dd won't sleep, can't sleep?

[kiwibella]

Just looking through the topic list, I can see that there are so many of us in the same boat with our babies lack of sleep... but I need to put my query out there for advice because I am slowly going insane. I am at a loss with her bedtimes so looking for advice. What is a "good" evening routine for my almost 2yo - dinner time? bed time? how does should she be going to bed???

My dd has been crying for nearly an hour... with her Daddy to comfort her. He is so much more patient and tolerant than me and I wonder if she senses my stress? The last two nights she has finally gone to sleep about midnight. Her internal alarm wakes her like clockwork every morning at about 7am... so I'm knackered.

Recently, she has been almost dropping her afternoon sleep. She has always had a good two hours around 12 or 1pm but for the last few days she has gone until she crashed (almost literally) at 3 or 4pm. The other day I managed to keep her up until 6... so in bed about 6:30pm... but she was up and awake at 8pm.

It's all such a guessing game!! I am ready to try anything tho to have her in bed asleep at a reasonable time in the evening. I would really appreciate anything you can suggest or recommend. A quick fix solution would be great )

I would say by not having the nap she is overtired. I would still give her a 30 min - 1 hour nap to get her through the day.

thanks nappyaddict... I agree that she is over-tired. We tried a different approach today in the hope of wearing her out. I know that I need to be more motivated in burning her (seemingly excessive) energy... and she was asleep in her buggy by 1pm. Fingers crossed for tonight.

My almost 2 yo only has a sleep approx 2 days a week. Dinner is 5ish, bath around 6.30 bed at 7

Does she just have one nap a day?

kiwi - how did it go?

my 2 yr old has a 2hr nap from about 1.30 to 3.30, has a snack tea at 4.30/5 (e.g. sandwich) then eats with us around 7, bed about 8pm. We started keeping her up for dinner last summer when we realised that it meant she woke at 7.30 instead of 6am...

thanks for asking She only has one sleep and, until recently, it was at twelve-ish for a good hour and a half to two hours.

Eldon, it is interesting that your lo has a "catch-up" sleep a couple of times a week. I feel a bit like that - we will have a couple of good, regular days and then one or two that throw things out.

Last night was brill. No hubs or dd1 home so dinner, bath, and bed about 8:30pm. Everything off, lights out, and stair-guard closed behind us. It took until 9:30ish for her to actually fall asleep (after reading / feeding / relaxing)... so that's an improvement. Today though, we used the same strategy in trying to tire her out but it was no go. Even after walking a good couple of miles to and from the garden centre, at 2pm she was still up. She has gone for a ride with dh to pick up dd1 so hopefully she will fall asleep in the car. I felt awful about letting her go on journey (prob an hour there and back) but selfishly took the opportunity instead of the battle.

My 21 month old has a 45 min nap about 1.15/1.30, then tea at 5.30, bath at 6.30, supper and bed about 7.30, story and cuddle and then asleep by 8pm.

BTW, we have recently moved ds1 out of nursery into his bedroom and by chance have put a ticking wall clock in his room. It really sends him off - he used to wake 2 - 3 times in the night, and take at least 45 mins to get back off to sleep each time, but since we put the clock in his room, he sleeps right through to 6.30am! Hope I haven't jinxed it by posting this...!!

Hey kiwi

My DS is at his CM Mon, Tues, Thurs and he has really very little in the way of naps those days and then good ones (usually - if we're not doing something else) on the other days - 1-2 hours.

Whatever happens in the day, he goes to bed 7-7.30pm always same routine - bit of telly, teeth, bottle, book, lullaby. Do you tend to do the same thing every night? I like to think the routine is key to him sleeping but it might not be of course!