our dd will be 2 tomorrow. for about 3 weeks, she has been fighting bedtime. some nights she's been up until 11pm. we have a short, simple bedtime routine. my dh puts her down while i'm putting our 4 month old to bed. she's always been a pretty good independant sleeper, but for some reason now bedtime is a nightmare! she's ok until he gets her in her room and puts her in the bed, but then she gets back up and tries to stall... like she doesn't have the right doll with her, or she needs more blankets etc. dh tries to settle her, but she starts crying and screaming until she gets practically hysterical. if he can calm her down, he leaves the room, but then she is out of bed again and crying. this can go on for hours! when he can't take it anymore, he lets her out to play in our room or downstairs to watch tv until she seems ready to go up. (or course, the moment she is out of her room, she is perfectly fine and goes to play.) it is like she just isn't ready to go to sleep or something, but we know she is tired!!
she gave up her afternoon nap about 2 months ago, but still really needs it. Some days she has been in bed asleep by 6:15pm because she is so tired. The only way i can get her to nap during the day is to go out in the car (not very realistic!) She started daycare last week (just 2 days a week) and had a 2 hour nap both days when she was there.
My dh is stressed, and our evenings are crazy and unpredictable. we don't know what to do anymore. dd can go to bed anytime from 6:30 to 11pm, and whether she naps during the day (daycare or in the car) doesn't seem to logically affect when she is ready for bed. Please help!!!!
by the way, we've had a lot of major changes in the past few months... our son arrived in September, we moved to a new house 3 weeks later... also, we transitioned her to a regular bed a bit over a month ago (went very smoothly). perhaps all these changes are causing the problems, or is this just 'the terrible twos'??
any help would be appreciated!!!
