OK we have been battling with our DD for weeks now, she just does not want to go to sleep or even have queit time!! I have read alot of posts about others trying to get their toddlers to sleep etc and have tried alot of great ideas. She is nearly 3, can now open all the doors in our house and is using the toilet (so we are not wanting to shut her in her room for long period anyway). Is there anyone that can tell us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel?
We are going to buy one of those child locks that go over the door handle to slow her down opening the door. She is just so tired which in turn makes us so tired.
The worse part is she knows what she is supposed to be doing, because as soon as we see her she runs and slams her door shut - waking our baby boy!
Please, any happy endings appreciated!?

Are you talking about daytime naps or going to bed at night?

We stopped getting DD to nap in the daytime when she was 2y9m. Never had much success with daytime quiet time. She would just go all day, have a very early dinner (5ish) then a little bit of quiet play and be in bed asleep by 7pm.

Steph

Both, daytime and night time... if we can keep her contained, ie shut her bedroom door, she will usually have a sleep at both times of the day. Now that she can open her door we can't contain her. We have been aiming to have her diner at 5pm then bed by 7 at the latest.
We joke that when her batteries finally run out we will buy the cheap ones LOL. She is just so full of energy.

I haven't got the answers but I sure wish I did! I just don't understand it. My dear 2 year old used to go to sleep no worries no later then 7pm every night. Now I start putting her to bed at 8, she goes in and out and in and out for about 2 hours with a lot of crying and carrying on (from me as well as her!), with me finally giving up and getting DH to lie down with her!

After 2y3m when she moved out of the cot we locked DD's door if she kept reappearing (only needed to do it regularly for a couple of weeks) - roughly the method suggested in Toddler Taming.

But once we canned her daytime sleep she was so tired she would crash almost straight away.

Steph

Great to heat some sucess. We got a lock for the door handle today. She came out, so we shut the door, hopefully things will get better now she can't play the 'game'.
Thankyou

Hi,

We are going through the same thing, although my little guy will go to sleep for grandma, daycare and sometimes his dad, but loves to play the "getting up out of bed, open door come out" game with me, he is an energiser bunny and can keep getting out for hours. We have had success in doing the supernanny's technique of putting him back to bed with no eye contact or talking, but he can still make a game of it, we had to stop they lying with him business as it doesn't work for me and sometimes i'm the only one home for bed time.

good luck!!
Anna

DD2 just stopped her day sleep and while I could get one to have quiet time, it just doesn't work at the moment when they are both awake.

I am resigned to the fact that now I get no quiet time for a quiet break for me.

I am experimenting this week with things to keep them still for at least half an hour... wish me luck

Both my older girls dropped their day time sleeps at around 2yrs of age. My 20mth old is done to 1 nap a day.
But they were also sleeping from 7pm to 6:30am. So I had plenty of quiet time in the early evening.

During the day, they would usually quietly watch a hi-5 dvd for a bit after lunch. And they are both girls that will happily play by themselves or each other for a reasonable amount of time, so I could still get things done even if they were up.

Compared with the other kids the same age at our playgroup who were still up several times a night, I figured I got the better deal

DS stopped his daytime nap a while ago and will not have a 'rest' in bed. Its just not worth the fight. So we have quiet time - he gets to watch 1hour of tv, like 2 episodes of diego and he knows if he gets up off his couch he has to go to bed for his rest. It doesn't give me a lot of rest time but it helps. Anytime he gets up I tell him to go to his bed and he sits straight down and stays there for the entire time. Some days!

once the daytime nap stopped, the night time bed battles got a lot easier. He now happily goes to bed (a few tears if we miss bed time and let him up late) and is asleep in minutes.