2.5 year olds and bedtime

we are in bedtime hell. everything is a production, it takes forever for her to fall asleep. and then she wakes up calling for us at like 4 am saying she's awake or needs her blanket or something ridiculous.

we try to ignore her and let her cry but we also have an 8 month old thats an unpredictable sleeper so i don't want to let her scream forever.

we have a routine. she knows the routine. she knows what comes next. its just still a fight

any words of wisdom?

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

I know not everything works for everyone, but I found that consistency is key. If we give in even one day, it sets us back for days afterwards. Lately my dd has been waking up earlier and earlier each day...we realized that we need to be consistent with putting her back to sleep each morning until our "desired" wake up time.

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

We've been reading this book every night for 2 weeks to or 5 year old twins and 3 year old son. It CHANGED our lives. Seriously changed our lives. I purchased it on my kindle out of desperation because bedtime left me in tears every night. So we turn out the lights and just have the light from my kindle to read and without fail every night they either fall asleep or are so tired by the end they don't fight it and just roll over and go to sleep. My 3 year old who is the worst and wakes up several times a night has woken up once in the middle of the night in the past two weeks. Maybe worth trying for you the rabbit who wants to fall asleep

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

Does she nap?

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

2.5 year olds and bedtime

My DD just turned 3 and has always been a problem sleeper. I found that I have to keep her bedtime routine pretty exact or else she will try to fight me and not go to sleep. The first few nights will suck, but for my DD, after about 3-4 nights, she stops fighting and goes down fairly easy. We read two stories, I sing the exact same two songs and rub her back 30 times (because that's her favorite number now that she can count that high).

We also have a clock that turns green when she's "allowed" to get up. She used to scream for us at 5am, now she will stay contentedly in her crib until 715. the clock was a life saver for us

2.5 year olds and bedtime

We just pushed bedtime back 30 mins. From 7 to 7:30

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

My son is almost 3, and he's in bed every night at 8 (and he falls asleep quickly) BUT because he still naps 2-3 hrs/day so I HAVE to make sure he doesn't nap past 2:45-3:00 at the latest or else he has trouble falling asleep at night. He'll toss and turn and chat in his crib until 9:30-10pm if I let him nap too late in the day. I would make sure you don't let her nap too late and just stay consistent, stick with your routines and bedtime and even if it takes a little while for her to fall asleep at least she's in her bed. Good luck!

ETA - If she still needs her naps makes sure she gets them every day, the better they rest during the day the easier time they have falling asleep at night. If you skip naps when she needs them by the time bedtime rolls around she'll be so overtired and restless that it will be harder for her to fall asleep.

Message edited 1/20/2016 8:44:22 AM.

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

DS went through a phase around that age, too. He was always a great sleeper and suddenly he was taking forever to fall asleep, not wanting to go to bed, calling for us in the middle of the night, etc.

We just kept reinforcing that big boys sleep in their own beds all night long. Eventually he potty trained and we put him in a toddler bed. Then I bought him a nightlight and things have gone back to normal. I don't know if it was any of the above, or just time, but eventually he went back to sleeping well again.

Re: 2.5 year olds and bedtime

Ugh, I could've written this post myself. It's been awful the past two months. Granted, we had DD2 in November and we also wound up transitioning her to a big girl bed at the same time because we needed the crib, so we thought it was that. Now that things have settled a bit it's slightly better, but some nights are just bad. My DD is also 2 1/2. She does nap and does not give any problems whatsoever for nap time. However, we have the same routine we've had since she was very little for bedtime, but it's useless. We put her to bed by 8/8:30, but she generally tosses and sings and plays until 10/10:30, and then she will also wake up once or twice, sometimes more asking for ridiculous things. We've tried earlier naps, no naps, shorter naps but there doesn't seem to be any correlation. I would love some suggestions myself because I absolutely dread bedtime. It's a nightmare.

2.5 year olds and bedtime

We are the bad ones because if she gets up dd knows to just crawl in bed with us. She then sleeps for hours.