Bed time stories

Do you do your bed time stories in bed or else where ie. Lounge etc?

Reason I ask is we are having a real hard time getting DD to sleep at the moment, she has gone from falling asleep really easily to taking hours to settle.
We have started a more structured bedtime routine with stories, then milk but she is not falling asleep with or after her bottle like she used to and she wont settle well if we stay in the room, but if we leave she climbs out of bed.

I am wondering if reading her stories in bed is working her up, and that is the problem. Maybe we should read to her in the lounge room and then just into bed for sleep?

What works for you?

We have always read quitely in bed but we have restrictions on what a bedtime story is, no lift the flap books or exciting stuff, just your regular lift the flap books. We would then lie down with DS with the lights out for a while until he fell asleep which was a wonderful time just to be with each other. Took some time but meant we have never had problems with DS getting out of bed. He now puts hmself to sleep and as been doing so for a while - I really miss our bedtime snuggles.

Is it possible she is needing less sleep, either nap time or a slightly earlier/later bedtime. We found changing DS by 15 mins made a huge difference to how quickly he fell asleep

I wonder Ali if it is not so much where you are reading her a book but more the fact that you are actually leaving her come sleep time? Alex is currently doing a similar thing and at around this age I do recall Gaby also becoming worked up when we left her - I believe it may be more along the lines of separation anxiety.

We never used to have an issue with putting Alex to bed (it was always the waking during the night that was the problem :cryinglaugh:), but now it can take us up to an hour putting him to bed - he wont let us leave the room without screaming the house down. In the end we are now having to rock him to sleep (which we havent had to do in the past) or we are lying on the floor next to his cot waiting for him to go to sleep - he keeps checking to see whether we are there too!

I know its not ideal but try waiting with her till she falls asleep.

Incidentally we dont have a structure about where we read the books - some nights it is on the couch and others we all pile onto Gabys bed and read. Actually come think about it we rarely read in Alex's room.

Ps - I see you are "in pain" - hope all is ok.:)

We usually read in bed then Yasin turns the light out then we all lie down together for snuggles ntil Imran is asleep and Yasin is ok with me leaving.

I used to tell Yasin that I was going to do this, that or the other and then I would come back. Often by the time I got back he would be asleep so I would kiss him goodnight and leave and if he was still awake I would lie down with him for a while and then tell him I was off to do something else and would be back later.
I found that if I told him I would be back and why I was going he was more likely to be ok with it because he knew that I would keep my word and come back.

Now I can just say goodnight and leave and he's ok because he knows that if he calls out I'll come back for him.

DD has her bath, then we go into her room, dress her in PJ's and have a story or 5 cuddled up on the single bed in there. After stories i put her into her cot (we removed bars from the cot side so she can get in and out once she could climb over the side, as you can't take the sides off or lower them on her cot) and kiss her goodnight and put her light out. We brush her teeth after her bath so she doesn't have milk after that. There's a cup of water in her room every night. Sometimes she settles right away, sometimes she gets up and potters about and i keep going in and putting her to bed. Sometimes she goes right to sleep. More often the latter.

Bx