How to get DD to go to sleep earlier?

[Liviam]

DD has been the best sleeper/settler until recently so we are really stuck on what to do so as always I'm asking for some suggestions.
Her bedtime routine is
5.30 - 6.30 = play and dinner
6.30 - 7.00 = bath
7.00 - 7.45 = pick up toys, milk, quiet time
7.45 = bed with dummies, reading of books, kisses then sleep time.

She has a touch lamp in her room and she keeps reading her books for a while after we leave which is fine but this is where our problem lies. We can't get her to go to sleep. We take her books off her, turn the light off but as soon as we leave she gets them back and turns her lamp back on. Last night she was up until nearly 11pm and she is still wide awake now. She would only go to sleep when DH went and layed down with her. We don't normally do this and would prefer it not to start now.
She does have an arvo sleep for about one hour. It doesn't matter what we do doing the day it doesn't wear her out at night.
So what can we do to get our cheeky little munchkin to go to sleep? Do I need to cut out her sleep? Take her touch lamp out of her room?

So help me out everyone, what can I do???

TIA everyone,
Dan

[Olive]

maybe take the lamp away but give her a plug in night light instead

[mbear]

When does she wake up from her day sleep ???

Mmm late night for a wee girl...yep, i would remove the night light too....leave a hallway light on, or toilet light on - whichever causes the less distruption in the house. What is she doing in the day ??? maybe some outdoor activities....swimming lessons.....park activities....playgroup days...etc....i.e maybe you need to tire her out a bit more.....
I wouldnt be cutting the day sleep out yet...i dunno...still seems a bit young to me.....

[~me~]

I would stop the sleep in the afternoon. We had/have a similar with DS2 and he goes to sleep much easier after no sleep during the day. We had to start this from around 2.5yrs. He cat naps sometimes in the car and if falls asleep I let him sleep no longer than 30min and this seems to keep him going through the week enough and also help with the night.
He goes to creche two days and is always worn out and I have asked them to stop his sleeps which they have and he is a dream to put bed on those days.
A combination of stopping the sleeps and keeping her on the go such as visit to a play centre or park or walks around the block, swimming (always tires them out). Perhaps remove the touch lamp..we have a digital clock for DS1(the boys sleep in the same room) that makes enough light in the room so it's not totally dark and not too bright..got if from Target
Your night routine sounds perfect by the way



Good luck..

[Mother Goose]

OMG! My DD is the same! except, if I take away her night light, she just turns on the big light And it is affecting her behaviour BIG time!!!!! I need to get her back into a good sleep routine FAST!

[Mak]

We had similiar issues - we too ended up stopping the daytime nap. It made for a few messy afternoons but much better nights. She wanted to stay up way past when I did, lol. Good luck!

[Arimeh]

Yeah DS was like that before I cut out the sleep during the day. Took him about 3 weeks to adjust to not having a sleep (but I did it because he wouldn't go down before 10pm!) and he went to bed pretty much at 7pm.

Now a year has gone past since then (and omg what a long freakin year its been - i miss day naps!) and he goes to bed usually at 8.00pm, wakes up around midnight and crawls into our bed and sleeps till around 6.30am.

[Liviam]

Thanks so much for the advice/help/tips ladies. I forget how clicked on these kids of ours are. Tonight we did the same routine but when we finished reading her books we told her we would be back in 15 minutes and that was the end of reading time and it would be time to go to sleep. You could have knocked me down with a feather because she put her books down and settled in. Mind you it was still 9pm by the time the dramas finished but hopefully we'll be able to slowly bring her back to an earlier bedtime.
I have also told her that if she doesn't go to sleep she would be allowed to have her lamp anymore.
Fingers crossed it keeps improving because I really really don't want to cut out her daytime sleep. She is so tired around lunch time and asks for her sleep - plus I LOVE IT!!
Cheeky little munchkin has just walked out into the lounge room - GGGGGRRRR!!!!

[~me~]

Perhaps turn sleep time into a quiet time? Either a short DVD or reading books or listening to music, drawing or coloring in??

Good luck..

[Liviam]

Thanks everyone. I guess we are just going to have to keep trying different things until we find out what will hlep. Thanks everyone!!