If LO stays up late, what do you do?

[flatstanley72]

My 28-month-old DD goes to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 pm and after about 6:30, I am out of energy and ideas for things to do with her. I am home with her all day, so I am pretty "played out" by the evening. DH will take over and play with her for periods during the evening and her bedtime routine takes up some time, but there are still stretches of time when it is hard to come up with something new to do. She is tired of most of her toys by the evening and if we don't keep her engaged in something, she gets pretty wound up. We have tried an earlier bedtime, but it just doesn't work. She usually won't go to sleep earlier and if she does, she will wake up about every 30 minutes until 9:30 or 10:00. I'd love to hear what others who have night owls do in the evening.

[Hoopin' Mama]

When ds stays up late we lay around and read books, since I'm usually out of energy by 8pm. What is the climate where you live? We have also watched the stars and moon on a hammock outside. Long baths with me on the bathroom counter reading or knitting.

[~PurityLake~]

I encourage my girls to run up and down the hallway and jump on the bed to wear themselves out.

[meemee]

what time does your dh come home?

is your dd v. high energy?

my dd did hte same thing. wake up every 30 mins till it was her natural time to go to sleep.

my dd is v. high energy and if she doesnt get morning evening play in she really has a hard time falling asleep. she too gets all wound up.

what i did was make two trips. one in the morning. and one in the evening. at ur dd's age that was a necessity. if it was too cold outside i would take her to our main library where she would climb 4 flights of steps continuously. this would make for calmer evenings.

my dd also was and still is not much into toys. but loves books. so she would be in the same room as me (i am single) and just go thru the books, or i would do books on tape or take out a toy she hadnt played with in a long time. or sometimes she would just sit on my lap and we'd both veg out with me telling her stories of when she was a baby. we also loved people watching so we would stare out the window and watch the evening scene outside.

[soulyluna]

ditto all the previous suggestions.

mostly i just roll with it, because when she starts to sense my irritation, it gets even harder to get her to sleep.

Sometimes though I just tell her, "you're supposed to be sleeping right now and this is my time. If you are going to be awake, you need to do something on your own like read books, or play with your own toys."

She actually seemed to really get that even early on, 14 mos + and knows to engage herself in something quiet without a lot of interaction after bedtime.

good luck and remember, everything is a passing phase!

[JSerene]

My dd has always been a night owl. Staying up until 2-4am is typical for her. It get's boring to say the least. What to do? If there's any activities she is able to do without you actively participating, save those for this time. A bath will kill an hour or two in my house. I'll give her a bowl of baking soda to play with, a sock full of oats, or a big bowl of snow. She also enjoys watercolors. She paints her whole body. Simple books on cassette tapes works as well, but I have to stand by to turn the pages. Music is good too, dancing her sillies out tires her for bed.

One other suggestion. In my area, there are evening open playtimes through early childhood ed and also evening story hour at the library. I like to get out of the house after dinner. The time passess much quicker.

[Mama~Love]

I take 'em to bed with me. They are sleeping within 5 minutes .

[nextcommercial]

We just watched TV or read books, or played playdough on the coffee table while watching TV.

[kiwiva]

I moved up the night time routine. So we do upstairs stuff-tidying, putting clothes away, etc then jammies and teeth. The lights are dim, the bedtime music is playing and then we lay in bed and read. If DD is still bouncing she will always settle into the bed with me or us if I start reading aloud once I have done everything I can think of up there. This has made me a lot less frustrated. I used to feel like I had no idea when she would sleep and it was very aggravating, which of course made it worse for both of us.

Some nights we read tons of books before she is ready to sleep but this works better for me bc at least I am in bed relaxing. Also I will not let her nurse (she often still nurses to sleep) until all the reading is done. If she asks for milk, I ask her if it is time to go to sleep. This worked very well to cut down on the time it took to get her to sleep. There used to be a lot of back and forthing.

I also do not let her take her nap too late. I absolutely MUST have an hour or 2 to myself to watch tv, read, etc or I am very cranky the next day. She usually falls asleep about 9 now. We go upstairs around 8, usually so it takes an hour but the cue is there for hero to start winding down.

[mytwogirls]

Originally Posted by wild~blossom

I take 'em to bed with me. They are sleeping within 5 minutes .

That's what I do too

[~PurityLake~]

Originally Posted by wild~blossom

I take 'em to bed with me. They are sleeping within 5 minutes .

Well, this always works. But if I'm not tired, I cannot get back up after they fall asleep. Abigail will stay asleep, but Sophia still has mommy radar. So if I go to bed with them, I'm stuck there until 9 the next morning.

[hedgewitch]

We have a set bedtime but if he isn't asleep then he needs to be having quiet time. I used to give him a couple of books in the summer time and he would often fall asleep reading. Now we give him his constellation turtle and after settling to bed he wanders off to one of the other beds (usually ours) then falls asleep. My ds does not fall asleep with one of us there and I got fed up of 30-60 mins of lying next to him waiting with no free time in the evening.

Now he settles within 30-45 mins in one of the beds and we get to eat dinner!

[AlpineMama]

Have you tried doing little/no electric lights at night for a few weeks? Perhaps it would get your LO's clock into better synch if you let the house get dark and quiet in the evenings. It might be more fun to stay up at night for a couple of nights if it's unique, but the novelty should wear off.

You could also use a dimmer switch on low, or low wattage end table lamps, or whatever. Just try to keep it low-key.

Just a thought, it worked in our household.

[OkiMom]

How about something like coloring? Its something I do with my DD when its late and I can't have her waking up DH.

Usually if Im really tired and need her to go to sleep Ill take her into the bedroom and go to sleep. Shell be on the bed asleep in no time.