now that she is capable of sleeping through & having seen the difference in behaviour from when she does & when she doesn't I'm certain that she's overtired and therefore it's up to me somehow to tweak this!

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Thanks

My daughter was the same; she'd get too wired to sleep and I just couldn't get her to settle down.

I discovered some good ways to help her wind down in the end. No TV and sugary foods in the afternoon was one.

Two, always have a bath, and books.

Three - whilst in bed try using acupressure/ reflexology to switch her brain off ready for sleep. It used to take my daughter anywhere from 30mins to 2 hours to drop off, now it's about 2 minutes.

I blog about my daughter's sleep problems and here's my post on acupressure in case you're interested mydaughterwontsleep.com/2013/12/27/the-sleep-inducing-power-of-acupressure/

It worked a treat for us. Good luck with it all.

Stop trying!
Enjoy tea with DP, allow toddler to play quietly. Sometime between 8 and 8.30 she will go quiet. Take her to bed.

Baths are only necessary every 3-4 days and can be done when DP is slightly earlier or is going to be very late.

Relax and she will relax. Try and force her to bed around 7.30 if she really fights going then (as my DD1 did) simply doesn't work.

PS lying to other mums that she goes to bed at 7.30, has a bath every night and always sleeps through is 100% allowed!

Acuepressure, reflexology, FFS leave the poor kids alone.

Box of quiet toys, comfy corner, no TV and just leave them too it.

Or better still continue BFing to sleep and bypass toddler bedtimes altogether, which is what DD2 did!

Difficult one - if I leave her playing, - we still have to do the mammoth process of getting her to sleep - just later, so we end up not having any evening together & end up ourselves getting to bed really late, plus night wakings it's just too tiring.

I also have a 7yo so understandably he sees it as very unfair if his sister is awake but he has to go to bed... Both of them have always existed on the 'lower' end of the sleep spectrum, however even he is hugely overtired, and therefore having frequent meltdowns the next day...

We live in a really small house where even the smallest of sounds travel, so very difficult to control this. Will try the acupressure to see if it makes a difference (am famailiar with baby massage and found that to be a godsend)

any other ideas?!