bedtime help!

sdaisies

Ds used to go down very easy for us. He just turned 2 and a few weeks before he started to cry every time when bedtime came around. He is tired, our routine is still the same, and he has plenty of time to calm down. No teeth, ear aches, or colds are keeping him awake. If we let him stay up longer its the same thing and I even tried a little earlier thinking it was overtired. Every night is turning into a battle and I feel bad and do not want him to have this negative association with bedtime. We also tried to mix up the routine hoping the change would help. Any ideas how to break this cycle? Tia!

DevonPow

Yes - DS just went through this!  He was also waking at night and asking to be rocked/sung to (he has NEVER been like that, even as an infant). I posted here about it and a lot of people said their 2 year olds started something like this. I also read in one of my toddler books that kids start having nightmares around this age. I put a nightlight in DS's room (he never had one before) and it has gotten a LOT better since then.

He still isn't as easy about going to bed as he used to be (lots of complaining about each step), but doing some other things (giving lots of time warnings, silly things like having the "tickle monster" bring him into the bathroom to brush teeth, etc) have helped a bit.

 

amy.matt

i don't have any advice, i just wanted to say my 21 month year old is starting this same thing. ?he used to go down like clock work. ?he could be wide awake and the minute it hit 8pm, we'd give him his binky and cup of milk and he'd lay in bed and go to sleep. ?now he just wants to stay up and watch tv and just cries every night. ?it's exhausting to me. ?we keep thinking it's this or that, but i have a feeling we're just in that stage. ?he was up 3 times last night after about a 30 minute battle to get him down. ?i thought it was just all the junk he ate for easter..... I feel for you and hope you get some good responses!