ds is a nightmare at bedtime!! what to do!!??

[talkative]

heres the problem, ds is nearly 16 months old and is a nightmare to get to bed. he has to be laying with me often screaming and trying to get down and put off his sleep and lateley can take anything up to 2 hours to fall asleep. i have tried putting him in his cot but he screams and cries untill he is sick so i cant do that. even if i am in his room with him and put him in his cot he hates it and will not even lay down, he has never slept a whole night through and always ends up in my bed at about 1am when he wakes. He is fantastic during the day and is very contented its just bedtimes that the problems arise, any suggestions or anyone had the same problems and what did you do!!??

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What is your bedtime routine?

If the cot is a focal point for him getting wound up what about moving him to a low bed or mattress on the floor?

bedtime routine is to pack away all toys (which ds helps with) so there are no temptations when it comes to sleep, bath at 7 pm then out of bath in pyjamas, cuddles and a story, drink and then sleep at 7.30 pm, and i was thinking about moving him to a jnr bed as i think that would help a great deal but isnt he a bit young?? once he is asleep i have no problems putting him in his cot but he reacts badly when he wakes in the night to find that hes there. i used to bf and he fell asleep feeding always but he stopped bf 3 months ago now nearly.

I moved ds at 10 months and he was fine. It was very low though and so he didn't even wake up when he fell out.

When you put him in his cot how often do you go back to see him?

i peep in through the door every hour or so but i only go in his room once to make sure he is all tucked in and ok before i go to bed which is about 11pm. lowbed seems a good suggestion btw might move him over to one very soon and see if that improves things??

so are you checking him when he is crying?