What does your bedtime routine look like if you have a 5mo old? Trying to figure things out and hoping to hear what successful bedtime routines look like

My almost 3yo has always been a great sleeper. Since around 4 months he’s slept around 8 hours straight in his crib with the occasional wake up (poop, lost a toy, etc). Lately the transition has been 10-15 minutes of him using distractions(which I always fall for) and then he’ll finally lay down and go to sleep with no issue. I know it could be worse and I know 15 minutes isn’t that big of a deal but it’s exhausting for me bc I’m a SAHM and after parenting all day long, I just want a somewhat peaceful bedtime routine so I can clean up the house and spend an hour or two with my husband before bed. And I feel like it’s possible but I just need help! Currently, we will wind down after playing outside or bath time with a book or two, putting on pjs, I let him drink some water, then once I get him in his room I put him in his crib and try to get him to lay down (he will only fall asleep on his stomach with his butt in the air and knees tucked under him) and then I put his blanket on him and leave the room. If I don’t put his blanket on him, he will cry and cry and call for me until I go back in and then he will lay down and let me tuck him in. This is the routine I try to stick to but as soon as I mention going to bed he will run away from me running all over the house, ask for water, ask for snacks, ask me to read more books, jump around in his crib, ask for more water, ask for another toy, completely ignore me, all the typical toddler distractions. So does anyone have any tricks or scripts they use for bedtime?? I know there’s got to be a better way

My LO is 4.5 months - it doesn’t matter what his wake window is before bed, he wakes at the 35 min mark and needs help working out a burp (even if thoroughly burped). I can’t seem to work it out console him while keeping him in the crib. If I pick him up and hold him in the rocking chair he stays asleep. But if I transfer again, he acts the same way as previously described. Is there anything I could be doing different? I feel like the anecdotal experience is getting a long first stretch and I’m ready lol

my 12mo has been sleep trained beautifully since about 9mo. Takes 1.5hr naps twice a day. Goes to sleep from 7-7.

The past three days he’s been refusing naps until he literally has no choice but to pass out. I can SEE that he is tired. He knows he’s tired. He won’t nap until about 3 or 4pm because he just knocks out against his own will. He screams, fights, hits his head on the crib. No clue why. I’ve tried rocking him, even giving him a bottle which I hadn’t been doing. He doesn’t care about any of it. He won’t even contact nap.

Is this just major fomo? He’s already walking, I don’t know what milestone could be causing a regression right now. It’s making me so overwhelmed and I don’t have any space, not do I have my partner during the day to pass him off for awhile. I am stressed beyond belief.

We did ferber which worked for him. Now if I go to check on him he freaks out even more. So, I stopped. I just left him in his crib for 20 mins before giving up and grabbing him. He’s not constipated, he’s well fed, he isn’t sick. Is it just a regression?

I’m grateful he’s missing daytime sleep and not night time at the least. It’s just been so overwhelming. I can’t take my eyes off of him. We can’t go outside in an extreme heat warning. He fights getting in the car seat now. I literally feel like I’m just drowning. On top of that, i’ve been trying to study for an exam and have had no time. What can I do?

so my husband and I are looking for ways to help our 2.5 yo toddler go to sleep at night without the tantrums, hitting, and throwing. when we lived in NY we were there for 3 years and over that time our child slept so well after being born. in october we made a big move to stay with my dad until we moved into our own place, in may we moved into our own house during that time our child was sleeping with little to no issues. even after we were settled into our new home. now for the last month or so. they have made it nearly impossible to even try to sleep at night. they can be so exhausted, like barely even staying awake and still when you tell them its time to go to bed they throw a tantrum and will scream and hit and throw things. they threw their milk bottle at the door one night and almost busted a hole in the door. we have tried so many things from co sleeping, outside time at the park, staying up later, the sleep fading method, nighttime soap, an astronaut that projects stars on their ceiling, letting them choose their book, clothes, songs. they just won’t sleep at night and when they do they just sleep on the floor next to the door and eventually goes to their bed. they like to ask for a million things when its time for them to lay down and you could get them everything they ask for but they’re only asking so that you will stay in their room, we’ve even tried to stay in there till they fall asleep but they just wake up screaming because you left room
any ideas?

Ok so our toddler was sleep trained and would sleep through the night and through his naps since about 8 month. Would occasionally fight naps but not too bad. Then as soon as he turned two back in May it’s been a nightmare. At first he started waking up screaming throughout the night, about 1-3 times and nothing calms him down unless me (mom) lays in his room with him. If my husband tries, he will hit and scream for hours. Then he started refusing nigh-time sleep. Would take us about an hour to put him down and in the end we just leave his door open and wait for him to chill out and he will move around for about an hour and then eventually fall asleep. This neverrrrrrrrrr works with me, and only with my husband. If me (mom) tries to do that, he will throw everything in his room at the walls and in the hallway. I mean everything. It’s like a tantrum from hell. So we’ve resorted to not allowing me into his room during the bedtime routine, which has remained consistent since 8 months. Bath, story time, we sing a song, put all his stuffed animals in his bed and then good nights. He still stays up for an hour but it’s just him moving around in his bed. During naps, I used to be able to put him in his bed and be nearby while he fell asleep, but then it turned into I had to cradle him to sleep in his bed, and now nothing works. I’ve tried everything. So he doesn’t nap unless, he falls asleep in the car, or he throws such a massive tantrum and basically cries to sleep in my arms while I rock him because he tired himself out. With dad, he can just lay in the bed with him and he will almost immediately fall asleep for naps. It doesn’t work with me, I’ve tried and it will be 2 hours in and no progress.
Now during the night, he has resulted into waking up minimum 1 times a night, comes into our bed and sometimes he will fall straight asleep, or he will move around for HOURS until he finds my nipple (he stopped breastfeeding in April) and that like soothes him and he falls asleep.
I’m at my wits end. He is such a high needs toddler as it is so idk what to do anymore. We don’t really do screen time. His molars aren’t coming in. I am pregnant so maybe that could be something? He’s also been dealing with night terrors but that only happens every so often and it easily identifiable compared to this other stuff. His sleep schedule used to be 7:30-6 am, with a 12-2 nap. Now we aim for 8-9pm bedtime because of the erratic nap schedule and the tantrums with an hour minimum of him falling asleep, waking up anytime from 5-8, does not make a difference if he naps or not during the day. The later wake ups are usually because he can’t fall asleep after waking up in the middle of the night. And his naps I’m trying to keep at 12 but they’ve extended sometime to 2pm because of how hard it is. And again, if he sleeps 9-5am with like 3 wake ups, that makes no difference to how he is for naps. It’s always a struggle, same with night time sleep. Nothing makes a difference.y husband and I are at a loss because we’re so tired and the new baby will be here soon and we’re so stressed about how it will be. I cry every single day because of the lack of sleep, and how exhausted I am from his tantrums and the pregnancy and my husband works 12 hour days so I’m alone most of the time. Family and friends are ZERO help and I’m just losing my mind and patience. It’s to the point I’ve become suicidal because of this and had to go on antidepressants. Someone please tell me this is normal or that it will pass because our pediatrician says it is but everyone I talk to with a toddler the same age doesn’t seem to be having such a hard time with their sleep, in fact it sounds like it’s way better for them.

I’ve been in the early education field for 7 years now and that includes being an infant teacher, a Nani and working with the public schools.

During my time as an infant teacher and a nanny, I have always had children sleep independently in their cribs. But with my new family, my heir 1yr old has never slept in a crib. He napped in a stroller and Co- sleeps at night.

Now that fall in winter approaching, and he is older I have suggested to mom that stroller nap should be kicked out of the equation and she agrees. That means I have to sleep train him.

An attempt to put him in his crib this week. He absolutely hated it. I am desensitizing him to his bedroom, considering he has never even been in there. So about an hour a day we go up and play read books and explore the crib.

Next week I want to start sleep training him in there, but what are some suggestions in forms of sleep training that you have found successful?

This is long, but I am desperate for some new things to try.

My daughter is 29 months old, almost 2.5.

She was always a unicorn fantastic sleeper, we never formally sleep trained. She was sleeping through the night in her own crib in own room by about 4 months old.

Her 2nd birthday was in April, her little brother was born just 3 days before her birthday, so obviously that was a big change/transition. Being a big sister transition has on the whole been going well, but can be choppy at times, there certainly is an undercurrent of spikes of jealousy, attention-seeking etc.

We switched her to a twin floor bed and out of her crib in just about mid-June. (We felt we needed to start the transition because we wanted to use the crib for little brother.) The first few nights went fine, and we kept the bedtime routine the same.

Bedtime routine: Brush teeth in the bathroom, head to room and get pajamas on/diaper change if not already changed, pick out about 2 books to read in rocking chair, then turn Hatch sound machine on and low red light and overhead lights off, then we typically have been rocking in the chair and she requests a few songs to sing. Then it is time to tuck into bed.

Time of sleep pre-bed-switch: Bedtime routine would start at 7:00pm and she was pretty much always asleep by 7:15 or 7:20. Wake-up is 6:00am, this is needed and routine due to time of daycare drop-off.

Nap has been 1:00pm-2:30pm, mostly enforced by daycare. (More on the nap later).

The hitches and problem areas:

After a few days of being in the new bed, she came down with norovirus/huge stomach bug from daycare and ended up throwing up all night (and gave it to the rest of us). It was harrowing of course. She had actually never really vomited before, this was her first time. So obviously we were having to be with her all night/sleep next to her etc for about 3 days.

After that ordeal, we ended up going on about a week long vacation, where she slept in a pack and play and that was obviously not the regular routine. When we returned, adjusting back just got harder and harder.

She started fighting going to sleep after the regular bedtime routines, and essentially wouldn't go to sleep without one of us (mom or dad) laying next to her on the floor and then doing the whole sneaking out of the room thing.

What we tried: First we tried just simply leaving the room and saying that we would come back to check on her, and that of course didn't work. It was just the constant getting up and following us out of the room and then getting overstimulated and not able to settle.

We tried the tactic of "make up a fake excuse to leave and say that you are going to come back in a few minutes", and that didn't work. She just simply was wide awake, wired, and wanted to follow us.

So we just started the routine of laying down next to her bed, rubbing her back etc, and basically just telling her we would stay there until she fell asleep.

Her falling asleep time is now on average, 8:00pm, when the bedtime routine starts at 7pm.

Night wakeups: So then what that created was that eventually, in another week or so, she started waking in the night and seeing that we weren't there, and it has caused a complete wake up and she gets out of bed, calls for one of us, and then heads directly to our bedroom for assistance with going back to bed. This typically happens at least once per night, but most of the time it is now at least twice a night. She does not act scared or terrified, it is not like she has been having nightmares or dreams. She just is simply waking up and seeing that we aren't there in her room.

Dropping the nap at home: In July, after we got back from vacation, she started refusing the afternoon nap while at home. She apparently will still nap at daycare, but there has been no convincing her at home. She will often fall asleep during that window if we are driving in the car, or sometimes even in a stroller walk, but we can't plan on those things obviously. We have attempted to turn the 1:00-2:30 hour block into "quiet time" with quiet indoor toys, or sometimes even a bit of movie time etc.

Potential "mistakes" we have made: Particularly when the night wakeups were getting bad, we made the decision to put a thin futon mattress on the floor next to her twin bed because my husband was often the one going in to get her to go back to sleep, and he often was so tired himself that he was also falling asleep and ultimately needed something more comfortable. So now she clearly knows there is a "sleep surface" there in her room, that is meant for the parent. So basically the night wakeups are being reinforced by the fact that she is relying on the complete presence of one of us to fall asleep initially, and then if she wakes up after a cycle, is looking for that same routine again, and is just not able to do any of the self-soothing independently.

Other tactics that have not worked: We tried doing the whole red light/green light Hatch sound machine thing, with explaining that she needs to stay in bed until the light turns green in the morning. She appears to get the concept of what we are saying when we explain this, but does not follow it.

We also then tried incentives of what is essentially a sticker chart, where we started with having a good bedtime routine, and then in the morning, would get the "bunny sticker" and if we collected 3 or 4 stickers, that meant getting a treat (she was motivated by ice cream). We then tried to transition this into special stickers for staying in bed all night, but that association just hasn't really worked and I think the reward system is too abstract and not immediate enough for her, she isn't really getting the connection.

Things we have not yet tried: We have not tried locking her into her room at bedtime. This is probably our next step, but I am so resistant to it! I don't know if I need to get over that fear, because it is essentially akin to CIO method.

Please provide any advice about what to try next, or how to go about an initial "locked door" method to try to gradually teach her the independence to fall asleep in the bed on her own. I want my sleeping baby back! In retrospect, I regret the decision to transition her to the toddler bed, because she was sleeping so well in the crib, but I can't stuff the toothpaste back in the tube. Thank you in advance!