What's your 4yo's bedtime routine??

[Lenny]

My only two questions are what time does she wake up? And is she getting enough mental and physical exercise during the day?
My DS goes to sleep at around 7.30 but he wakes at 5.50ish every day. He has just dropped about 30 mins from his old sleep habits (used to sleep at 7pm).
He is also a bit of a handful if he's had a day of little exercise (both brain and body).

[mummaof2]

If she wants stories read in bed could you get her to choose one or two, brush her teeth early (say 7:15) and then go to bed and read the stories so she's still ready to sleep at 7:30ish? Perhaps if you can make her understand that she gets her special stories then its sleep time she might be happier?

Chody: We've tried this before and some nights it worked and others it failed miserably. She isn't happy to just listen to the stories, she wants to have a turn at reading as well and it ends up an argument over who is reading the story.

No suggestions sorry Hun. I could have exactly written your pot in regards to my 4 year old. I'm hoping its a stage she will grow out of. If she is still a wake by 10.30( I'm usually exhausted and completely over it by then), ill bring her in to my bed where she will fall asleep and dh will move her back to her bed. Hope you an find something that works for you. Xx

BrightSparkles: Ah glad I'm not the only one.. *hugs*

I know you've tried stories before but is it worth visiting them again? I find on nights when DD is particularly zonked, she will fall asleep as we read.
Try letting her brush her teeth, with you just finishing it off for her? Maybe it's related to that and then the follow up antics aren't really about sleep.

No bright lights or noises outside the bedroom that could be distracting?

Could you try and review the routine with her involvement? Talk about how she would like to go to bed each night, ask her why she doesn't like going to bed? There could be something fairly simple?

Just throwing some ideas out there, hope you get it sorted soon, we've had bedtime issues in the past and it can be so frustrating at the end of the day when all you want is some alone time.

Cally: As I said above to Chody, the Story time is an argument as she won't just sit and listen to a story, she wants to read it herself and will fight me for the book. When brushing her teeth, she does have a turn first but again she will sing songs, or dance around and not actually brush for a good few minutes even with warnings etc and then we end up taking over. The nights she does cooperate and brush herself first we then finish it off so not sure how much I can change in that scenario. At the moment playing a game of "what food can Mummy see coming out of your teeth" seems to be the way to go. I know what she has eaten for the day so I just pretend as I brush that I can see those foods coming out on the toothbrush.
No bright lights or noises near her room, she has a small night light which is very dull and does not have a hall light on either.
We talked tonight and had a better night but has been great to get some ideas from everyone so thank you.

Maybe she wants some extra attention and is acting up to make you give her some?? I would recommend no iPad before bed and maybe some special cuddles & a book then a story. Also when the baby comes he/she can come in and 'read books too' which is what we do with our baby. We hold him if he is asleep or lay him on the bed and they like including him in story time.

Good luck!

Milka: I don't think it's an attention thing, I work from home most weeks with only the odd day or two every fortnight or so that I'm away from home and 99% of the time those days coincide with days she is at preschool anyway. My husband is also home by 2pm most days so she has plenty of time with us. I think she is just trying to stamp her independence as she is adamant that "i dont want to go to sleep" and "i'm not tired, see I'm not rubbing my eyes"... etc etc.. The ideas have been great though and have tried some tonight as I'd honestly just tried everything I could think of lately.

My only two questions are what time does she wake up? And is she getting enough mental and physical exercise during the day?
My DS goes to sleep at around 7.30 but he wakes at 5.50ish every day. He has just dropped about 30 mins from his old sleep habits (used to sleep at 7pm).
He is also a bit of a handful if he's had a day of little exercise (both brain and body).

Lenny: She usually wakes up between 7am and 8am and sometimes later, she has always been a long sleeper and generally needs a good 12-13 hours sleep or the 4yo tantrums raise their head during the day. When she is getting the right amount of sleep she is an angel. She attends preschool 3 days a week and the days she is at home we play outside, she plays continuously with our dog, she loves drawing, painting, any type of craft. We have half a dozen other children in our street around the same age which she also plays with so I think that she is ok in those departments.

Thanks EVERYONE for the feedback. Good to get some ideas on what to try tonight.
At about 6.45pm I got DD in the bath with bubbles (I worked away from home today so didn't get home till 6pm), she played for about 15 minutes and then got out. I sat down and told her about bed tonight and explained that we were trying something new. I told her that soon she would have to get dressed and that we'd go in her room and she can pick 2 x books for Mummy to read at bed time. She spent about 5 or so minutes going through her books, i turned off her DVD played which she was watching Bananas in PJ's while she ate her dinner. She ended up picking two books plus an activity book. I told her if she was a good girl and brushed her teeth like I ask that she would get some stories before bed. I explained that if she didn't brush her teeth there would be no story time. I said once I was finished the books that it was going to be sleep time and that the rules were "no getting out of bed, no crying and no screaming." I said if she was good and followed the rules that in the morning she would get a sticker on a new chart and that once she got 10 stickers she would be allowed to pick a "special treat" at the shops (a donut or something like that). She was excited. She brushed her teeth and let me finish them off, she went the bathroom, we went into her room and i turned off her light, we coloured in together for about 15 minutes and then I said it was story time, she didn't want to stop so I told her that if we kept colouring in she would only get 1 story read so we got in bed and read the stories, after much argument over who was going to read. After the stories I gave her a hug and kiss and said I'd pat her for 1 minute only. She wouldn't roll over and got straight out of bed pushing past me. I gave her 2 warnings which she ignored and so I left the room. She cried for about a minute and then silence. So although not perfect it is an improvement on the 1+ hrs it has taken to hear silence in the past month or so. Not perfect but it's a start. Fingers crossed.