Do I move bedtime?

[fruityb]

My son is two in two months and has always gone to bed (99% of the time) without a fuss and good as gold.

The last few nights he’s either cried when he’s gone up, cried five minutes later or laid there kicking the crap out of the end of his cot not crying but clearly not going to sleep.

He goes up at 7 as we get up at 7 in the morning. He has a good hour or two nap early afternoon and has the same routine for bed time as he always has. He jacked in the milk about six weeks ago as he just didn’t want it anymore but other than that it’s the same. Pjs, quiet time, sometimes a book and then dummy and ted and off we go.

He was up till 8:45 last night and tonight I think he is just about settling now though he kicked off once or twice. Do I put bedtime back half an hour or so? He sleeps well in the night and rarely wakes up but it appears he just doesn’t want to go to bed at the moment!

I’m considering getting him a bed soon as he’s so long he’s nearly filling the cot! I’m a bit at a loss when he throws me a curve ball as he’s been pretty predictable up until lately! Is 7 too early?

He’s up again... would absolutely not lie down without getting straight back up and making a horrible noise. No tears but just would not lay down or settle.

He’s having a story now and we’ll try again. He doesn’t want me at all at the moment which is a bit upsetting. I know he’s just preferring daddy at the moment but he doesn’t want to sit with me and earlier when he was in the garden kicked up a right stink when I went out and not daddy!!

He was making a really horrible throaty noise - no tears or anything but he just would not go to bloody bed!

My kids both gave up naps at just gone 2, you need to cut that nap down to 1 20-30 min nap. My two went to bed at 8 quite early as we work and wanted to see them.

We had this with DS2 when he was a little under 2- endless faffing about because he wasn't tired enough. We cut his nap from 2 hours to 1 and bedtime became sane again! Or you could move bedtime later- some effect. I guess it depends which works better for you as a family: less nap or later bed?

He has literally just started doing this the last three nights - completely out of nowhere.

I want to see him in the evenings but I also want to get my work done, have a shower and just generally have some downtime. Him not going to bed as normal is leaving me incredibly stressed and I just don’t know what to do to get him to go to sleep. It’s not helped by my husband not supporting me in what I want to do - he’d let him stay up all night for some reason.

We had similar recently, I moved his nap earlier in the day and cut it down a bit - seemed to make things better again for now (really reluctant to lose the nap altogether 😩)

He needs a nap or he’s a freaking nightmare!! I’ll ask childminder to cut it short tomorrow. He’s just being a total pain in the arse - he won’t settle and is just faffing and fidgeting! He’s not crying when ds downstairs but I won’t let him sit playing as he needs the quiet time.

I’d rather not cut it out entirely but it seems later bedtime may be needed. I just get really stressed out when he won’t settle as he usually does! He was kicking the crap out of his cot earlier - I thought he was going to break it!!

Daddy can take him up next time and we’ll see if that makes a difference.

When is his last meal of the day?
I'm just asking as it may be that his tummy isn't full so he's more likely to stay awake.

He has tea at half five but quite often has a small snack before bed time or pinches some of ours lol

I think there’s an element of exerting some independence and control here - particularly with the kicking of his cot loudly!

Bedtime tonight of 7:25. Still kicked off at getting pyjamas on but I think that’s just par for the course as he’s always done that. He went upstairs rather than being carried and went to his cot to be lifted in. He whinged a bit, kicked his cot a bit but was asleep in about 15 minutes and is still sparko - though has done a 180 in there. I ain’t moving him!

We shall see how this continues! He’s captain independent to maybe letting him walk himself up isn’t a bad idea?

So we’re right back to where we were a week ago... he went to bed good as gold at 7 Friday Saturday and Sunday and then boom last night and tonight not a fucking chance.

He was up till 8:15 last night. Went up to bed tonight at 7:15 and went quiet but is now back up again after waking at 8 and husband bringing him downstairs. He’s now playing about on the sofa and being silly.

I need him to go to bed. He won’t go. He won’t lay down. I lay him down and he gets right back up. He kicks the side of his cot and just screams. This isn’t good for my anxiety at all - I am shaking like a leaf at bedtime as I can’t cope with this break in his routine. He just won’t go to bed and my husband is too quick to get him up again.

Could it be the heat? It's pretty stuffy here and it's making my two restless. As much as I hate the phrase "it's just a phase", it really is and he will soon go back to normal.

I’m a bit of a strict routine at night mummy and I really, really wouldnt suggest letting your husband get him up and taking him downstairs as otherwise he’ll just carry on kicking the cot etc until he gets what he wants which is that! My husband when I was on evening shifts at work, just 2 nights in a row laid down with my daughter until she fell asleep and just 2 nights of him making it easier for himself, caused about 6 weeks of awful bedtime routine because she suddenly decided she didn’t want to sleep on her own !!

I know it’s hard when they’re kicking off but if he’s just faffing and chilling in his cot then just leave him be. If he goes to bed late, still do a shorter nap as it will help in the long run.

They do all go through bad sleeping phases, we as parents just have to ride it out unfortunately!!

Oh.. and I’d wait until you reallyyyy have to, to get him out of a cot as once they have the free and easy access to get out... well yeah, there’s another phase

I hope he soon gets bored of his night Time games and goes back to normal! Good luck! Xx

As daft as it sounds is his bed big enough? Mine slept better in a bed rather than cotbed.more width and length x

He has enough space in there at the moment - he’s always shuffled up to the top and even at full stretch out he’s got plenty of room.

I think he’s just playing us up lol. He went to sleep last night after I left him - he got checked on after five minutes then at ten and then he was asleep.

He slept all night as per but I just don’t want this battle at night time! He’s never been a pain at bedtime - it’s out of nowhere!