What's the bed situation? Toddler bed? Crib? Are there bumpers? Is it hot/cold in the room?

My child sleeps horribly when it is too hot. And it helped a LOT to put the foam bumpers on her bed so she wouldn't roll off.

What is happening at bedtime? Is she just awake in bed from 7:30-10:30?

OP, I'm going to go against the grain here and say it is not unusual for 2 and 3 year olds to develop some trouble falling asleep at night. My kid was not in daycare and took a short nap until 3 and then dropped it altogether at 3, and she still sometimes struggled to fall asleep at a reasonable time.

I think it was because her brain was accumulating all this new knowledge, once she was pretty fluent with language, and thinking about it all kept her up at night.

The two things we did to ease these phases (she went through several between 2.5 and 4) were:

* Offer calming tools and activities that can help relax the mind and fall asleep. We allowed her to look at books in bed, listen to gentle stories or sleep meditations on a bluetooth speaker (we controlled the stories by phone from the living room), used a star projector light that moved to help lull sleep, and when all else failed, would lie down next to her and close our eyes and ask her to do the same until she fell asleep (last resort because we didn't want her to become reliant on it, but also most effective -- deployed when we felt it was necessary to make sleep happen)

* Follow good pre-sleep routines that tended to result in best sleep. A post-dinner playground visit, even if just 20 minutes, followed by a warm bath, snuggles and book reading, and then consistent tuck in routines, tended to provide a good transition to relaxation time, which led to better sleep. More rushed evenings, skipping an active playtime or bath, or variations in bed times from day to day, tended to cause her to be more wound up and have more trouble settling.

It's a process but having come out the other side, she learned some good tools for falling asleep on her own but will also ask for help when she needs it. She's 6 now and will read in bed on her own after we read to her, and then decide on her own to turn out the light by about 8pm and close her eyes and fall asleep. Very occasionally she still struggles falling asleep, and on those nights she will ask us to play a story on the speaker, or occasionally to come lie down with her for a few minutes. This is pretty rare and often happens after a challenging day of school or a shift in schedule (jet lag, daylight savings, getting over being sick) so we are okay with it -- she will fall asleep within 5-10 minutes so it's not burdensome for us.

It's not always about the nap. Learning to fall asleep once you achieve a higher level of cognition is a skill that takes effort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

she’s at daycare during the week and they’re saying she sometimes nap there. I’m reluctant to cut out the map because she’s a mess without one. But I fear she might be dropping her nap, too.

When does she nap and for how long? I assume daycare naps are pretty regimented. When does she wake up in the morning?

I ask because my nearly 3yo went through a phase of bad sleep right when she turned 2 (resisting naps at home, up until 10PM, etc.) but is now back to needing a solid nap and going to bed at 8PM. So there are things you can shift without committing to dropping the nap, but it depends a bit on what the schedule is.

if she naps at daycare it’s anywhere from half an hour to 1.5hr. Doesn’t seem too long to me.

For bedtime, we give her a bath, read books.

it’s not too long if you are ok with a late bedtime. But you want an earlier bedtime so yes that nap is too long. Try cutting your nap on a weekend. But don’t drive anywhere at 4pm where age might fall asleep. Aim for a 7pm bedtime and see how that goes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

she’s at daycare during the week and they’re saying she sometimes nap there. I’m reluctant to cut out the map because she’s a mess without one. But I fear she might be dropping her nap, too.

When does she nap and for how long? I assume daycare naps are pretty regimented. When does she wake up in the morning?

I ask because my nearly 3yo went through a phase of bad sleep right when she turned 2 (resisting naps at home, up until 10PM, etc.) but is now back to needing a solid nap and going to bed at 8PM. So there are things you can shift without committing to dropping the nap, but it depends a bit on what the schedule is.

if she naps at daycare it’s anywhere from half an hour to 1.5hr. Doesn’t seem too long to me.

For bedtime, we give her a bath, read books.

It’s the nap at daycare. They have no incentive to wake her up. You either need to switch to home care and cut the nap or just suck it up and do a later bedtime. Putting her in bed not tired isn’t fair on her either.

I'd try to cut the nap shorter, not cut it all out. A 2.5 year old still needs some daytime sleep. And with daycare, they'll have a nap for awhile.

Then, make sure to really tire her out post-nap or dinner. Lots of movement and little tv.

Probably the nap. My kid gave up her nap a little before 3. During that transition time if she napped at daycare bed time was crazy and she would easily be up till 10.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

she’s at daycare during the week and they’re saying she sometimes nap there. I’m reluctant to cut out the map because she’s a mess without one. But I fear she might be dropping her nap, too.

When does she nap and for how long? I assume daycare naps are pretty regimented. When does she wake up in the morning?

I ask because my nearly 3yo went through a phase of bad sleep right when she turned 2 (resisting naps at home, up until 10PM, etc.) but is now back to needing a solid nap and going to bed at 8PM. So there are things you can shift without committing to dropping the nap, but it depends a bit on what the schedule is.

Oh and when are you trying to put her to bed? What is your bedtime routine like?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

she’s at daycare during the week and they’re saying she sometimes nap there. I’m reluctant to cut out the map because she’s a mess without one. But I fear she might be dropping her nap, too.

When does she nap and for how long? I assume daycare naps are pretty regimented. When does she wake up in the morning?

I ask because my nearly 3yo went through a phase of bad sleep right when she turned 2 (resisting naps at home, up until 10PM, etc.) but is now back to needing a solid nap and going to bed at 8PM. So there are things you can shift without committing to dropping the nap, but it depends a bit on what the schedule is.

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

she’s at daycare during the week and they’re saying she sometimes nap there. I’m reluctant to cut out the map because she’s a mess without one. But I fear she might be dropping her nap, too.

Anonymous wrote:What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

this. If toddler is still napping you may need to cut that out and do a 730 bedtime. My kid was 3 not 2 but the later bedtime is what prompted us kicking the nap.

What nap schedule/wake up time? Have there been changed in the bedtime routine lately?

Buy Ferber. He discusses how to gradually move up sleep time. Sleep coaches are a racket.

Having a hard time getting my 2.5 year old to sleep at a “reasonable” time. Lately, we’re lucky if she’s asleep by 10:30. Any tips/ advice? Should we hire a sleep coach?