I think most of the parents will go through a phase where their kid's bedtime become haywire, sooner or later. I don't know about you guys, but I'm one of those parents.
It started when my lil one was 21 months old I think. And, till now his bedtime is still the same. I did take some actions to make him sleeps early. But then nothing works! Luckily I'm not working, but still I need to have a good sleep to entertain him all day long. I just can't hang on any longer coz it makes me so damn tired! Yes, he'll wake up quite late around 11am or 12pm, but he'll ask for his milk once in 2 hours time. And I still breastfeeding him till now.
Even if he didn't take his nap on the afternoon, he will still sleep late around 2am in the morning. If he sleeps around 10pm, he'll wake up around 12am or 1am and started to play again. He will be active as usual, and the most tiring part is he wants me to play with him. So I can't sleep at all!! And then he'll sleep around 4am to 5am in the morning.
I try to make his day full with activities, so that he'll be tired and sleep early at night. I will play ball with him, play water either in the bathroom or in his little pool, bring him to the playground, running and sometimes he'll chase our kids' neighbours. But none of those works!! He didn't take so much sugar in his diet coz he didn't eat so much. And he even didn't drink any formula milk, just some fresh milk. So, I don't know where he gets his energy from. Huh~
We try to take him for a ride in a car around 10pm or 11pm. He'll sleep in the car, but then he'll wake up once his papa stops the car. Tahu2 je dh sampai umah. Haha.
And I also try to force him to sleep. Let him cry out loud till he is done and tired, but it doesn't work as well! He'll cry and cry and cry. Memang takkan penatnye sampai I pon dah tak larat nk tahan telinga. I'll switch off the light and tele, and both of us will pretend to sleep on the bed. He'll wake us up, give us the tv remote and ask us to switch on the tele. He'll cry out loud if we just ignore him and it will last forever if we didn't do what he is asking for.
I also recite Al-Fatihah, Ayat Kursi, 3-Qul, Selawat, and Zikir over and over again. Usually I'll do it everytime I'm breastfeeding him. Sometimes it works and sometimes he'll listen and close his eyes and once I put him on bed, he'll wake up and started to play again. Aaaarrrgghhh! sabo je la.
I don't know what else I should do. Now my bedtime become haywire too. How about you mommies? Do you have the same problem with me? Mind to share what did you do to solve this?
