almost 2yo not liking the transistion to bed.

We moved DS, 23months, to a bed on the weekend. Once he's asleep, he's sleeping great, either with no wake ups or happy to resettle quickly with daddy lying down on the odd occasion he's woken up, which is only once per night if he does.

Its just going to sleep initially that is the issue. At night, we start bedtime routine about 7.30 and he was normally asleep by 8pm when in the cot. But, since he's been in the bed, its getting closer and closer to 10pm. He won't stay lying down on his own, and he can open his bedroom door, and if we lie down with him, he still struggles to calm down, and just keeps asking for more milk as he still has a bottle. We've taken to just giving him half bottles, but he's still having 3 of them, and its normally on the third that he will finally settle. He's not interested in his other comfort, which is a blankie teddy.

And the day sleeps are impossible. I've been giving up, as its not worth the stress for both of us, trouble is today, he finally fell asleep at 4pm. So we're going to be in for another late night.

Any tips? Ideas?

That sounds very frustrating! Have you tried explaining to him that he is not to get out of bed unless mummy or daddy come and get him? I did this with all three of my kids and it worked for all of them. I did tell them this rule on the first night in their bed though. Kids understand a lot more than we give them credit for!

Could you offer him some sort of reward for staying in bed?

I hope you find something that works!!

Can he go back in the cot?

We had the same problem with DS1 - we did the change at 24 months because I was pregnant and wanted it all worked out a fair bit before the baby came. The first night he wouldn't got to sleep till midnight, then gradually got down to a reasonable bedtime, i had to lay on the bed with him until he was asleep, then after about a week, put a chair next to the bed and sat on that - it probably took 6 weeks all up to get to the point where I could take him to bed and say good night and he would go to sleep himself. It is a huge adjustment to them, did he choose a doona cover, etc, etc. I guess a reward chart may work...it just takes time and being consistent....sorry, I'm not much help.

Is he getting distressed being in there? Or is he more just mucking around and stalling?

If it's the latter, you may find that what worked for us could work for you... We kept the cot in DS's room. I did this initially because I was worried he wouldn't like the bed and we might have to make it a slow transition. But no, he loved the bed. Especially because he could get in and out of it. After a couple of nights we introduced the idea that if he wanted to sleep in the 'big boy' bed then he had to stay in it. If he got out of it three times then he would have to go in the 'baby bed'. We put him in the cot the first night and he hated it. I left him in there for 5 mins or so to prove the point so to speak and then put him back in the big boy bed. Surprise, surprise he stayed in bed and then went straight to sleep. The next night, and most nights after that the threat of having to sleep in the baby bed was enough. For the longest time he would actually say to me 'out of bed, baby bed' when I said goodnight.

HTH