My toddler won't go down to sleep without a fight

[Dolly007]

My toddler of 28 months has always been a great sleeper but we have just had our 2nd baby who is now 7 weeks old. We now have 2 girls.

Since I was 6 months pregnant my eldest would play up at night and even at nap time. She is a very active and bright child.

Now when it's time to go to bed/sleep, she refuses to close her eyes and go to sleep and screams the place down, EVERY NIGHT without fail. Stressful doesn't cover it.

We haven't really left her to cry lots previously as we haven't needed to or wanted to. We have given her a night light and often leave her in her cot reading on her own which she is happy to do but when it comes to actually going to sleep, she starts crying.

When her sister first arrived she was much worse and wanted to be where her sister was for not wanting to miss out on things. Could this still be the case?

Any positive advice gratefully received.

It is fairly standard for toddlers to play up at bedtime for a while. DS was awful from 2.5 - 2.8 and it has passed. Does she still sleep in the daytime? The first port of call is to cut this back to just 30 minutes/1 hour or get rid of it altogether.

Other tips are to have a very strict bedtime routine so brush teeth then into bedroom for 2/3 stories (only if they're laying down). Give a choice of 3 books and they can pick from those rather than the whole library. Try to keep it short and sweet - 15 minutes or so.

Is she in a cot or a bed? If it's the first, I'd go in every 10 minutes and lay her down. If it's the latter I'd do rapid return. Stay calm and no talking either way.

It should help when your baby starts going down at 7 too and both being in the same bedtime routine.

Thanks for the tips. They have really helped.

She's in a bed and we put her in a grobag to to stop her wandering around which helps too.

I think being stricter is definitely the answer

I used rapid return and gradual retreat with my 20 month dd. Took her around 10 days to learn to fall asleep without me in the room. Crucially although she cried I never heard distress in her cry so I was happy with it as a solution. Previously I had lain down on the bed with her until she fell asleep.