What is your nighttime/bedtime routine?

[punkrockmama]

From when you finish dinner to when your DC is tucked into their crib/bed. What do you do?

We don't have a routine and it's really starting to bug me. It's like there is confusion and delay (okay the Thomas assimilation is complete I guess) as soon as the last person takes their last bite at the dinner table. After dinner, the boys will play while I clean up, or vice versa. Then Peyton gets ready for bed. But it's different every night. Not to say that you should follow an exact script every night with no flex but there's no rhyme or reason over here.

I wish we had an XYZ way of leading up to bedtime. Peyton stalls and dawdles like a pro. Dh has been taking over the brushing of the teeth, changing into pjs, and putting in the crib lately as I am really tired and honestly just not up to nursing him before bed. So I hide in our bedroom (not proud of it, but he's really out of sight out of mind with the nursing).

I'm usually up all night (like now) so I am just plain beat these days. Gives me plenty of time to think of these things,lol.

So what do you do? Approx one hour of playtime after dinner, then brush teeth, jammies, two books and goodnight? Is a bath part of your nightly routine? How long have you been doing what you're doing? Which part of your routine do you think is most important and helps your DC unwind the most?

Thanks in advance!

[ribbit1019]

O.k. well our schedule has gone to crap over the last two months (leading to a terrible amount of sleep problems) but from 6 months to a couple of months ago she had a bedtime routine that looked like this.

6:00 - 7:00 Dinner

7:00 Bath (I don't wash her with soap everyday because of her dry skin) -with half of lights on in bathroom

7:20 Dry, lotion, brush teeth -dim lighting

7:30 Diaper PJ's Kiss Dad/Baby J goodnight -dim lighting

7:35 Read three or four books with mom -by nightlight

7:45 Rock with mom while she sings/or settle into bed while mom sings after a small bit of rocking -dark

7:55 asleep

No joke it was that easy. I don't know why I stopped doing it, except that I need my happy cats upped or changed. The house is mess too.

Ack, back to you, sorry.

The sleep books I am reading all say a routine is best, but do what works for you. DD loves bathtime, so that is how I get her upstairs. I can count on one (well maybe two) hand how many times she has given me a hard time about bathtime. She has recently started fighting on getting diaper/pjs on and will not sit in my lap for stories or be rocked/sang to. This has caused issues. She didn't go to bed until 1:45am last night and tonight at 12am! Uck, I need to do something. Anyway, it helps, I recommend it highly.
Good luck!

Christy
My Waterbabies
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[KrisM]

We just altered ours about 2 weeks ago as DS was really delaying going to sleep and would yell out to us multiple times until about 9pm. So, we increase the length of it to give him more cues that it's bedtime. It has helped a ton. He might call out once, but not more than that. He's generally asleep by 8:30 now, too.

5:30 dinner and then play
7:00 into pajamas
then we come back downstairs (a key for us)
snack (yogurt, usually)
watch 1 show (Thomas or Little Einsteins)
upstairs to brush teeth
read stories - about 15 minutes worth
quiet talking - about 5 minutes
lights out

Lights out is about 8pm. It does vary a bit, since snack and shows vary in length. But, he's gone from protesting pajamas, to asking for me to take him up there. And, when the show is over, he asks to be taken up again.

I hate that TV is part of it, but it really winds him down well. We don't watch much during the day and it is working, so we're doing it!

ETA: Bath time stuff. We don't do bath as part of the routine. He doesn't always take a bath and he splashes too much for it to be part of bedtime. When he does get an evening bath, we do it about 6:30 and it is the lead-in to bedtime.

[overcome]

Bath is not part of our bedtime routine. It would be too stressful for me b/c she still gets a bath in the tub in the kitchen sink and after dinner it is too much work to get the sink ready!! I like to give a bath when we have plenty of time, so it's during the day. Of course when I go back to work in January, I'll have to give her a bath at night.

Our schedule goes like this...
it starts around 6 PM, sometimes a little later
-eat dinner
-play (nothing too strenuous or exciting)
-upstairs to get pacifier (around 7PM)
-jammies and diaper change
-read books (10 -15 mins)
-say goodnight to all the stuffed animals around her room, turn off one light
-show her the animals in the crib that are waiting for her to join them
-turn off the other light
-walk with her in my arms for about 3 minutes while humming or singing softly
-in the crib (usually between 7:30 - 7:45)

What really signals it for her is the books and saying good night to everything. I stopped nursing her before bed a loooooong time ago for two reasons...1) someone else (i.e. dh or my mom) could put her to bed if I wasn't home 2)she would fall asleep while nursing, wake up when put in the crib and be p*ssed. Her last nursing session is anywhere between 4 PM - 5PM.

Hope this helps! I've been through the ringer (wringer?) with sleep issues, so I live in fear one day this will all just fall apart for some unknown reason, but for now, it's good!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Ds is 4 but this has been our routine for the past 2+ years. Eat dinner, hang out till 9-9:30, brush teeth, use potty, upstairs (dh, ds and I) then we do Pjs, read 2 stories tuck him in, give kisses, say goodnight and close the door.

When he was nursing (till 19 months) bf'ing was just added to the upstairs' time.

We have always had it pretty easy and have always kept it very simple. baths are not part of the nightly routine mainly b/c we don't do daily baths.

Beth

[madelinesmom]

I am not a structrued person by nature but this is one place where structure has given us a leg up. Our bedtime routine has been in place from the beginning and I am certain that this is why we get to bed so quickly and easily. Like I said this started when Madeline was probably 8-12 old, this is when she started sleeping long periods at night, Emmy just fit right in. Now that that take a bath together it has made it lots of fun also.

The time that we start is different depending on the time of year and our daily activities but the structure never does.
Dinner
Play either outside with neighbors or in the house
Bath (we do this in our bathroom b/c it has a bigger tub and the girls love to splash.
Dry, Lotion, Brush hair and teeth.
Stories 3-4
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Turn on music on
Sip of water
Tuck in
out the door.
She is usually asleep within 15-30 minutes - by the time the CD is off.

The only difference with Emmy (DD #2) she gets a bottle in there somewhere, now before we do teeth b/c she finally got one.
She has the same CD as DD#1 and we only do 1 book with her, she mostly likes to chew anyway.

As I said this is the only place we have real structrure buy man has it paid off. Both girls are usually asleep by 8:30...

Good Luck, Hope it makes life easier...





Jane
Madeline and Emily's Mom
1/20/03 11/29/05

[brownlesa]

This really helps me also.

My DD is 1 yo and this is our routine:

5-5:30 eat dinner
5:30-6:30 play (either outside or inside)
6:30 play upstaires w/Daddy while I get her bath ready and stuff for next day/clean up dinner (This is really the hint that its time to go to bed)
6:45 Bath/diaper/PJ (which is like WWIII right now as she does not want to lay still, but that is another story)
7:00-bottle, rock in chair, CD

She is a good sleeper and usually asleep w/in 5-10 minutes. She is very tired by 7:00.

We have been doing this routine for about 8 months, but I'm very worried about what we're going to do when I have to get rid of the night bottle. I'm not sure how to ease into another routine(ie. read a book, brush teeth, etc) (she doesn't have any teeth yet :) )

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks.
Leslie

[Moneypenny]

DD is almost 26 months.

Dinner is 5:30-6:00
6:00-6:30 DH does dishes, DD and I play quietly on the bed for "wind down time"
6:30-6:45 we all troop to the bathroom for DD's teethbrusing, washing up, and ineffective sitting on the potty. We all troop to her bedroom to change diaper and get on jammies. She hugs the dog and DH goodnight.
6:45-7:00 she nurses, I sing two songs while we rock, and she goes into her crib.
7:00-7:30 she sings and talks to her stuffed animals and then falls asleep.

We do bath 2x a week, and if it's bath night, we just start that at 6:20 and are still in the bedroom for jammies by 6:45.

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
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[kboyle]

we've done this since charlie's been about 18mos, same with max since he's been eating solids

5-6p dinner
bath
change into pjs
play with dad/watch tv/i clean up kitchen
max to bed at 7-7:30p
charlie to bed at8-8:30, 9p in summer when it's still too light for him to sleep.
before bed he goes to bathroom, we brush teeth
hop into bed, read a book or two, lights off, he plays for about 30min in the dark then falls asleep

[sarahsthreads]

Let's see. We probably eat dinner a little later than most people, so there's not a whole lot of time between dinner and bedtime. So something like:

6:30 or 7:00 - dinner
7:30 - DD gets to roam around the downstairs while DH feeds the dogs and I clean up from dinner. Sometimes if dinner ends earlier than this and it's a nice evening we'll take a walk, or if it's cold/rainy we play for a bit with her blocks and dolls. If it's bath night (3x/week) this is when she takes her bath.
8:00 - upstairs to get ready for bed: diaper change, pajamas, face/teeth/hair. This is the real signal that it's bedtime, and the steps are always in that order.
8:15 - get a binky out of the crib, turn off the overhead light, turn on the bedside lamp that's her nightlight (it only has a 15 watt bulb in it), hit 'play' on the CD player. Then we snuggle in the rocker and she gets mama milk. I read her a story, then she runs to the top of the stairs and shouts "Daddy! Daddy read the book!" and he comes up and reads another story.
8:30 - we give her bear lovey kisses - this was something we started when she was in a major separation anxiety phase, giving her bear the power of mommy and daddy kisses to comfort her if she woke up and missed us too much. Then we tuck her in with that and her favorite blanket, tell her we love her and try to leave her room without cracking up over her fake snoring.

She's usually asleep within 10-15 minutes of this, or almost always before the CD ends. Of course, DD just started in with the delay tactics, so the last few nights haven't been so peachy...

Sarah :)