How do you get your 15-ish month olds calm and ready for bed?!

[mummysglassesarenotatoy]

Help! Tell me your secrets... bedtimes are taking FOREVER at the moment.

Here's the routine we're trying to stick to...

Home from nursery 5.45. Quick snack / tea, 15-20 mins play, then up into bath around 6.20. Bath is normally 10-15 mins with a few toys, then into pjs, a few stories, lights off, white noise on, quick cuddle and then into bed nice and sleepy

HOWEVER... trying to wrestle him into nappy and pjs is an ordeal, as he just runs away, escapes his room and races up and down the hallway full of beans. Once the lights are out and white noise is on, there's normally a good 15 mins of asking for another story, trying to climb down, shouting (occasionally descending into crying), slapping our chests, chucking his teddy, trying to stick his fingers in our mouths, etc etc.

Once he calms down, we end up holding him for another 15-ish mins before he's ready to go into his cot without leaping up and causing a ruckus and we have to start again.

He's an early riser, generally up at about 5.30/6, and normally naps at around 12-2.

I know he's getting a bit older so we may need to adapt his routine - do we just need to give him more wind down time after nursery? Or is he over-tired? I'm not sure how to fix that given the limits having him in nursery have on his routine. Later bedtimes don't seem to change the early wake up so I've been trying to stick to 7-ish even though it doesn't give us much time post-nursery...

Thanks for any thoughts (if you've got this far!)

Can you just leave the room before he is asleep?

You're making the bedtime routine too long.

Bath 10 minutes get pjs and nappy on in the bathroom with door shut. Cant leave bathroom til dressed.

Go into bedroom with dimmed lights. Sit on bed/chair read 1 story. Place in cot. Kiss then leave.

If you dont want to leave him. Then place in xot then sot on chair and repeat over and over its bedtime goodnight. Do not engage.

You’re probably hyping him up again with all of that activity after his bath. I do a story before bath, then into DD’s room with dimmed lights, into PJs and straight to bed. I leave the room straight away but will go back in and resettle (by that I mean no lights, no talking and silently lying her back down) if she’s still making a racket after a few minutes.

I'd suggest you aim to get him to bed within an hour window, rather than at a specific time. Get bedtime routine really short, then wait until he seems tired before heading up to bed. Mine doesn't go to nursery but does get excited to see DH at the end of the day. I am relaxed about him spending an extra 30 mins or so playing if he's not ready for bed.

No idea. My dd was the same at that age and it was an absolute nightmare every single day. And tbh it’s not much better now she’s 3.

I would say you don't need to do bath every single night. I would also accept he might be going to be a bit later - say 7.30. Ours used to watch Cbeebies for half hour or so before bed. Then it was story, milk and into bed.

Maybe try a later bed time? Our went between 7:30 and 8 at that age. I wouldn't be getting up for the day at 5:30 either
If he is happy enough I would just leave him until he falls asleep naturally unless he's upset when you go. He has all your attention while you're there so he doesn't want to go to sleep lol