My 3 y/o slept with me in bed from 2 weeks old until she was about 2 ½ years old. She’s always had her own room that she used as a play room with a bed in it lol. She plays just fine in her room during the day/night but as soon as it’s bedtime she fights going to sleep tooth & nail.

She’ll come up with every excuse in the book & I’m usually putting her back into her bed at least 15 times & that’s on a good day.

We do have a routine. We eat dinner around 4-5pm, she plays until 6:30 or if it’s bath night she’ll have a bath then play & then she has “quiet time” in her room (she plays quietly in her room or has her last 30 minutes of tablet time* before quiet play or reading books) until 7:30 when it’s lights out. I remind her every 15 minutes that it’s getting close to bedtime (“hey you’ve got 45 minutes left to play/read before it’s time for bed” or “hey there’s 30 minutes left until bed time”). She’s content playing in there in her bed but when 7:30 comes shit hits the fan.

She usually gives up & falls asleep between 8:30-9:30pm. She’s fought it from 7:30p

to 12:30am one time.

She doesn’t take naps anymore because she refuses to so I don’t think her napping is an issue unless she’s just SO overtired that she fights her sleep at night. On the rare occasion she does have a nap she’ll only sleep for an hour & it’s usually around 11am or 12pm (she normally wakes up around 6:30-7am).

How can I make bedtime more peaceful & less like a war every night??

*she only gets 3 hours of screen time per day & we save the last 30 minutes for quiet time if she wishes to use it

Edit to add: we are outside most of the morning! We take a mile walk every morning unless weather is bad. She’ll either walk with me or ride in the stroller with her baby brother. Sometimes she’ll jog next to me the whole time lol.

Thank you for the suggestions so far!