18 month old resisting bed time...

L

LeahH

Registered User
Hi

Our strong willed 18 month old has recently started resisting bed time?.

She generally goes down fine for her single day time nap (1.30 ? 3.30pm) but about 50-70% of the time will cry/scream her head off in the evening (8pm bedtime) for 30-45 mins straight - stopping immediately when you go in to get her.

We have a set bedroom routine that she loves but we often get stuck on the last part as she begs for ?one more book?? We tried letting her CIO but now she?s older it simply doesn?t work ? controlled crying worked well when she was younger and would rapidly put an end to any little phases she went through.

The screaming can continue for up to 45 mins until we get her up. She sits with us for 15-20 minutes then will generally sleep after another 10 mins crying.

We do now have a new baby in the house, but this started well before the arrival.

Maybe move her nap earlier? Any advice would be gratefully received
 
We went through the same thing with our first son when he was a little older than your child. This is probably really wrong but we'd tell him that the policeman would come and 'put him in jail' if he wasn't in bed by a certain time! We'd even knock on the doors some nights and look worried like the policeman had come to take him away!

It worked a treat for the most part. He was never scared because he didn't really understand what being put in jail meant and I'd always run to the door, open it and tell the policeman it was ok, he'd gone to bed now and invariably he'd hop into bed.

Another thing that has worked for us is giving him a torch to play with in his bed. He really needs a little wind down period before bed and a book or two are often not enough. He plays with his torch for a few minutes then generally pops off to sleep.

I'd definitely move the nap time however. When either of ours sleep that late we know we are in for a bad night! Our 20 month old goes to sleep between 12 and 12.30 (and he only wakes up around 7am) and our 3 year old has a nap around 1. They both nap for one to two hours then we get them outside to tire them out.
 
We went through this at the same age!
Could you try putting your little one down slightly earlier for the night? Say around 7 pm - she might be over-tired by 8 pm at her age which was definitely the case with our son. I'd leave the day nap alone if it's working well (maybe try to cut back by say 30 min - so get her up by 3 pm) and try to put her down at 7 (start winding down then etc). What we did with our son for the 1 more book scenario was to allow him to choose 6 books, and then we said ok we'll read 3 now and 3 in the morning when you wake up. That sort of gave him something to look forward to and then he used to put the other 3 books on a little bench in his room and say 'Ok see you in the morning Mama for 3 books!' as he then felt the fun times weren't really ending if you know what I mean! Hope helpful and congratulations on your new baby!
 
If you are willing to do cio before, my suggestion would be to try it again, but not give in after 45 min. Sounds cruel, but we had the same problem for our 1st and followed the Dr. Ferber cio method. She slept thru after 5 days and has done so since (now 3) and is the best sleeper I know of all of my friends' kids. The problem is that they get cleverer and cleverer and knows how to get what they want by crying. If you are going to try Ferber, word of warning, it was extremely tiring the 1st 3 nights, would be better to start it during holidays when you and/or hubby not need to go to work the next day.
 
Thanks everyone, good to hear this is normal. The stress of this new 'bedtime' routine not great with the other new bub in the house! will try all the advice above and see what works.
 
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