Help! 2.5y Bedtime issues

MPaterniti

Up until last week my DD was great at bedtime (never been a great sleep at night but that's another story), now after I put her down, she is up for at least another 30-60 minutes (even 1.5 hours the other day). I cannot think of anything that has changed in our day to day routine in the last week that would prompt this. We are still going through the same bed time routine, milk while we read 2 stories then teeth, potty, bedtime book, hugs and into bed. After I put her to bed I put the gate up and come down stairs, within 5 minutes she is out of her room, down the hall and calling/shouting. First she asks what I am doing, then she wants me to come up. The first few nights I went up multiple times to put her back in bed, eventually she will go to sleep. The 3 or 4th night I finally decided to just stay downstairs and see if she would sleep but that didn't work. She got upset and eventually I had to go up before she made herself sick (she's been known to do this when she was younger). I am exhausted and out of ideas! My DH is a pilot and is out of town 4+ days per week and DD has to be at the sitters by 6:45am so I tend to go to bed fairly early. I don't know why she is fighting going to bed and I don't know what else to do... Sorry for the novel but any ideas or suggestions would be great.

flyingsaucer

At this age kids start to need less sleep. Is your DD still napping? My DD is almost 3 and her bed time is 8 pm. She naps about 2 hrs during the day. It takes her at least an hour to fall asleep. Our rule is that she MUST stay in bed, but she can play quietly in bed until she falls asleep. We have special (safe) toys and books for bed time (Tag Junior is a great toy for this time) so she has activities that she is excited to do until she gets sleepy. DS (5 yrs) used to do the same thing until he dropped his nap and now he falls asleep before her! You could also try shortening her day time nap and/or waking her earlier

ThatWasAHoot

My son will call us up a bunch of times before bed.  It started when we potty trained him.  We don't go up unless he is crying.  And we tell him this before bed.  "When we say goodnight, that means we will not come up unless you really really need us."  So now he sings and plays with stuffed animals in his bed until he falls asleep.  He is to the point now that if he wants help with something, like a toy fell out of bed [for some reason he won't get out of his bed unless we tell him he can or get him] and he wants it, he will call for us with that specific thing and we will help him, etc.  Maybe giving her some soft toys to play with in bed?

TiffanyBerry

If your rule is that she has to stay in her room (or in her bed), then you have to enforce that rule.  And yeah, if that means you walk her back into her room 40 times a night, you do that.  For a few days, or weeks, but eventually they decide there's no way around it.  This isn't the sort of thing they (especially the stubborn ones) will change overnight - they're pushing boundaries and testing to find out if there's some magical method that lets them get their way.

(FWIW - my daughter has ALWAYS fought bed.  Since she was about four weeks old.  In crazy amazing ways that you wouldn't expect a baby or a toddler to be able to do.  Be consistent, and enforce (gently) whatever rule you have for your house.  It might not be the free time that you'd like (oh, been there, done that, still doing it), but it will work.

drpayne

No real world experience here. But I've heard the suggestion to pick the kid up and put him/her back in bed. No talking. Do it over and over until it sticks.