How long does it take for your toddler to fall asleep?

Question

Hey mommas,
I wanted to see what your sleep routine was for both naps and bedtime. It seems like it takes almost an hour for us to put our son to sleep both for his daytime nap and at night. That’s at least two to three hours everyday of us just standing over his crib and petting him, sometimes even together with my husband. 
We almost weaned him off of the pacifier and he has been falling asleep without it successfully for about a month now (although sometimes we still give it to him on days we feel that he needs it). Also, I nurse him before bed at night and he had the same routine for bedtime he’s had since he was born. 
He was never really a great sleeper (only slept through the night around 10-11 months 😞). He used to fall asleep pretty fast (10-30 minutes) although he did need to be rocked to bed. But now it takes him over an hour to fall asleep and he only wants to be pet on the back or on the head until he falls asleep. If we leave the room or stop petting him, he just gets up immediately continues to whine and cry and never really falls asleep even if he is exhausted. 
Do any of you pet your child until they fall asleep?

Answer

No my daughter self soothes. I put her in the crib & leave. She puts herself to sleep (no tears). I did sleep training. Best decision ever. She sleeps at least 11 hours a night & is in a much happier mood during the day.

Answer

My son goes into his crib at bedtime or nap time regardless of how awake he is and will put himself to sleep no tears. Some nights it takes him longer like nearly an hour, but most nights is less than that. Our bedtime routine is always bath, books, and then bed. He does still require a pacifier to sleep/soothe himself during the night and is a nightmare without it.

Answer

I nursed/gave a bottle to sleep until 16 months. We stopped and I had to figure out how to get him to sleep on his own. So I started out slow. I gave him a sippy cup with milk in his crib while I laid on the ground and sang to him. He ended up not wanting the sippy after a couple days so I’d just lay and sing. Then I’d just lay. Eventually we got into a routine of saying night night to daddy and manny (dog) and kitty, turning on his owl noise machine and turning off some of the lights in the house. I put him in his crib, give him his blanket and whatever stuffed animal he asks for and he lays in there for 15 min and will play or talk to himself and eventually falls asleep. Now the routine itself is much longer - bath/shower, play, books, bed. That’s about an hour. For nap we just do a couple books and then the same routine of saying night night, turning off lights and turning on his noise machine. Sometimes he takes a little longer to fall asleep for nap but always within 30 min.

Answer

My LO has gone down without rocking her whole life or anything soothing from us pretty much her whole life. She never cares to be rocked so wenjust didn’t do it. We got extremely lucky! She sometimes takes about a half hour of rolling around till she finally settles and falls asleep. I notice if we had a very crazy day and she’s over stimulated it will take her longer. We have a video monitor so if he try to stand up I just tell her to lay down on the mic and she’ll stop. There is a sleep regression at 18 months so your LO might just be going through a leap. I would start making them go down without your help. Make sure you’re putting them down sleepy, but not over tired.

Answer

For naps we pet (lmao everytime i read that it made me chuckle) our son. He can’t seem to fall asleep for naps without us. We’ve tried and he’ll literally cry for over an hour which isn’t worth it. Bedtime though our son puts himself to sleep. However that being said he usually rolls around and takes a good 20 minutes to get settled. So the routine is nap time around 12/1230 (depends on the time he woke up that morning) and it usually takes 10 minutes to rub his back until he falls asleep. And then bedtime is 7/730 pm and he drinks some milk while I read a book then we brush his teeth and I lay him right down and leave the room. And again he rolls around for about 20ish minutes until he finally falls asleep.

Answer

I've noticed as my daughter has gotten older that she no longer felt comfortable in our arms and getting rocked to sleep as she once did. For naps, I'll rocker her for 10 mins at most just to help her wind down and put her in her crib and she gets herself comfy and falls asleep from there after about 10 mins. Night time is about the same, we sit with her while she drinks her milk and when shes done we put her in the crib and she moves around the crib (not standing just rolling and trying to find a comfy position) and is out about 10-15 mins later

Answer

Sometimes my daughter takes about an hour to fall asleep and sometimes she goes right to sleep! 🤷‍♀️

How long does it take for your toddler to fall asleep?

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