Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

I could really use some suggestions on how to change our nighttime routine with our 2 yr old!!!

We unfortunately started the rocking with the bottle routine since she was born and are still stuck with it!
(she still has one bottle a day, which is her nighttime bottle).

Soooo she sits on one our our laps, we rock her while she has her bottle, read her stories. Thats over in 10 minutes, then the nightmare begins.....

She will NOT fall asleep, we put her in the crip ... POOF ... she pops back up and wants out.

We rock her again, read her another story, put her back in the crib and ... POOF .... up again! This lasts for an hour, she doesn't cry, unless we try to leave, then she goes hysterical and I'm afraid she'll throw herself out of the crib.

What should we do differently!

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

i don't know if you're against it, but it sounds like it's CIO time. You can do intervals if you can't do full blown CIO.

ETA...I would also cut out the nighttime bottle. by 2 they don't need it and you also don't want her going to sleep with milk on her teeth.

Message edited 8/4/2011 8:59:52 AM.

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

I have a 22 month old and we have a similar routine. PJ's, bottle, book, and prayers and lullaby in the glider for 5 minutes.Whole thing takes about 10-15 minutes.

I always did the majority of the routine - DH would put on the PJ's and read the book but I was the last to hold him while I prayed and sang him 3 lullabies. Then I'd put him in his crib and that was it.

DS started crying and giving us a hard time after he was in the crib and it didn't make sense to us. I wasn't going to CIO bc we never had to before and even after being sick and being rocked to sleep for 1 week a couple months ago, he went back to putting himself to sleep with no problem once he felt better. It occurred to DH that maybe DS wanted to spend more time with him (I'm a SAHM, DH works FT). He suggested that instead of my praying with him and singing to him, that he do it and so he;d be the one to put DS in the crib.

Worked like a charm! I couldn't believe it but DH was right. DS wanted a bit more time with him and once he had it, he didn't need to cry to get DH up there after he was in bed.

I guess my point is to try to figure out if maybe a small change will help given that your routine worked for so long in the past. It takes my DS 20 minutes to fall asleep once he's in the crib but there is no crying or getting up.

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

no more nighttime bottle, and if she pops up in the crib, let her be...JMO, she is plenty old enough for CIO now.

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

Thanks for the feedback!

Yes, I totally agree we will be cutting out the last bottle, she has a feeding delay and for a few more months is relying on the bottle for some nutrition/vitamin she lacks due to the delay.

Regarding CIO - should we stay in the room and let her stand there and cry and scream, or leave the room and let her cry until she tires herself out?

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

CIO is hard but it works. I would not stay in the room at all. It won't work then. I also found that for my kids, leaving the room and coming back to check on them (Feber) didn't work. It just made them more upset. DS #1 is a great sleeper but has had some sleep regression. The only thing that worked for us was CIO. I explained to him that he needed to sleep and that I would come get him in the morning once it was time to wake up. We did our routine as normal and then I put him in bed. He did scream for a good half an hour the first night. The next morning he woke up happy. The second night he cried for maybe 15 minutes. By the third night, it was smooth sailing. He went down without a problem.

While he was crying, I was out on the porch or in the basement. It is really hard for me so I removed myself for a bit. That helped alot.

Re: Ahhh it takes an hr for my 2 yr old to fall asleep

I will tell you my story. My son was a colicky baby so we rocked him when he was young. When he was 1 year old, he was weaned off of rocking and would fall asleep on his own. But then my IL's watched him when my husband was in the hospital and they would rock him every night. So I had to break the habit again.

To break it I did the following after dinner:

- Turn down the lights
- Turn off TV (if it is on)
- Start quieting everything down
- Brush teeth, wash face
- Change into PJ's
- Put him into bed
- Give him his lovey
- Read a book to him
- Turn on the turtle toy that projects stars onto the ceiling
- Say I love you, time to sleep now, good night
- Leave the room

He would get fussy at first but he eventually learned that this is the routine and it is time to sleep. Your child is 2 so you should be able to talk to her and she should understand. If not, CIO is going to be the next step.

Good luck!

Message edited 8/4/2011 10:16:28 AM.