bedtime battles

justin has been doing the same thing at night he is driving me sorry i'm no help....

How old is he? Brandon is 4 and that is becoming our nightly issue. His throat is hot, he needs a drink, the light is bothering him, the light is too dark, etc. He knows not to get out of bed, and we just let him cry it out. He goes to bed at 7:00 and I just think he is really tired by that point. He goes to preK and before and after school, and says he doesn't nap. They don't make them lay down and if they do they get an hour, which is barely enough time to fall asleep.

Justin is 2. He doesn't scream and carry on but he is out of his bed at least 3 to 4 times a night now. It just started about a week ago. He will show up at our door with a big smile on his face, and smile the whole way back up the stairs only to do it again.

Maybe he is just overtired? Maybe you should start 15 minutes earlier?

I don't have any suggestions.

My kids sleep well... if one of us is with them.
We put Kyler to sleep with one of us laying with him. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes we aren't there... he comes into our room and climbs in bed with us.

We were having the same problem with Livia for a while and still do on some nights.

What I would suggest is to just keep doing what you're doing. Keep your routine, lots of hugs and kisses and when the demands start coming at you, it's time to close the door and say goodnight.

The first night will be the worst and with each night after that, it should get easier for both you and him.

Be consistent, loving, yet firm.

Livia used to start hollering at the first hint of bedtime. We just did our thing, jammies, brush teeth, tuck her into bed, sing her a song, hugs & kisses, "I love you" and good night. We closed the door and left the room. If she was still crying 20 minutes later, one of us would go back up there, but keep it very low-key. We would tell her "Livia, it's time for bed. You need to lie down and go to sleep." We'd give her another hug and kiss, I love you and goodnight. End of story. No cawdling, no picking her up, no giving into her demands (unless of course she's sick or we know she's not feeling well and then that's another story).

She still pulls the whole "let's see how long we can draw this out" thing, especially with Marco. She knows how to play him. Drives me nuts. But the crying has, for the most part, stopped and when it does happen, it's only for like 2 minutes, not even.

Anyway, good luck!

How old is he?

Nick is 2 and he goes to bed pretty easy. He might tell me no he doesn't want to but he doesn't put up a fight normally. He gets a new diaper, drink, and goes to bed in a completely dark room with his brother. If he gets back out of bed(very rare) I just go back in, put him back in the bed and tell him it's time for night night and leave. We don't do stories or songs at bedtime because I don't like to put to much focus on bedtime, and make it a big deal. We have stories and songs during the day.

Whatever you do be consistant. It will get easier as they get older. Hang in there.

I use controlled crying with Hayley (she is 1 year old) I have done since she was 4 months old and it works a treat. She isn't actually climbing out of her cot yet so I am still looking foward to that (not). The best advice I can give is to just keep the routine and let him know that its bedtime soon, then when you tuck him in and all that, tell him you're still around (in the lounge room or whatever) say goodnight and walk out. I know this may sound harsh but close his door, just let him cry it out for a little while, if he comes out of his room tell him its time to go to sleep, take him to his room and do what you did the first time you put him to bed. if he says hes thirsty or needs to go to the toilet take him but make it quick, don't play games with him otherwize he will expect it every time he wakes up, even at stupid o'clock in the morning. Put a night light in his room if you have to. Don't really know what else to say, if you do this is should work, but you need to be persistant. Good luck

I don't know what to suggest. Emily slept in our room in a portacrib or with us until last year. For a while this year she was back in bed with us. When we were in counseling, our therapist suggested we do this, and so far it has worked:
We started off by having a bedtime routine--bath, snack, stories, and lights off. (We still use this routine.)
For the first week or so, one of us stayed with her in the bed until she was asleep. Some nights, this took only ten minutes, other nights it took an hour or two. Frustrating, but that's the way it goes.
After that first week or so, we changed it and stayed with her until she was asleep, but we weren't in the bed. We sat in a chair next to her bed. No touching, but she knew we were there. This wasn't as hard of an adjustment as I thought. Some nights it still took her a while to go to sleep, though.
After the week or so of doing it that way, we moved on to tucking her in and telling her we would only stay for five minutes. Sometimes she resists this, sometimes she cries about it, but usually it goes well. The therapist suggested we get a timer and set it, that way we could say, "The bell rang, and the timer says it's time to go."
Sometimes she asks for things after the five minutes are up and we each take turns going in there. So far, she hasn't gotten out of the bed.
When she was younger, I tried the cry it out method, but the crying spells got progressively worse and longer rather than shorter, etc, as they are supposed to. So, that method didn't work for us.
I wish I knew the formula for easy bedtimes or had some ideas. I can only tell you what our therapist suggested and it has worked. I hope it gets better soon.

We have the same problem with Ryan also...

Every night its something, even though we have a schedule and he knows it and we keep preparing him ... he ends up in bed asleep at 10pm... we start our night schedule around 7pm too...
7-7:30pm - bath
7:30-8:30pm - snacks and we read books (combined to save time)
8:30 - Brush teeth, get under the covers
8:45pm - Lights out no matter what

I can not tell you the last time lights were out and he was sleeping ... Ryan says ' my leg hurts' , ' I am hungry', ' I need a drink', ' I need to feed the baby' etc... every excuse in the book... And we get frustrated, and he is in our bed on top if it, so its not like he is even going to sleep alone - he just takes forever. We just asked his school to cut down his nap time to see if that makes a difference...

But I am sorry I have no advice - but sometimes its good just to know you arent the only one out there!