17m old bedtime battles

[Izzywhizzy123]

I've had enough of my 17 month old at bedtime. She's a hoot during the day, but she's an absolute night time demon.

Every evening is a 90 minute battle of the wills to get her to sleep - it's like she comes alive. She can go into her cot clearly drowsy and tired but then suddenly does not stop wriggling, fidgeting, playing with her stupid bedtime bunny (which does help her settle during the night), jumping up and down, moaning (or chatting - depending on the mood), so much so that she then gets overtired and then upset. I don't even care about the night wakings anymore - I just want a whole evening. If I leave the room she gets hysterical, if I move away from her cot she ends up hysterical too. I can't bring myself to let her cry herself to sleep.

For context: she is breastfed before bed but goes into cot awake (she stopped feeding to sleep on her own terms a few months ago much to my dismay), has 1 nap 12-2/2.30ish, and once down wakes briefly a couple of times a night and is fed back to sleep.

I would like another child but I think I might actually have to sell her first at this point. Any advice?!

Our 14 month old was the same until 2 weeks ago when I stopped BFing. He now goes down quickly and sleeps through where he never has before. We also moved his nap to the morning, from 10 til 12ish. Try moving her nap maybe? I do hope you find a solution

I frequently fought to get my LO to sleep then I realised if she is going to be awake take her out of her cot and let her stay up but be bored. So I have put her in a baby carrier/sling on my back or watched something that she can watch e.g. a documentary that she will find boring. Result is that she ends up going to sleep within the next 30 mins.

One of my friend's had the same issue with her eldest. She however got pregnant and had her next child. When the sibling was born the eldest, who was at nursery, decided for some reason she wasn't a baby and decided to go to stay in her cot when put to bed then eventually go to sleep.

I'd probably night wean at that age, but keeping feeding in the day if you want to. That doesn't help with bedtime though!

My go to solution is an audiobook to listen to or CBeebies radio.

Thanks all. Really the night wakings don't bother me as I do them half asleep (and they are significantly better than they have been). It's not even like she's trying to feed at bed time (until she gets upset) - she just cannot switch off. I've tried unsuccessfully to wean her entirely, there were a LOT of tears and she just doesn't seem ready - it's not something I'm happy to force.

I'll have a go at moving her nap earlier and hope this helps - fingers crossed.

Also OP due to lockdown your LO won't be doing the all things that would physically and mentally tire her during the day. Lockdown started when my LO was 17 months. We found making her walk more and reducing her nap time ensures she goes to sleep better at night.