2yo bedtime driving me mad

[emmywoo]

Hi All, I have a 2.5dd who flatly refuses to go to sleep. I take her to bed at 8pm and she doesn't fall asleep until 9pm and then wakes in the night and then gets into bed with us. She is absolutly shattered and so are we, so need some help/advice. I want to be able to put her in her bed and be able to walk out whilst she is still awake but have heard different ways of doing this and not sure which is best, please help very tired mummy who could quite easily fal asleep at her desk!!!! Also, can you please advise what your bed time routines are for this age. xx

Hi sweetness

We are still in the same position with A, and now we are expecting number 2! Gawd only knows what we are going to do.

Speak soon, hopefully.

Emmywoo - my DS1 is 3 and I hate to tell you this, but they get more challenging with boundaries (including bedtime) as they get older.

What we do with DS1 (which we've always done) is have a strict bedtime routine - we let him know in advance what is coming (ok, its time to tidy up then charlie & lola time... ok, after charlie and lola its story time, then bath time... ok after bathtime its story and milk time in your bedroom... ok after milk time its toothbrush and wee time then one last story in bed). If he kicks off at any point saying no I dont want stories, we say ok then no stories its bathtime/bedtime- he generally comes round. We put him in bed at around 7.30 and he stays there though will often stay awake until 8.30, but that's his choice. If he's making lots of noise, we go back into his room and tell him its his sleep time now so he should be quiet. We've got a bunny clock in his room and have told him when the bunny is asleep he should be asleep (this wasnt to do with him going to sleep - we bought it to resolve him calling for us at 5.30 in the morning - he now knows not to call for us until the bunny is awake just after 6.30)too. I cant say this routine works 100% all of the time but it does help as DS1 knows what is meant to happen and what is expected of him and what happens if he acts out at bedtime. We've never had him come into bed with us - he's anticosleeping - so cant help on that. I do know other people that have used stairgates on their children's rooms to stop them getting out the room though.