bedtime routine

[charlottekb]

Hello there, I was wondering if I could gain some info from this fantastic pool of mums and dads in the area. My 2 year old boy has been in pretty much the same bed time routine since he was 4-weeks old. For the past month or so the routine has not been working and he has been sat whigeing in his cot up until 9pm - which as you can imagine makes our tea time quite tense with the warblings of 'mummmmmmmmmmmmmmy, dadddddddddddddy' in the background.

What the routine was: 7 - 7.30pm: bathtime, milk and bed! I realise that now he is two, that things need to change and he is obviously not as tired as he once was. I know I need to incorporate books etc into this, but I'm not too sure how to go about it!

If anyone would be so kind as to share their ideas or the way that they do things I would be very grateful!

Thanks,

Charlotte

[catgirl]

My daughter is 4 and still goes to bed at 7.30 as she has since she was tiny, certianly at 2 he should still be tired by then. maybe the culprit is the lunchtime nap? Is he still having one? Maybe it is too late or too long. From about age 2 my daughter only had about an hour and she dropped it completely about 2.5.

Otherwise just take him outside a lot in the afternoons for as much running about as possible!

[Pickle]

My son (will be 3 in Jan) still goes to bed at 7pm and I'm hoping he will continue to do so until the moment he leaves home ;-)

We follow the same routine as you, although these days he just has a small drink of milk from a beaker, then once he's in his PJ's we sit and read him a story. His sister (16 months) also goes to bed at the same time. He still has a lunchtime nap of around 2 hours, but if he were to start resisting going to sleep in the evening I would cut it back.

Otherwise, lots of exercise in the afternoon, no sugary foods at dinnertime, and hopefully he'll start settling again for you.

P x

[Moos]

Agree with the good advice above re: napping, it sounds as though he still has lots of energy at bedtime. My 2yo is still very energetic at bedtime all the way to being put in his PJs but starts to relax and rub his eyes during his story, so it's clearly a good cue for bed-time.

Books are a lovely part of the bedtime routine (esp for part-time slacker mums like me). Moosling doesn't have a bath every day, but whether it's a bath day or not we read a couple of stories once he's in his PJs and sleeping bag, so he's absolutely ready for bed. Then we turn the lights low and have singing and cuddles for a few minutes and plop him in his cot.

[Mellors]

I agree re lunchtime nap. Much as I was loathe to give it up, I found that my 2.5 year old just stopped wanting to go to bed in the evening until about 9pm (had previously been 7pm). This coincided with noving out of the cot to the big boy bed, so he could get up and run aruond in his room.

So we dropped the lunchtime nap (if he is tired I still let him lie on the sofa for a while watching tv as downtime whilst his little sister is in bed).

He is now shattered by 7pm and will go down much easier (last night he asked to go to bed at about twenty past six!).

I generally bath at about 6.15, tv, milk and jim jams whilst I put his little sister to bed at about 6.45, then up to bed for a story or two and tucked up and sleeping by 7pm. I like that last 15 mins or so of "together" time we have over the story when No 2 is asleep.

I miss the nap though!

[Pickle]

Mellors, I'm exactly the same with that last 15 mins or so once the monster toddler is in bed - it's the one time of day he's all cuddly and lovely, so nice.

I do the whole bedtime process together for my two, then once they're both in PJ's my son goes into his room to choose a story (always the same one, of course) and sits cuddling his beloved soft toy for 5 mins while I put his sister to bed (she drinks all her milk in the bathroom these days which makes life much easier). I finally feel like I've got the routine involving 2 children down to a fine art, it's only taken 16 months! Would be entertaining to watch Mr Pickle trying to do the same though ;-)

[Fuschia]

Our 6 1/2 yo has had the same routine for a looong time.. into pjs, into bed, with beaker of milk, mr F reads story, brushes teeth (in bed, Mr F takes toothbrush away after) then lights out at sleep. between 7 and 8pm.

[The Nappy Lady]

Just to add, I think they go through phases of 'testing the boundaries' so as well as maybe not being so tired he is quite possibly going through a phase of seeing what he can get away with. I think at around 2 this is quite common and do recall that we had to stick to our guns with our daughter when she went into a 'big girls bed' at 2.5 as she went through a phase of getting out of bed and coming down/calling for us/sitting on the landing crying....basically trying various tactics to see if she could get away with not going to bed.

We just kept to the same strategy - always took her back to bed, reassured her and walked away, and in the end it did work.

Good luck with it, look forward to an update in a couple of weeks!

Molly