How Long Does It Take Your Toddler to Fall Asleep?

My son (21 months old) is usually up between 6-7am each morning and naps betweeen 10-12 each day. Some days he'll still take 2 naps but we wake him by 4pm. He goes to bed between 730-8pm.

My daughter (3.5) does not nap during the day but is on the same schedule. Because she doesn't nap, we keep them on the same schedule until she's bit older.

They share a room and my son has wanted to be put into his bed to fall asleep since about 9 months old (where as my daughter would still let me rock her if I would!) I let him turn off the lights and give him a kiss and put him in bed and cover him up then lay with my daughter and say their prayers and sing them a few songs. He's usually asleep in about 10 minutes and my daughter can sometimes take longer but usually both are asleep within 20 minutes of bedtime and it's pretty rare that either one fights going to bed, cries, etc. But it does happen sometimes!

My daughter is 2.5 and we've been struggling with this since she turned 2. We finally found that if we wake her up after a one and a half hour nap she'll go to bed much more easily at night. Eventually she started taking shorter naps on her own pretty consistently.

My DD is 22mo as well and follows almost the same schedule. She wakes up around 630-700 and kinda talks and plays til I get her around 730. She usually goes down for a nap between 130-230 (depending on if we are out or not) and sleeps typically til 4 or 430. We usually start getting ready for bed around 730-745 (unless we're watching glee, then its 8p) and then it's pjs, stories (i try to limit it to 4books), and milk. Then she's typically laid down by 815 or 830 and usually when we put her down, she's quiet til the morning.

Though lately its been a little later cause she hasn't been wanting to go to bed and wants to cook in her kitchen instead of read stories and wind down...i think I might try moving her nap time to 1 or 130 and see if that helps me.

Good luck and do what's right for you our kiddos don't come with instruction booklets unfortunately. :}

I have experience on that,I have 2 kids and they always sleep for 12 hours at night and take me 10 minutes to put them in bed. First, never let her sleep more than 1.5 hours after lunch. Wake her up! I used to do that and always worked, and at night I put her in bed around 8:30. In 4 more months you will have to wake her up after 1 hour nap, otherwise she will always be pushing bedtime.Trust me, this always worked for me, I know that feels so bad to wake them up but what can we do?It's better for them! Also when you put her in bedtime be fast, read a book and that's all, they will always ask for water, a kiss, milk.....and you have to say firm "now it's time to sleep, I am tired and I will go to sleep too!" and close the door.If she cries you say "I don't like that, I am going to my bed' and close the door again. She might cry a little be more and then fall to sleep.

We had read, back when the kids (now 5 and 3) were littler, to always allow at least 3 hours between waking from a nap and going to bed. We ignored that advice. Sure, there are times when we've put our kids down for bed and they've fiddled around in their rooms for awhile. But they know they need to stay in their rooms (unless there's some dire emergency, of course) and we figure there's worse things than hanging out in bed waiting to fall asleep. We want them to have a consistent bedtime (though I confess, we play around with the schedule on the weekends somewhat) so we don't use their wake-up-from-nap time as a gauge for bedtime. Sounds to me like you're doing a good job keeping the time the same. But everyone is different and will give you different advice. EDIT: We usually give them a little cup of water on their nightstand. They may whine or babble but to no effect. I'm not saying we're 100% perfect 100% of the time, just that we strive for a zero-tolerance policy on bedtime delay tactics. Such tactics result in a next-day consequence...usually an earlier bedtime or not giving them their treasured "lights-on time". EDIT #2: Sorry, to really answer your question instead of babbling incoherently...it has taken my kids anywhere from 3 seconds to 3 hours to fall asleep.

My daughter now 3.5 gets up between 7:30-8:30am. and goes to sleep at 8pm., no naps during the day. At 22 mos. of age, she would take a one hour nap or have quiet time in her room, and down for bed at 7:30pm. She did stop taking naps around 24 mos. With the schedule you have for your little one, I would only let her sleep 1.5 hours & wake her up. I did that with my daughter, and it reinforced the same bed time & she fell asleep almost immediately. Sometimes it does take them time to wind down, my daughter will push it to one hour at times, even though she's exhausted. Good luck!!

Our daughter was good for about 5-6 months, now for the past 3 has been taking from 30 seconds to 3 hours to go to sleep as well.
We put her down at 8pm, same routine, then up in teh morning about 7.15, same routine. Same naps (preschool has enforced it) and we follow that on weekends too for consistency.
I think some kids are just good at it and some aren't. It was so perfect like we had it "figured out" for those 5+ months....ah well, again someday.

nope! that is almost my sons exact scheadule, and he is down at 8pm. sometimes he spends an hour in his crib during nap times refusing to take a nap, then I get him up and put him to bed at 7 instead. sometimes he doesnt want to sleep right away, but tough cookies because thats bedtime! lol!

We followed the Dr. Weisbluth method of sleep. Our son is now 2 and goes to bed at 6:30 (I know, crazy:) and sleeps until 7am. At home he will sleep from 12-3, but at daycare, he only sleeps for about an hour and a half. IMO, 9:30 is way too late. According to Dr. W, if they are overtired, sleeping is much harder for them.
I walk out of the room, so I don't know exactly how long it takes him to actually fall asleep. He never cries or whines. Sometimes we will hear him still playing for about 10 minutes.