Bedtime Tantrums

We are having a few isues with Hannah at the moment. I know it is all normal toddler behaviour, but just wanting to nip it now before she starts thinking she can get away with more.

Han has always been a great sleeper, and up until a few months ago when we got rid of the dummy she would sleep for 2 hours in the afternoon and then sleep 7pm - 7am. She is 2y 3m now. So now she is having no day sleep, which WAS ok as she was going to bed and asleep straight away at 6.30pm until 6.30/7am. This worked well for us all. If I put her down for an arvo nap she usually wont sleep at all, but if she does happen to (or falls asleep in the car) then she isnt ready for bed again until about 9pm, and that isnt an option for me really.

In the last 2 weeks, she is packing major hissy fits over getting into PJs, brushing teeth and going to bed. I thought she was overtired so tried putting her to bed just after 6pm, and this worked well for a few days. With a bit of patience and understanding we can get her ready for bed even with the grumpiness, but once she is in her room and had stories she just screams her guts out - full on screaming along with "mummy, mummy!" and banging on the door etc. Now i dont mind if she quietly plays for a while in her room then puts herself to bed again, but its the screaming I cant handle. We tried going in to her which seems to calm her down for a while but as soon as you leave it starts again. And I dont want to get into the habit of staying in there til she is asleep, esp with the new baby due in 5 weeks.

So we have now decided that once she is in bed, we will just leave her to it and hopefully in a few days she will get the message. Cos in the end that is all that works now anyway, just leaving her to it.

I can only put it down to a few things, either overtired, not quite tired yet, too hot or too light still in her room. Tho this has only just started so the last two I dont think are likely. Or is it just a two year old trying her luck?

We are having a few issues with tantrums during the day and talking back etc, but I am winning those battles! So anyone have any great pearls of wisdom or other ideas I might not be able to see.

Thanks

Same issues here, it started when I stupidly let Jack sleep in my bed at my parents. Its been going on a week and now he knows hes going to bed and even lies down for stories ok but as soon as I leave the crying starts. He now only cries for about one song so 3 mins max. If that helps at all?

same issues here too!! Joey is almost the same age as Hannah, lot's of my friends are having issues too. Some nights Joey won't go to sleep until 9.30 - 10pm!! Either an age thing or HEAT thing I've decided... either way bloody frustrating!!

Good luck Aimee.

We recently had similar issues with Michaela (who's 6 months younger than Hannah). DH was still trying to give her a couple of daytime sleeps but often she'd only have 2 x 15-30 min cat naps during the day then, despite being shatter by dinner time wouldn't go to sleep until 8:30 - 9pm. I just stayed staunch about leaving her in her bedroom (the more I went into her the louder she screamed when I wasn't there) then while on holiday I changed her routine so she now has one daytime sleep after an early lunch, sleeps longer during the day and better at night time.

After lunch cuddle/quiet time sounds like a good idea. Probably be nice for you too to spend awhile relaxing. My sister did this with her older child when she was about the same age Hannah is now and it worked really well. She had a 6 month old that would go for a sleep around that time and she and Elizabeth cherished their quiet 'new-baby-free' time together.

Daddy's are such pushovers (are they just that way with daughters or what?)

When Michaela tips her cereal over the floor I make her clean it up, this can take over an hour with several time outs in the meantime whereas DH will clean it himself - arghh! & the minute her eyes well up and she moans "tul" he's on his way to make her one whether it's bottle time or not.

Anyway moan over! He's really quite brilliant and I'm very lucky to have him, I just wish he'd do things my way!!

Our tantrum yesterday afternoon was because she was overheating (practically sweating) so I took her jersey off.

Yesterday morning she screamed because her daddy had yelled out to me from the other end of the house to ask if I wanted coffee.

Oh yeah, and then there was a tanty at dinner time because she would not sit down so I strapped her into her highchair.

Now, since my baby's not quite two yet please tell me that she'll leave the terrible twos early as well!!

Edited by The_Stuarts