almost 2 year old so hard to get to sleep at bedtime

[needtobediscreet]

My nearly two year old is driving us round the bend at bedtimes. He takes around 45 mins or so to settle to sleep, sometimes upwards of an hour.... Naptime is not an issue. At home, out and about, in cot, car seat, carrier or buggy he goes off and once asleep is really out of it and nothing wakes him til he's ready. He naps for 1-2 hrs a day around lunchtime. He wakes around 6am regardless of bedtime.... Only on the odd occasion does he go straight to sleep at bedtimes. We do all we can to tire him out physically each day, to no avail it seems.

Any advice please? I don't want to do any form of controlled crying and haven't thus far. If still awake at bedtime he cries as soon as you head for the bedroom door and just gets more and more upset until you return. He doesn't need holding or rocking, just wants one of us in the room. DH and I are getting v fed up of spending so long sat in his room in the dark and want our evenings back and to not be eating dinner at 9pm! Thanks!

Sympathies, both mine have been like this. I'm currently sitting in dd2's room watching my evening slip away so don't have much in the way of useful advice sadly. But something that really helped w DD1 was keeping the bedtime routine really short on the advice of a sleep therapist because apparently they get a second wind after 30 mins. I find it hard to put into practice when there are 2 of them to get to bed but poss worth a try?

Oh, and we've tried bedtimes varying from 7 onwards until about 8 i.e. him going in cot at that time. Have tried a few things that friends have found works for them, eg giving him his milk to drink in cot then leaving room or giving a book in cot then leaving. Neither stops the crying. He's never had a comforter of any kind. We use soothing music sometimes and white noise, again to no effect. We lay on our bed with him or in his room we lay on the floor with him or next to his cot. What's left to try?

Thanks Ktay. We'll definitely try that. Good luck tonight!

Is he talking yet? My DC1 was awful to get to sleep and had to have a very precise time and routine until he was old enough to understand that he picks two story books and we read them in bed and then he gets tucked up and we sat goodnight.
Prior to this I did use controlled crying. I tried shush pat and gong back into him the instant he cried and then going back out but it just prolonged it and he got more worked up. It did help a lot but bedtime became almost stress free once he understood storytime. He's now almost 3 and I look forward to bedtime (for now!)

Thanks! good luck to you too, hope it helps.