Does anyone else have to wrangle their kids to bed?

[BlueWolf]

I cosleep with my 11 month old DD. Every night and every nap, it's a fight to get her calm enough to fall asleep. Even when she's tired! I have to pin her down and not let her roll around, or she'll get right back up to play. It's starting to wear on me and it seems like it's starting to take longer and longer to get her to sleep.


Does it get better with age? Or will I still be pinning her to sleep by the time she's a teenager?

[To-Fu]

We did that with my son for many months, including around 11mo, which was incidentally right when he started walking. It was a total drag and I felt awful having to do it, but it was the only thing that would settle him enough to get him to relax and sleep. It was a phase, yes, and he's 28mo now. We haven't had to restrain him at bedtime for over a year.

[RiverSky]

At that age, two things helped. One was going on a big outing during the day, whether it was the zoo, or a children's museum, so that my child was REALLY tired that night, just worn right out. The other was that we stopped fighting with our toddler and just let them play with toys on the floor in the living room until he fell right asleep, on his own, slumped over toys. LOL! It was a rather short phase, really, and it was so nice that we had just let go and tried to keep it as little of a struggle as was possible. Hopefully, this phase will be a short one for you.

[Mya's Mommy]

DD is almost 1 year old and for the past few weeks I have to physically constrain her for a few minutes before she'll settle down. We cosleep and I always give her about 15 minutes or even up to 30 minutes of climbing all over the bed, off the bed, on the bed (matress is on the floor), she's completely wild, even though I know she's exhausted! I have to hold her in my arms while she screams and tries to get away. I time it for 2, sometimes 3 minutes. Then she finially drinks and goes to sleep. I was feeling very guilty about "making" her cry, but realized she really needs to sleep, she just can't settle down. I do hope this passes quickly though...