New bedtime routine?

[Chloevalentine]

My 21 mo old is in need of a bedtime routine I think. As of now we watch s little goodnight show then we go up for bath teeth pjs then usually his dad sits with him in chair lights off and offers him a cup of milk but lately he doesnt want the milk and he doesn't want to sit still. He wants to get up and play and walk around. Any suggestions ? He won't sit for books either.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Right now we do milk, dance party to youtube, bath, stories & bed. We read stories whether they sit still or not, they do absorb it all anyways. The room we read in has only a few toys and all the books so if she wants to potter about while we read it is all good. 

[Chloevalentine]

So you offer milk before you go into bath? I've tried it but he's not very interested. Maybe I'll try the free roam of his room while I read. He just fights me when I pick him up to put into crib then it sets off fussing and crying.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

We have a fairly early supper so milk happens about 45-60 min after. We brush teeth at bath time so it needs to be prior to that. Does he have milk with supper? He may not neex the night time milk anymore, we are down to 4 oz or so and the odd time we are busy and forget she is fine.

[Chloevalentine]

Yes he has milk with meals so I'm not concerned with his intake really. I'm just more concerned about how to do a new routine like books etc instead of sitting with milk as he has no interest in the milk or books and he throws a fit when I pick him up to go into crib lol

[K-JDA]

Hiya

We do supper including milk and a little bit of TV, then up for bath (alternate nights) and have daddy/DS time whilst I get the bath/night clothes ready - they play hide and seek or play with a balloon or something. After bath we do teeth, dress, into sleeping bag and stories. We get all sorts of messing about, wanting to avoid getting into sleep bag, wanting different stories etc so we have come up with about 3/4 ways to get DS into his bag e.g. Flying into bag, rolling into bag, sat on chair getting into bag (!!) and then for stories we let DS choose the books and this seems to then keep his attention to sit and read them. We did have a phase of wanting to read books sat on the floor, then on a chair, then sat in his cot, then laid on the floor so we just went with it and read them all over the place!! At the moment he is content to sit on my knee again. After stories we have a little ritual of turning out the sunshine and his musical seahorse toy (he has to do it -Mr independent), then big cuddles and into bed. It's a pretty long and drawn out ritual but I find this tends to work most nights within out too much fussing. HTH.

[creations]

dance party to youtube

We always have something pretty active just before going up for bath too. It's a good way to get rid of that last bit of energy before settling down for the night.
When he was that age I think we played toddler band, each of us gets a different instrument and march through the house singing and playing, change the instrument and do it all again, some running involved too.
Now he gets 5 mins or so of chase with me and/or Daddy.

Then bath and teeth (book during bath). Then a song on my knee in his (already dark) bedroom and into bed.

Messing at BT could indicate the need for a timing tweak or some firm rules about it being night time (and use something like WI/WO).

[Chloevalentine]

Great ideas thank you! It's just recently that he doesn't want to sit on lap and have milk. He squirms to get down. He goes into crib fine no fussing or crying but he does stand up and talk and meds around for about 30 mins. His days been up at 7 nap from 1230-130 and into crib by 730 but he's awake until 8. I just think its a long time from 130-830 with only an hour nap and being up from 7 am but when I try an earlier bedtime (7:15) he's just in there awake longer still falling asleep at 8! And when I've tried to push nap later he cries in the crib and nap if any is not good.