2 Year Old Will Not Go to Bed Before Midnight!

LOL !! Sorry i do not mean to laugh but i went through the same thing and thought i was gonna pull all my hair out!!!! I really understand and sympathise with you. I changed my sons routine and he use to be up til 3 am. He is 5 now and in school. Believe me it was not an easy task. My son has a tv in his room, and has had it since birth. We now lay him down at 8 p.m. and he gets one movie. Then the tv goes off !!! The next moring i proceeded to get him up at 7 a.m. That is plenty of time to sleep !! By the next night he was so darn tired he could barely stay awake til 8. I know it is gonna be rough but if you truely want to change her sleeping habits you have to bite the bullet. And not to pass judgement or anything but do you know for sure the sitter is only letting her sleep for an half hour???? Try no naps. Alot of sitters let children sleep rather than deal with cranky kids. They just do not want to mess with them.
I don't know it is just my opinion, but i hope it at least helps you find a way.

Sometimes you need to start laying them down earlier in order to get the restless period out of the way. Wiggling, complaining, and even some crying will help to finish wearing her out. Also, you need to wake her up earlier no matter how much fussing you need to do to get her to get up and no matter how much fussing she does. A few days of being strict with a good routine will straighten this thing out for her. 8:30 to bed and 7:30 waking up is much better and she'll be back on a dependable routine. I think that 10:30 is too late for a 2 year old. I can't do that myself. if I lay down around 8:30-9 I do okay and sleep pretty well. If I let myself stay up past 10pm, I often find myself unable to sleep at all because I get my 2nd wind. I just did it last night. I ended up going to bed at 3am and still had to get up at 6:45 which is 30 minutes or so past what time I often get up. It sounds like she is getting her second wind.

Suzi

It's normal to have to re-adjust your kids bedtimes a little, they go through sleep pattern changes.

I think 10:30 is a bit too late but then again she's sleeping pretty late for most kids.

If she's having lunch at noon then going down for a nap after that, so what about 1? She's only been awake for 4 hours before going back down, that's not a very long time. I'm guessing here but if that's the case, she really needs to be up earlier, where she's allowed to really expel the energy.

She should probably already have dinner by 8, but I'm sure you probably want to eat as a family. It may not be in the best interest to do that.

At 8 p.m. she should be transitioning to bedtime and doing that.

Could be a few things...

-Try eliminating the afternoon nap.
-Does she have her 2 year molars yet? If not, she might be teething.
-Seasonal allergies might be the problem.
-She might be trying to assert her own independence.

Keep to her schedule with the exception of eliminating the nap for a while to see if that helps. Make sure you wake her in the morning at the same time every day, even if she stays up until 1 am. Keep her routine. I'm sure it's just a phase. Hopefully she'll get it all straightened out soon!