Getting a Toddler to Sleep

My daughter is 21 months and she does pretty good, but she occasionally tries to test us, but not too often. I'll just tell you what we do, and maybe it will work for you.
She goes to bed around 9:00 with an occasional give and take of a half hour. But the routine is always the same. Around 8:30 we will tell her it's time to get ready for bed, she usually says no, but we say, "I'm sorry sweetie, but you always get ready for bed at this time, and it's time". Then we ask her to come to the bedroom so she can pick out her pajamas. She really likes to pick them out, and that makes her want to wear them. Then we brush her teeth, which she hates, but she knows she has too and is getting less resistant, she really likes the part where we all say cheese smiling real big so her front teeth can be brushed. Then it's quiet time. We always watch TV after Kaylee goes to bed, so we just go ahead and turn it to one of our shows(she dosen't get sleepy if you watch cartoons). Turn out all the lights in the house, and she sits on our lap facing the TV holding her stuffed animal and blanket. Once 5-10 mins has passed and she is sleepier, I flip her around to lay on me, but that usually dosen't last long because she gets tired and wants to fight it when I hold her. So it's time to go to bed. Our secret to bed is a pillow. We recently put a pillow in her bed and she LOVES it. So I ask if she's ready to go to bed. She usually dosen't answer that. So I say do you want to go lay on your pillow in your bed, and she nods her head. Then she puts herself to sleep. Occasionally she will protest one or all of those things and we will say I'm sorry, but it's time to go to bed. And if she cries and comes to the door(we converted her crib to a toddler bed) I pick her up and take her back to her bed. If she needs a hug I will give her one, but my response is always the same.

I really hope all this in some way helps. Feel free to message me if you have more questions.

J.,

I had a similar problem with my little girl right around the time she turned two. We struggled with her and tried everything it seemed, finally the doctor said we should try putting her to bed earlier. Her bedtime was 8:30 also. We gradually moved her bedtime back to 7:15-7:30 and instantly she began falling asleep without any problems and sleeping through the night without disturbances. I think she was just overtired by the later bedtime. I don't know if this will work with your son...but it may be worth a shot. Good luck and hope this helps.

Have you tried a toddler bed yet? You may have trouble keeping him in there, but it worked for us. My son just turned 2 and we put a toddler bed in his room at 20 months. He started asking to sleep in it after about a month. He thought he was a big boy and he liked to lay down and go to sleep in his new bed. (It's shaped like a fire truck, so that really helps) He will still occasionally wonder into our bedroom around 4 am, but if I take him back and sit there just a minute or 2, he's right back asleep. You also might try letting him stay up just a little bit later, and let him run himself down. I find that usually by 9:00 if we haven't already taken him upstairs, he gets his blanket and asks to go to bed. Does he take an afternoon nap?? If so, try to shorten that by 1/2 hour or so. Hope this helps. Good luck!

J., hope you get some rest soon ... he may be developing a habit now, knowing after a certain period of time that you Do get him out of the crib. If my little boy (1 yr) happens to fuss a long period of time, I do go in the room, but I give him a hug and do not take him out of the crib ... I wave bye and shut the door again. This usually does the trick. It is amazing how babies will play til the pass out!

good luck ...

I'm going through that with my son now too and so is a friend of mine. I think he's going through some sort of sleep change like he did at 6 months.

I do think the warm milk and routine help alot. So does tons of physical and mental stimulation early in the day. Also, I think they need a little less sleep than before. We went from a 3 hour nap to a 1.5 hour nap but kept the 12 hours at night.

I can't recommend this for every nap time but yesterday my son tried to sleep for almost an hour. I got him up, gave him a snack and milk and let him play for about 20 minutes. When I put him down again he slept for a long time with no problem.

You used toddler and sleep in the same sentence? What's wrong with you? ROFLMAO. Not all but a good portion of kids go through that. First off, it's good to set a bedtime routine. Maybe feed him at 6:00, give him a warm bath, put him in soft snuggly pajamas, do a quiet activity such as reading a bed time story. Just kind of do mellow things in dim light to try to wear him down. Do the same thing every night in the same order. That will help him learn that time to sleep is coming. If worse comes to worse, make him a vanilla cream. I had one that was particularly hard to get to sleep...I would warm him a cup of milk, throw in some vanilla syrup (it's in the coffee isle at the store) and by the time he hit the bottom of the cup, his eyes were half mast. There's a chemical in the milk that when warmed, it's very relaxing and tends to induce sleep in some people. I find myself having to have a vanilla cream to unwind at night after work so I can sleep myself. You may enjoy having a vanilla cream with him. But no matter, just keep in mind that this won't last forever.

When my son started having problems going to sleep in the crib, he was around 18 months old when this started, the only place he'd go to sleep was out of it. I ended up pulling the mattress from the crib and he slept soundly on it in the floor, so I got him a toddler bed and haven't had a problem since. Your little guy may be trying to let you know that he is ready to be out of the crib. Just a suggestion!

My daughter just turned 2 last week and about 6 months ago we went through the same exact thing. It was almost as if she was scared to death of her bed and her room. This did go on for several weeks and there really was nothing that I can say we did that made it stop...we just hung in there and unfortunately sometimes she just had to cry. There were many nights I would let her fall asleep in my arms in our game room right outside of her room and then put her in bed where she would sleep all night. Sorry I can't be more help than that..just know that it is a phase and it shall soon stop. Hope things get better.