Okay so I have a 1.5 year old who takes FOREVER to go to sleep and still wakes in the night.

He has been sleeping in a toddler bed since we moved into our house in November and loves his big boy bed.

We have the same bedtime routine every night which is: play, dinner, books, shower, bed. We start going to bed around 6:30. It typically takes me 1-1.5 HOURS to put this gremlin to sleep. Once he is in his bed, he's in his bed. I don't allow him to get up and move around his room. He typically talks alot and squirms around but doesn't fight me on staying in his bed. I sing him songs, rub his back/head/legs etc. Once I've been at it for a while and he's not giving in, I'll tell him that he needs to rest his body or mommy is going to go downstairs. Which after a couple chances, I'll leave his room and watch him on the monitor. But the issue is that he's so damn stubborn and will get out of bed and stand at his door and say "open" and "mummy" repeatedly. He hasn't once gone back into his bed.

Obviously it's been too long since he's been out of his crib so that's not an option to go back to.

He's definitely tired by the time bedtime rolls around bc he only takes one nap a day which is typically for only an hour from 10-11 or so. I'm not sure why his naps are so short, he just doesn't sleep for long.

I just don't know why he fights the sleep so much.

He also wakes around 1am or so and I end up bringing him in bed with me and my husband. I'm not sure if he's not sleeping through the night because he wakes expecting to get in bed with us or what? Sometimes I'll try to put him back to sleep in his bed but he doesn't last long and will always wake up to come in bed with us.

I'm going nutty over here and I'm hoping to have this resolved by the time baby number 2 gets here in May. 😳

HELP 😬