2 year old toddler sleep

[CamWHU96]

Hi all,
our little boy is 2 years old next week. He has now finally become a great sleeper. However it’s getting him to sleep that is now the issue. It takes over an hour some nights and is having an effect on us as parents. When he does go to sleep though he sleeps through which is great.

Our routine is:
5-5:15pm - Dinner
Play time until 6:30pm
6:30-7 - Bath, chill time, snack and iPad.
7:30 - settle in bed with book and milk

then for an hour he is diving round our bed etc and laughing then eventually rolls over and goes to sleep. What are we doing wrong or is this normal?

I'd get rid of the iPad before bed. I'd also make the play time really physical - wrestling, jumping around etc.. Does he nap? What time is he up in the morning?

Yup definitely get rid of the iPad and check out guidelines for how much night time and day time sleep. If he’s happy rolling around in his cot for a bit in his own I wouldn’t worry too much though.

Oh you mentioned driving round your bed? I think by 2 he should ideally be in his own room and bed. If not the id work on getting him out of your room first!

Does he sleep in the day?

Hi, he naps 12:30 ish for around 1 hour and 15 mins. Which I think is the guidelines! He is in his cot next to our bed, as a baby he didn’t sleep well, we tried his own room but it didn’t go down well. We was just thankful he slept through in his cot next to us. We have discussed getting him into his room again soon however. I agree I think we need to drop the iPad.. he doesn’t have it through the day though.

Well if you don’t mind him taking this long then that’s fine at least he’s not upset.

If it were me, I’d probably now just wait until he’s ready for a toddler bed then make a big deal about his new, big boys bed in his own special room and see if he buys it. Hopefully he will and maybe you’ll just need to sit in his room for a bit at bedtime until he gets used to it then finally start extracting yourself.

I think the problem is the longer you wait the worse it’ll be. The other option is just move him out at the weekend, tell him he’s in his own room now..//maybe spend a week or so settling him and waiting for him to fall asleep then move to controlled crying….if you want a quicker option having to spend an hour every night waiting for him to fall asleep can’t be fun.

@Winrus Yes he’s never upset at all which is great. We was also saying to wait until we get a toddler bed then like you say get him in that, he’s an excellent little boy and have no issues was just wondering if taking so long to get to sleep was normal and if we can tweak anything. We’ve never been a fan or wanted to do controlled sleep training it’s not us so we wouldn’t try that. I guess it’s a case of perseverance until the toddler bed comes into play.

Op, it may be that he doesn't need as much day sleep. Guidelines are just that and not the same for every child. Mine dropped her nap completely at 2 😫

Sounds like he's just not tired. Unless he's up by 6am I'd expect him to need a later bedtime with that nap really.

Mine slept in our room until they were 2 and only moved in their own room once we moved house. He settled in his new room with absolutely no issues despite having slept with us for the first 2 years! You might find your son is the same!

I would definitely drop the ipad before bed and also wondered if he needs a snack an hour after his dinner and then more milk on top?

I always think toddlers need to burn off as much energy as possible so we do pretty much active play up until 7pm and then bath, story, bed. Does he get much exercise during the day?

I think his wake window after his nap needs to be longer. My 2 year old needs 7h after she wakes up to fall asleep again. If you are able to find his optimal point you can take him to bed and he falls asleep within 5-10min.