have you had to re-do your bedtime routine around 4ish??

KathrynMD

I'm still having issues w/ DD messing around during bedtime, I kinda think she's getting wound up by me being around too much - like it gives her too much of an audience.  So, while we're doing songs, she'll sing silly versions of them or she'll go on some tangent to just keep me talking, etc.  I'm seriously thinking we need to stop or seriously limit the 2 books, 3 songs pattern we've been doing since she was about a year old.

Pesky

DD does try to talk and go through these meandering never-ending stories in an attempt to keep me there.  I've just put a stop to it.  "That's great but you only have 2 more minutes and mommy has to go clean up the kitchen so I can go to bed."  So sticking to the limit and warning her of the limit is likely a good approach.

AgrippaRidesAgain

Nope.  We just had to set a time limit.  We're done by 8pm no matter what, even if we haven't "done" everything yet.

jlw2505

Not really but we did add some time for the girls to read on their own after we read to them.  The # of stories we read to them depends on time - at 7pm, we are done reading and then they get time to read on their own (using their Tags or just looking at books) for another 5-10 mins depending on behavior.  We vary the time a little on weekends as they tend to stay up later and if we have had a very rough night, they get no time on their own.  Both girls went through phases at around that age of fighting bedtime a bit more but we are strict and consistent with our lights our rules and we keep things very calm once we start the whole bedtime routine - if the girls are hyper, we do a dance party either right before or after we get into PJ's but before we do teeth and stories as we want them calm and use the story time as the time to get them really calm and sleepy.  It is very rare that either of my girls get out of bed or call us anymore.

VTbride05

My 4 year old goes through phases. We try to keep the 1/2 an hour before  bed more quiet, playing board games or reading. But he has his moments.

WiggleBaby

my DD is 3.5 yrs and she has recently been very very difficult to get into bed.  it's like she gets the most playful right when we go up to start the bedtime routine.  and not in a bad way, she is super cute, talkative, nicely playing... but just doesn't have any desire do her stuff anymore.  she's not defiant at all - just distracted, i guess?  it's frustrating, we've tried quite a few things, but overall i know it's just a phase and we'll get thru it.  one thing we have noticed is that bedtime always goes more smoothly if we're home early enough to take a long time.  on nights we're out to dinner or something, and get home late so have to rush up to bed, we have a rougher time.

KL777

No, I haven't changed it.  DS does the same thing though, trying to keep me in his room longer or trying to stay up longer.  I take my cell phone (to monitor the time) in his room with me and do our usual bedtime routine  and strategically maneuver the routine to end at 7:30 pm---sometimes I do adjust it up to an additional 5 minutes, but that's it.  Once that time is up and he's been properly "serenaded" to bed, the bedroom door closes.

sayruh

DS is a mess going to bed sometimes, too - I notice it more often on our more low key days where he doesn't get all of his energy out during the day.  We always have bath, a book, and then I lay in bed and tickle his back for a few minutes.  He's big on asking "why?" to everything and when I sense he's going to just keep asking me questions I tell him that we're all done questions for the day so he can rest his brain tonight to ask me more questions tomorrow.

We had to do some creative rearranging of bedtime when he dropped his nap, too.