How do you help your little one wind down?

DD (who has just turned 1) has two speeds: 0 and 100. She just doesn't stop until she crashes, but still needs help going to sleep. This isn't easy as she often waits until she is overtired before letting me know she is ready for sleep. I would love for her to relax enough to enjoy a massage from me, or cuddle while reading a story before bed at night. But no, if she is awake, she is crawling around, pulling herself up on the furniture, getting in to everything. I'm happy for her to explore but would appreciate some quiet moments, especially in the evening after her bath as she has never been a good sleeper.

So tell me, how do you help your little one to wind down and enjoy a quiet moment? Or do I just need to accept that this is part of her personality and wait for her to grow out of it?

This sounds like what my DD is like. Even at 3 she is still the same although the sleep is much much better. What i found worked for DD was putting on a fav show of hers the Mr Bean cartoon of all things lol She would sit still long enough to just wind down that little bit and would happily go to bed afterwards.
I know alot of people will say TV is the last thing to try but in DD instance it was the only thing that would work. Once we made our way to bed we would read a book tuck her in and that was it :)

I worry that this is what my DD is going to be like when she is a toddler. She's a shocker at showing me tired signs just now, always has been and gets so wired!

:hug:

Does she like to look at story books? DD does so I try and read with her for a wee while before I wrap her for sleep.

DD was like that, we would just sit and read her stories while she was constantly on the move. Luckily she wasn't too bad at going to sleep, but I found when she got a bit older (although don't ask me know how old) she just suddenly realised that it was nice to sit with Mummy and Daddy and have a cuddle and read stories before popping into bed.

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention that she is also regularly awake and wanting to play from 9-10pm until 1am. I tend to let her go as whenever I have tried to discourage it (lying down with her, keeping it dark and quiet) it ends up being so much more stressful for the both of us.

Minny - I've been avoiding the TV since that's what all the advice is. She doesn't seem to have any favourite shows - doesn't sit long enough to really watch them. Maybe if I put something quiet like In the Night Garden (even though I don't like it) it might help to at least not wind her up any more.

MummaSue - She likes to turn the pages of story books but always looks at me as if to say "why aren't you reading, mummy?" I wish she could understand that I can't read that fast.

Cally - I might give just reading to her to try. There's no reason she has to sit there are look at the book with me. I can't believe that didn't occur to me before.

If my kidlets are all over the place, we turn the music up, sing out of tune and dance like loon's!!! get's all the excess energy out of their system and if that doenst work we go outside and jump on the tramp

Hi Hannah D

DS is the same - cannot do one activity at a time, always on the go but we still kept the same routine - bath, PJs, quiet play, stories, bed. We've had this same routine pretty much all his life and now, even though he doesn't always 'participate', I think he does understand that this means bedtime is coming. He also went through a stage of waking for a few hours in the night - we tried a lot of things which didn't work but the phase eventually passed on its own.

He is A LOT better now - generally goes off to sleep by himself without any hassles. They do get better in time!

Hope this helps!

Sounds a lot like my DS, I find that his favorite toys are distracting, so i give him a warm bath and then give him his bottle in a quiet room. I find the less distractions the better.
hope that helps!

Pie has her bath & then quiet time on our bed. When she was younger she would romp all over the place, it would often take an hour for her to settle down & wind down but it was still her un-wind time IYKWIM?
Now that she's older she doesn't take so long to settle, but if she needs to run off a bit off energy she can while still getting the message that it's bed time.
Maybe try her run-down time in one place? if she won't stay on a bed, make it one room, so she's still getting the idea?