Bedtimes have been a nightmare for Bright Eyes in the last few months. I say a nightmare for him. I really mean a nightmare for us.

Before daylight saving started last October, he would crack off to sleep about 7.30 pretty easily every night.

When the switch happened and 7.30 became 8.30, I could not get his body clock to move. In fact, he began to go to sleep later and later until for the last four or five months he's been getting to sleep between 10 and 11 every night.

He's been the proverbial camel in the tent in this period. First he wanted this, and we'd give it to him to keep the peace and allow us to enjoy our evening. Then he wanted that. And that, and this and that and a bit more of that over there.

With his bedtimes in a strange pattern, his little brother was not going to be sent to bed happily, and he also has been staying up and up and up. His day-naps have had something to do with this.

Anyway, to make a long story short, tonight was the first night of my new routine. At 8, we 'shut the house down' and pretended we were all going to sleep. There was nothing else interesting to look at or do. I lay in the room with both boys until they went to sleep (on the floor!). The baby took about 45 minutes. Bright Eyes took 1 hr and 45!

My aim is to spend the next three weeks or so making it comfortable and comforting to go to sleep in the dark with the door shut and gradually move myself out. I'll also be waking him up earlier so he's more tired at night.