2 year old fighting bedtime

[Pinkelephant2025]

My toddler has just turned two and bedtime is a nightmare at the moment. She fights it and will want to go off to sleep in my bed and refuses to go into her cot. I’ve been letting her go off to sleep on my bed and then I will try to move her when in a deep sleep into her cot it works sometimes but other times she rewakes and full of energy and won’t go off again for a while. I know I shouldn’t worry but I panic quite a bit about annoying neighbours if she screams when she’s refusing to go into her cot because she is so loud, I live in a flat with neighbours bedrooms above and below mine and you can hear a lot. Does anyone have any suggestions and if you have a toddler of similar age are you experiencing this too?
thank you

Is she still napping?

Does she nap? How long and when? What time does she wake up in the morning? What time is bedtime? Is she lively before bed or acting tired?

She has one nap usually this is about 11.30 12ish for one hour. She wakes at 7.30 each morning and she differs sometimes she can be hyper before bed other times tired I always put her to bed for 7 sometimes 6.30 when she seems very tired and she will get so close to going off then gets right back up it’s crazy. She’s only started this up for the past few weeks I don’t know if it’s a phase or a regression. She fought it for 3 hours the other night 🥴

My 2yo has been fighting bedtime too. We've done some playing around with the timings of the day and have landed on a 1 hour nap and he is asleep around 8. 7pm seems like an early bed time for a 2yo who naps. We also went through a stage of giving him some books to look at in his bed so at least he was sat resting for a while.

How does she go down for her nap? Does she ever not nap? I feel like at that age the nap starts to really affect bedtime. My son napped until almost 3 and bedtime was pretty much 10pm by the end. If she genuinely doesn't seem tired I think I'd try a slightly later bedtime too. Think they need about 12 hours sleep total at 2 so 11 hours overnight would be reasonable.

6.30/7pm is far too early bedtime when she only wakes at 7.30am, and is still napping. 10-11 hours overnight is average whilst still napping. You need to wake her earlier in the morning or do later bedtime. Shes fighting it because she simply hasnt been awake enough since her morning wake.