Two year old struggling to settle at night

[Loujalou]

Right my DS has give or take been a good sleeper so I can't complain. He is 2.2 and for the last week or so has not really being settling until 9.30 at night.

It doesn't matter if he has a late nap or early nap it still seems the same thing happens.

He can't cope if he doesn't nap and still needs it. He also seems relatively happy in his cot and is not screaming.

I try to tire him out during the day and that seems to help a bit but not always. I thought it might be teething now am not so sure.

Anyone else been / going through the same? Help is appreciated.

You're not alone by any means. My dd2 is 2 next week and has never been a brilliant sleeper. It hit me today just hpw exhausted I am. I haven't had a full nights sleep in over 2 years and tbh it doesn't look liek it's going to change any time soon
Currently, she is definately teething. Little red cheeks and grumpy ear pulling. We put her in a bed a few months ago and more often than not she will climb straight out of it, over the stair gate, and into her big sisers bed! Dd1 is having a clingy phase atm so is in bed with me most nights, and when I go to check on dd2 I never know where I will find her . Funnily enough, she does sleep better when she's on her sisters bed. I wish I knew why. For now I am grinning and bearing it. We went to the beach today and she was asleep in her pushchair by 6pm while we were still walking home, briefly woke at about 7.30 for a breastfeed (I wonder, tbh, if I didn't make a rod for my own back bfing her for so long, as more often than not, she wants milk to fall asleep) and has been fast asleep ever since, so wearing her out does seem to have a small effect. But realy, I just don't have the energy every day.

I think you do just have to go through this phase - it's where they are just getting to the stage of not needing a nap, but just can't quite cope with it. It goes on for months, and it can be quite hard...

One or two things I found helped were:

• you could try having a nap on alternate days, then they have the chance to recover a bit from not napping one day
• it helps to have a significant period of 'quiet' time instead of a nap - watching a dvd over lunchtime, or reading lots of books together if you've got time
• er... that's it... but from my experience with two, you have to just brave it through this bit, and eventually they will get to the stage where they can cope without a nap properly. And will sleep slightly earlier at night, hooray.

Good luck!

I second strongblackcoffee! My DS1 who is 2.4 has just dropped his nap and able to cope with it though he was showing signs of doing it at around 2.

I used to leave him in the cot for a bit and if he doesn't cry, then I would leave him. He would sing for a bit, talk and then go quiet and I thought he has gone to sleep but when I go in 15 minutes later, he's awake so I just go and get him up. But sometimes he would sleep. So it was all hit and miss for a few months. He would sometimes get so tired at teatime he wouldn't eat but will be up the next morning ravenous. I think the quiet time is a good idea too. DS1 is not quite the age where he is able to sit and watch a whole movie but if we put something like Cars on, he will dip in and out while lying on the sofa.

Now he can just about last all day without a nap and be okay. He used to mess about at bedtime asking for 'more milk' and we know then that he's not tired enough to sleep right away. Since dropping the nap, he has gone down to bed at 7pm and it all goes quiet but there was quite a few months of demands for 'more milk' at bedtime...

Mmmmm... The last two nights he has got to sleep about 8.45 ish which is not so bad and Sat night it was nearer 8.

I think naps are not necessarily a bad thing if they are early and short. Am going to miss his long naps but think it might be best to get rid of them.

Also he is still teething so don't want to do anything too drastic til the last tooth comes through. Its 4 teeth that have been coming through in one go which can't be nice.

I would keep the nap as long as you can but shorten it a bit. Focus on a strong bed time routine and be totally consistent when you put LO to bed. I recently read this blog post which I thought was interesting and you might find useful too.

We have been a bit slack with the routine recently. So maybe we should focus on that. We were always very consistent with it but have relaxed a bit. Thanks for the link to the blug hippy. I have always been obsessed focused on ensuring my DS sleeps well. He doesn't wake through the night and does sleep until 7 ish or later in the morning. Might just cut the nap to an hour max. We will see. Starting with the bed time routine though.