Having Trouble Putting Toddler To BED!

[YoungMom130]

Ladies, my husband and I are at our wits end and we could use some of your advice, please! Our son is 2-yrs-old. We've started potty training, he is very smart and very good. I am a stay-at-home mom and each afternoon at 1PM he goes down for a nap. I lay him down, open his window so he can see "his tree" outside of his window and kiss him, and he plays in his bed until he goes to sleep, no problems. However, when his dad his home from school (a teacher) he fights naps because he wants to play with dad, and bedtime is an especially difficult time. My husband is trying to get work done for his Masters Degree in the evenings, I have a baby girl that nurses around the time we put my son to bed, and he refuses to stay in his bed at night. He'll get up crying dozens of times and we have to keep putting him back in. We'll do this sometimes for an hour before he'll stay in his bed and it's especially frustrating for my husband because he has to continuously stop working to help while I nurse and put our daughter to bed. Bedtime shouldn't be such a struggle. We read books after his bath until it's time to go to bed and then the battle begins. We've tried staying with him and singing ABCs, we've tried just rubbing his back, we've tried time outs, we've tried just putting him back in his bed over and over again, sleeping with a favorite toy, talking to him about what he's doing, rocking him.....we've tried everything we can think of! HELP!

[GRose]

My son was having a really hard time going to bed as well when we switched to a toddler bed, he would get out of bed and pound on the door and go crazy. At first I would stand by his door and every time he got out of bed I would go in his room and put him back in his bed without saying a word, I did this for a few nights for about 20 minutes each night. We finally decided that we were not going to give him any attention when he got out of bed. After a few nights of letting him roam around his room calling for us he finally gave in. He fell asleep on the floor in front of the door a few times so we would go in and move him to his bed. Now, every once in a while he will get out of bed and play for maybe 5 minutes and then he climbs into bed and covers himself up and goes to sleep, it is the cutest thing ever.
Every time you go into his room because he is throwing a fit you let him win, you can not give into him, as long as you know he is safe and that he has a clean diaper leave him be.
I hope it works

[YoungMom130]

THANK YOU!

[AnnieBrooke]

Be sure he is tired at night.  Give him a lot of active, running exercise in the day.