How do you get your older babies/toddlers to sleep.

[miltonj]

Could people share their bed time routines for their older babies/toddlers with me? Around 14 months to two years?

We're still feeding/rocking to sleep every evening and it's not really feasible anymore especially with number 2 on the way. Would love to know what everyone else does and also how they transitioned into it, if you were previously putting them down asleep! Thanks 😊

3 stories , cuddles and then lights out. It works sometimes, others not, like when he’s sick. The path to that Hollywood “kiss kiss good night” scene is far from linear!

General playing then into bed to lie down for books. I lay in bed with her, she has a single sized bed, she has just turned 2 year old. I press sunset on the light and it slowly dims. Read book / 1-3 books depending on how long before gets too gloomy. Turn on Ewan the dream sheep on the harp music. Lie still hope for success. Sometimes she just gets out of bed and goes off.

Almost 2.5 - Bath, pajamas, cup of milk sat on our bed whilst we read stories and then taken to his bed and tucked in with a lullaby on his speaker. Can take a while some nights to get him to actually lie down and then we usually have to stay in there until he's asleep but working on that slowly but surely as number two is on the way and it's not practical.

I did bf to sleep until December. I had introduced books before feed and would turn on the dream sheep whilst feeding to sleep. So I linked it that way. The big change was into own bed rather than cosleeping. By 18 months I feel they get too big for bed sharing but I think 2 is fine for own bed. Did the same for oldest, and he still has the dimming light and sheep at 6.

We did the gradual retreat method when younger - lots of time spent holding hand whilst they fell asleep, eventually sitting next to them not touching, then further away in the room until eventually out the door. Once he hit 2 an audio story did the trick - I think having a voice reading in the room helps them feel less alone. Good luck.

Thank you, these are all very helpful, I'm going to show them to my husband and we'll formulate a new bedtime/plan to transition together!

@leanandkeenintheory

General playing then into bed to lie down for books. I lay in bed with her, she has a single sized bed, she has just turned 2 year old. I press sunset on the light and it slowly dims. Read book / 1-3 books depending on how long before gets too gloomy. Turn on Ewan the dream sheep on the harp music. Lie still hope for success. Sometimes she just gets out of bed and goes off.

What lamp is it that you have? Sounds useful!