2 year old and bedtime

[Doodlekitty]

Im pretty much at the end of my tether with bedtimes. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours every night. Dh and i take turns to do it. We do pjs then watch night garden (not counted in the time) then do story in bed followed by either songs on dhs night or bf on mine.
Tonight dh is out and ive just got him down. I started at 7. Im so tired, 18 weeks pregnant and work 8-5.
I dont know what to try

Is this a recent thing or has it always been a struggle?

We had it down to about 30 mins 2 weeks ago but then it went out the window. The holy grail of him going to sleep alone seems a mystery

What is he doing while you're trying to get him to sleep? Is he calm but awake? Hyper? Running around?

Do you do a bath? We do upstairs for bath and a bit of mad running around, bath, pjs, milk, 1-2 stories then lights out and cuddle. DS invariably goes into his cot awake and usually stood up but is asleep within 10 mins. I do bedtime every night though, with DH saying goodnight during milk.

What happens if you just put him to bed (cot?) and say night and walk out and leave him to it? Does he cry or would he play for a bit and then settle down on his own?

I only ask because our ds 2.8 tends to stay awake for about half an hour to 45 mins after we put him into his cot bed. He just seems to like to chat to his toys and faff about for a bit. And when he's done he will go to sleep. As long as he's not crying or upset we just leave him to it.

If your little one is upset and you know they're tired I'd try a put back to bed and say night and keep doing it over and over again until it becomes so boring they want to sleep.

Generally calm but awake. Asking for stories, changing position in bed. Generally being cute.
tonight he was hyper. Jumping on bed and me and singing but thats unusual.

We have never tried just putting him in bed and leaviNg. I suspect he would scream the place down.
We do a bath every other night due to excema. Maybe the time has come to see if he cries?

See if that was me I'd just say no more stories it's bedtime and leave them to it. If they're not crying I think it's fine to just let them settle on their own. We plug a monitor in so we can listen in to make sure they're safe and just carry on as if they've gone to sleep and eventually they normally do.

Doodle I spent months cuddling DD to sleep as I assumed she would scream if I just left her to it. Eventually decided enough was enough and tried putting her down awake. It took one night of going back in a few times, lying her down and saying 'bed time' and since then has been put to bed awake and has gone to sleep on her own within about 10 mins. I can't believe we didn't try it sooner. I'm not saying it will be that easy but you don't know unless you try! You've got 22 ish weeks until the baby comes along so I would pick a week and try and tackle it. I am also 18 weeks pregnant and about to practice what I preach with regards to DD's night wakings .

Thanks all. Will talk to dh and probably give it a shot. We are lucky as generally once hes asleep hes down for the night.

Does he still nap? My DD took hours to get to sleep until she suddenly started refusing to nap in the day - then bingo, out like a light at night as soon as we put her to bed. Bit of a pain that there's no nap to give us a break in the day, though!