Toddler taking ages to fall asleep.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Just as you think you've got it cracked......

Ds, 21 months. Routine for ages has been the sane, culminates in me putting him in his cot awake, mobile on. Depending on how he is I sit with him or sit outside, til he falls asleep. I do this so I can reactivate the mobile when it switches off after ten minutes. It used to take about 15 minutes for him to go to sleep. If theorise goes off before he's asleep, he tends to get up and it all goes pear shaped.

Recently, bedtime is drifting later and later, and taking longer and longer. We are currently on the 4th go of the mobile and he's still awake. Laying down quietly, but awake.

I have a 9week old baby, who is downstairs with husband. If it were just ds1 I'd start leaving him and hope he just drifted off without me but with the new baby I don't want to mess ds1 bedtimes up.

Is it time to drop the nap?

Do you think it could be the 2 year sleep regression? My DD went through a period of taking an age to go to sleep, as did many of her peers, just before her second birthday.

Have you tried just going downstairs? If he's awake but content aren't you distracting him keep going in to turn the mobile on?

Same happened to my dd at that age, she's 4 now but I think what I did was just wear her out a lot after her nap so she was wrecked going to bed!
She had been napping from 12.30-2.30 and going to bed at 7.30 so I moved her bedtime to 8pm and ran the legs off her in the afternoon!
I know it's probably hard with a newborn in the mix too.
What time does he nap at?

Or is it that he's content, but starts yelling when the mobile stops?

I would try cycling backwards through the Gradual Withdrawal steps. Maybe he needs your hand on his chest for a while, for extra reassurance?

I think given the new baby, new bedroom and all that's happened in the last couple of months, that this is probably just as a consequence of him feeling a bit more unsettled.

If you do cycle back through the GW steps, I'd remove the mobile. I think it is only hindering his progress. The purpose of independant settling is that he can do it all himself.

He can (and possibly already is) use the mobile as a battle ground to keep you close to him. If he stays awake, fights sleep, you stay longer.

Give him the extra reassurance so he knows you're there, remove the mobile completely and teach him to sleep in his cot with you close by. Then with you slightly further away, and so on...

Thanks all.

Theres a 2 yr regression?! Boo. Most of the others have passed us by as his sleep was so awful it couldn't regress.....

I haven't gone downstairs, as I say, I would probably try it but I don't want to mess it up esp as I have the Baby to settle (who was taking a bottle from dad and going to sleep, but is now waiting til I get down before he'll nod off....) He is laying in sleep position, quietly, but not asleep. I've mostly been sitting in with him, as it took a while to get bedtime back on track after his brother was born. So I sit quietly near the mobile and just poke it back into action. He's content until it goes off and that seems to rouse him.

He has a week or so of needing me to pat him and then wanted to hols my hand. Were back to me sitting on the bed (not his bed, he's in a cot bed, there's a single bed also in his massive room)

He's had good naps, apart from yesterday which was only 30 minutes but still took ages to go to sleep. He's also done a LOT of exercise. Loads of walking, Park each day etc. So should be shattered really.

Yesterday woke at 6. Napped 12-12.30 only. Busy morning, playing with dad then with me at the stables. Napped in car. Loooong walk in the afternoon, with an hour in the park. Still didn't fall asleep til 8.30.

Today he didn't get up til 7.30am, it's normally 6-6.30. Park mid morning with his older cousins, lots of running around. Again napped in the car for 1.5-2 hrs (left him sleeping once we got hone) another long walk and half hour in Park this afternoon. Then played in the garden. He literally doesn't sit still even in the house. asleep by 8.45pm.

Hi Fate, I don't think he needs me to reassure more than just being there, as he's just laying, not even looking at me, but knows I'm there. If I get up, he gets up. Re the mobile, I haven't actually let it go off for ages. Maybe I should try that? Put it on for one cycle then just sit there? See what he does when it switches off. He doesn't lay watching it anymore (it's a music, lights on ceiling thing)

He's not complaining, just not sleeping.

I would cap the nap at 1hr for a week and see if that makes any difference. He probably just isn't tired enough. (I had to do the same for my DS2).