As the title says....how does and how long does it take, your 2yo to go to bed?
For us, what used to be a 20-30min get to sleep routine for DS has now stretched into a marathon 45min-1hr long stint for him to finally natter himself into sleepyland. Either DH or I have to lay with him. He will just talk and talk and roll around like an idiot until finally he will stop and fall asleep. It is driving me mental adn I am losing my patience with him and yelling at him alot ('JUST GO TO SLEEP!!!!' is the usual mantra). He has coslept since birth so isn't used to being in bed alone. DH or I still sleep with him through the night, though we are considering stopping this for when bub comes as I will be cosleeping with the baby, and bfing him (bub) too.
If I don't end up alseep with him (yes, at 7.30pm) I am at the end of my tether and in a foul mood by the end of it all. DH is the same. If we fall asleep with him, then we miss out on our time together or time for ourselves.
Then on top of that DD will take another 10-40mins (depending) to get into bed (again one of us lays with her). But she isn't so draining because she lays still and really does try to get to sleep (she is in between needing a day sleep and not, so on the days she sleeps it's a 40min going to sleep time, and if she doesn't sleep it's between 10mins and 25mins.
Is it normal for him to take sooooo long? Or is it time to change the routine and teach him to go to bed himself. He has wind down time before bed, a set routine of dinner bath/shower, 15-20mins of tv/quiet play/read books and then bed. It has been the same since he weaned about 4ish months ago.
Is it possible his bed time has changed? DD is only 19 months admittedly but recently she's needing to go to bed at 8-8:15 instead of 7:30. If i try put her down earlier she will just try and play. I have tried cutting out her day nap or cutting it down and with both she is soooo nasty!
Most nights we try to begin the bed routine around 7.30pm (my 10month old starts his routine at 7pm- so should be asleep by the time my 2.5 year old's routine begins). We do toilet (cause we are toilet training now too), nappy, clean teeth, get into bed and read. Then we kiss him goodnight and walk out. Most of the time he seems to go off to sleep ok- but sometimes he challenges us. Especially if DH has just got home from work just before bed time- so we tend to delay bed by 30mins or so, so that he can spend time with his daddy.
But DS1 has been in his own bed for 12months now and always been in his own room, though he occasionally comes in to our room early morning- which i don't mind...its nice to snuggle, especially if DH has already gone to work (he gets up 3am'ish).
We use to up until a couple of months ago, lay with him til he fell asleep- which sometimes took 30-45minutes, but it was getting to hard as i like to finish cleaning up so i can relax or go to bed and DH has to go to bed early too.
It took a few nights of sticking to the new routine. We just had to keep going in, putting him back into bed and walk out- which took the old 30-45mins, but eventually he understood and now most nights it takes 15mins from start to finish. Day sleep are similar, but i find i struggle a little more as i'm on my own and now have an active, on the move 10month old- who has opposite sleep times. But we get there- i think its a matter of being consistant- what ever your new routine is to be.
I just soooo needed to send you some hugs - I couldn't read and not post.
Lately I've been a bit more flexible with bed time, it used to religiously be 8pm, but last night it was much later as we had visitors, tonights a bit earlier - I just watch for the tired signs to try and help guide me - but thats not always helpful . But the routine has always helped us I've found, dinner, bath, bottle, story and bed - unless something is wrong with the kids (teething, unwell etc) it works well for us.
I wrote a post somewhere, probably in the debrief, about my mentals I have had with Jazz at bedtime. We tried cutting out the day sleep. Now she's not sleeping in the day, and totally foul, but still taking A GAZILLION YEARS for her to go to sleep. AND she still wakes up at 5am in the morning.
No advice. Well, yes, don't try to cut out the day sleeps. DON'T DO IT! TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUST MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. It depends how overtired/wound up he is.
Sometimes we do our books, goodnight thing and he just goes to sleep. Sometimes we're in and out a dozen times to resettle, sing, cuddle etc before he finally drops off.
Bella will be 2 in 2 weeks. We have the same routine every night - bath at about 6.30 - she then has her second tea of what ever we are having (first tea at 5.30) then play for a while - snuggle time on the couch for 1/2 hrs with me of DH then bottle then bed (8pm) and *most* nights she will be giggling and asking to go to bed and then falls asleep in about 5-10 mins. Some nights like to night we do the same rountine and in bed at same time but tonight she was to wound up so more books were ead and in bed by 9 and now sound asleep.
She also still has a 2-3 hr sleep during the day if she doesnt then she will not sleep at night. Something I will always remember that my MCHN told me is "sleep promotes sleep" so the better she sleeps during the day the better and longer she sleeps at night...
I agree with the latter bed time - Bella used to be in bed by 6.30 but as she has gotten older then it has stretched out but generaly 8pm is a great time for her.
Kell my friend. but I still feed Nate and nurse him to sleep....
Darc however I had more success with. She used to take over an hour. I went from laying to sitting (angled so she couldn't get out) and patting, to sitting holding her hand, to sitting on the floor holding her hand, to sitting on the floor to sitting at the door....I spent many many hours with a book ignoring her fussing, or gentle breathing exercises, or writing my shopping lists. It too a long time, but it worked. Now I say go to bed...and she does.
We usually walk with DD2 to bed, she climbs in, give her a kiss and cuddle and we leave. She will usually keep reading her books until she falls asleep or sign to herself, it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30. We've kinda made bedtime routine based but unceremonious, it doesn't give her much chance to stretch anything out or push it. Each night we eat, bath, teeth, milk and read books in the lounge room.
Her bedtime is late, its always been late and nothing I do about it has ever been able to change it from when she was a little bubba, she goes to bed about 8/9, usually more towards 9, if we try earlier she is just up in her bed longer and tends to call out.
If she sleeps to late in the afternoon she will take longer to go to sleep, so if she has a late nap, we wake her up after 30 minutes and it seems to help. Its just enough to recharge her so she isn't cranky but not to much to keep her up late.
Thankyou to everyone with advice and suggestions. I appreciate it.
He's still the same and his day sleeps are getting bad too. He's taking an hour or more to get to sleep, especially for DH. It's driving us bananas! I will soon have to deal with it on my own some nights, because DH is going to be going back onto afternoon/night shifts, so maybe 3/7ish nights I will have to do this by myself, oh the joys! So not looking forwards to it. DD is great and I am lucky I can leave her watching a movie to do it, but I have never had to leave her for so long. I'm worried about leaving her by herself for so long. Plus I just feel neglectful in doing it! She does come in if she has a problem though, so she knows I am there and I will help her if she's got an issue (like freaking out when she saw a huge locust in the loungeroom, which I don't blame her for, lol!), which is a very rare occurance at DS's bed time, she's such a good girl.
I am at a loss as to what to do. We decided to give DD her own room and not to have her share with DS anymore. That seems to have helped her get to sleep quicker and she doesn't wake DS in the mornings anymore either, so he's usually up about 15-45mins later than her. He HAS to have his day sleep. I don't think he's ever missed it and I am not going to cut it out. He's often feral by the time he has his nap, so I don't think cutting it out is the answer. We have made his nap time later in the day though, from about 11.45/12ish to about 12.30/1ish. And we have pushed his bed time to 7.30 because it's still so light here then, it's usually just starting to get dark then. We have thick plastic backed curtains and a roll down blind in his room, but it is still fairly bright. But it's not totally dark until about 8.15/30 and that is just oo late for him to go to bed. I don't know if he's not getting enough sleep or he's getting too much. I'm just totally confused! We have the same routine for them though with dinner, bath, tv, books, bed.
I'm also worried about when the baby comes. Especially when DH is on night shifts. There's just not enough of me to go around! I will be cosleeping with baby and hopefully bfing him too, and DS still cosleeps as well, so I have no idea how that will work...hopefully in the next few weeks we figure out some sort of routine that works for him.
Kellie. That would be frustrating! I still BF my DD to sleep but I find if I try any time before 8.30pm she will take FOREVER and muck around and not go to sleep and then if she does get to sleep she will wake in the middle of the night. So I have to find the right time which always seems to be 8.30pm for her. Any earlier and it will take ages, any later and she cracks it!! She still wakes at 6am or earlier and has a day sleep at around 12pm for about 2hrs. So I would suggest the same as the others and just not putting him to bed at night until he is really tired and can't stay up anymore, lol.
Oh man how I wish he still bfed to sleep!!! How much easier it was then, lol!! Maybe a bottle of milk in bed...?? Hhmmm, something to think about!
If I kept him up he would stay up til midnight. He is really good at fighting going to sleep no matter how tired he is, but if you put him to bed and manage to keep him still for 5mins, he will go to sleep fairly quickly, which is why he went to sleep so well when he was bfing, cause he had to be still to have booby!!
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How long does your 2 1/2yo take to go to sleep?
. But the routine has always helped us I've found, dinner, bath, bottle, story and bed - unless something is wrong with the kids (teething, unwell etc) it works well for us.
<= sleep deprived manical hysterical smile!
my friend.
but I still feed Nate and nurse him to sleep....
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