(Cross posted) How do you get your little one to settle at nighttime?

[BeautyforAshes]

My 2-yr-old daughter (T21) has difficulty falling asleep, and we have been trying various methods to help her get ready for sleep.  She doesn't like rocking, although she does love her swing and occasionally naps there.  She does like being bounced on our knee (and actually has fallen asleep that way since she was an infant! ), but it doesn't produce sleepiness quite as well as it did when she was younger.  She doesn't like to cuddle much, but likes me to pat her back until she goes to sleep, or when she wakes up at night.  Unfortunately, I got tendinitis in my left wrist from all the patting we were having to do (lots and lots of night waking!), and now I think it's starting in the right, so I need to look for other methods.  When I try to get her to lie down with me in our bed to sleep, she won't stay still, crawls around, pulls on the curtains, flops on me, tries for the edge of the bed, etc.  We would like her to sleep in her own bed if possible, but at this point, any and all ideas are on the table!  Does anyone know of any good toddler hammocks?

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

This is probably not exactly what you're looking for, but it's what worked for our oldest (he's on the spectrum and has a lot of sensory issues) when he was that age. As a baby he had to be patted, rocked, walked and bounced...all at the same time or he coudln't fall asleep. I'm not talking about 10 minutes of this, I once spent 4 hours walking up and down the hallway forhim to sleep and everytime I tried to stop moving, he'd start crying. So, as he got bigger, this simply wasn't an option and at two, his co-sleeping skills were nill. It seemed like being in bed with us was actually keeping him awake.

So, this is what we ended up doing. We read...and read...and read...and read, and then, we put on a book on tape and sat in the room while he listened to it. Eventually the reading time got reduced to one book or one chapter and then the book on tape. He's 11 now and shares a room with his 2 younger brothers. Dh or I read a chapter to them every night and then we put on a book on tape/cd and off they drift to sleep. Also, we would make him a taco as he called it. We'd wrap him up really tight in his blanket (loose enough that he could get out if he wanted to!) and he's ask to have all his stuffed animals snuggled up around him. I think that pressure helped him relax as well.

Good luck! Bed times can be so frustrating!

[Rose-Roget]

Ds is 6 and, while I have always considered him a good sleeper, he has had a very hard time falling asleep until recently.  Last summer, he said to me, "Why does it feel like you have ants crawling all over you when you try to fall asleep?"  Ah, so this was why he had trouble!!  He was dx'd with SPD shortly after this, and I think it was just his body's interpretation of the relaxation feeling.

As soon as we started the Wilbarger brushing, at the recommendation of his OT for sensory issues, he has fallen asleep almost immediately 98% of the time.  Before this time, back scratching and/or massaging worked well.  Those little wooden massagers (like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015Y8TDA/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000VUZ126&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=18KEEFVRJ5EVXH1XQNMC ) are really nice and give your hands a break.  I think fancier massagers can pulse or vibrate - maybe your dd would like that sensation, kind of like the patting.  A final idea would be heavy blankets or a weighted blanket.  Lots of people, with and without sensory difficulties, find that heavy sensation relaxing.

Good luck!