It takes me 1+ hour(s) to get my 2 year old to bed

[Hal Coldvice]

Any ideas? Can I assume that other parents have had the same problems? Please share experiences.

Here's the story. I have a boy that turned two in April. He's the oldest, we also have a 6 month old daughter. We would love to just leave him in his room, but he can open the door. So, we've been locking it after we put him down. He gets 2, sometimes 3 books read to him, which he loves.

All bedrooms share a common hallway. Bedtime/naptime used to be so easy, you'd put him down in his bed, he'd go to sleep. Now, he plays games with us. One thing that I see as an issue is that he still has a pacifier (which he only uses for sleep time). We planned to take this away in April, but our daughter was sleeping so crappy, that we wanted to wait until she got better. Well, she's gotten a ton better at sleeping and my son has gotten worse. If we take the pacifier away, he screams. If we give it to him, he'll toss it aside or slide it under his door and let us know we need to get it for him. We usually don't give in until we absolutely feel we have to: wake up baby, screaming, tired cry.

Last night, I had enough, he finally went to sleep at 9:15 (bedtime is 7:45). He woke up this morning en route to daycare and was the crabbiest little kid alive. Mrs. Coldvice and I would love to fix his sleeping habits, but is there anything I can do with this 2yo?

I'm thinking I have to put him in his room and let him work it out (without a pacifier), he'll fall asleep eventually, right? We just don't want him bothering his sister. Going to bed later is not an option Mom and I would like to explore, with these two little ones, after 8pm is quiet time around the house.