Your bed-time routine???

[Ellie86]

Hi,
I'm just curious as to other people's bed time routine for your baby / children? :sleeping:

I have a 5 yr old, 2.5 yr old and 4 month old and our routine is not to great.
Given they all sleep through the night roughly about 10pm - 11pm until about 8am - 10am.....

I am hoping to get a decent routine happening...
Atm it's really all over the place and different every day. I know it should be a solid routine and the same. But it's hard with child #3 whom ALWAYS needs to be held.

Arghhhh.....

:sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping:

[Opinionated]

All kids from around 6 months to primary school.

Dinner 5-6pm
Bath 6-6.30
Milk, story, booby, 6.30-6.50
Teethbrushing, toilet, stalling techniques 6.50-6.59.
Bed- 7pm.

All my kids sleep 12-13hrs. I was still doing 1-2 night feeds with my youngest until they cut this out themselves at 13 months.

[LolliLips]

Dinner at 5:30 - 6
Bath 6 - 6:30
Bed for a story 7
Lights out 7:15.
Works for both my 3.5 and 1.5 yr old. As for your 4 month old, I never really had a routine as such til they were about 6mths.

[BoyCrazy]

4:30pm BF & solid feed ds2 (5months)

5pm dinner for ds1 (3.9yrs)

5:30pm bath for both boys

6pm story,cuddles etc for both

6:30pm lights out

6:30pm quick top up BF for ds2

7pm both boys are asleep

ds1 will sleep 6:30pm-6:30am
ds2 will wake once for a feed around1-2am

:)

[mummy2lilly]

With my bub it is

6.30pm Bottle Feed
7.30pm Sleep
8.30pm bath
9.00pm farex
9.30 60mls of bottle
9.45 bed until 9.30 am in the morning sometimes until 10.00am

[tootiredtosleep]

Our times vary sometimes, but usually

Dinner 6.00pm
Bath 6.30pm
Bottle for DD2, story time 7.00pm
Bed 7.30pm

They both wake around 6.30am, DD2 usually wakes during the night.

I'd find it really hard without a routine, its nice to know that they'll be in bed soon. It gives Dh time to clean up when I am at work, and when I'm home we do it together.


ETA: If the kids are a bit feral, we give them a quick dinner, both get in the shower with DH, then quickly dressed and into bed.

[amymay]

ds 1 is nearly 4 and ds 2 is 13 weeks.

5 - 5.30 family tea.
5.30-6pm kids bath and in pjs
6.00-6.30pm ds 2 bottle/ wrapped / burp
6.45-7pm ds 2 bed
7.30-8pm ds 1 bed

ds 2 wakes approx 6am daily, sleeps through all night. odd night might feed.
ds 1 wakes approx 7.30am

[V8]

I have no idea, i need tips too, our schedule sounds like yours, they go to bed between 10-11pm and then wake about 9-10am, good for sleeping in, but not for when we actually have places to be, like daycare, and in a few years when DS1 goes to school, so i need tips too. It's hard huh? :hugs:

[JustUs3]

My DD is 4 months old, her routine is the same every night but the times vary depending on when she's due to be fed.

6:00- Bath
6:30- Cuddles with daddy
7:00- Bottle
7:30- Wrap and bed.

[Seacretsquirrel]

Dinner 5-6pm
Bath 6-6.30
Milk, story, booby, 6.30-6.50
Teethbrushing, toilet, stalling techniques 6.50-6.59.
Bed- 7pm.


Yep that is how it is in our house too although the stalling is pushing sleep till around 8 or 8-30 so I am trying for an earlier nap but that is still in the trial mode or perhaps jsut quiet time is in order rather than a nap....

[MW&S]

:wave:

You are not alone!

I was having the same issues with DD who is 2.5yrs old. I did heaps of googling and found two things which have helped alot.

Our main issue was the late sleeping 10-11.30pm!!

So firstly I bath her before dinner now. I think a bath revs her up a bit and it doesn't settle her like it used too.

Also its waking up earlier and at a consistent time. so I have set her wake up time to 8am. I set my alarm clock and we are all up and about at 8.

Now at nights she is sleeping at 8pm-8.30. So much much better.

HTH a little.

[2girls&1boy]

My kids are almost 5, 3 & 10 1/2mths:

4:30-5:00pm - bubs dinner
5:30 bathtime for all kids
6:15 BF for baby
6:30: dinner for 5yo & 3yo & bed for baby
7:15 bed for 3yo
7:30 bed for 5yo

[Jensha]

I only have one child but this is our routine

Dinner at 6pm
PJ's and nappy change at 7pm
Reading a book at 7pm
In bed by 7.20pm

She has a shower or bubble bath before PJ's and nappy change in Summer/Spring/Autumn but right now in Winter she gets one in the warmest part of the day. Or before we go out for the day.

Her night sleep is from 7pm-7/8am. She still has a daytime sleep for 1-1 1/2hrs after her lunch around 1/2pm

[~Temet Nosce~]

I found cutting back dd's day sleep to an hour - 1.5 hours, and no later than 2-2.30 pm, helped her with falling asleep at night.
She has dinner at 5pm,
bath at 5.30-6pm,
bottle/milk at 6.30pm
brush teeth and then bedtime by 7pm no later (except on the rare occasion we are out later, like dinner at my parents house)

When bub 2 comes along, I am going to try and keep dd's routine as much as possible, and will be bathing bub at the same time as dd, feeding at the same time as dd and putting to bed for the night at 7pm the same as dd, to get him used to it early as possible.

[Sunnygal]

Our routine sounds similar to yours with the kids going to bed at about 9.30 - 10.00... What we are going to try and do is set a bed time for say 9.30, have a routine leading up to that, but each week bring the bedtime forward half hour IYKWIM... We have done it once before and it worked quite well!
For example:

Week 1
8.00 bath and jammies
8.30 quiet time
9.00 brush teeth
9.15 cuddles/story/singing
9.30 bed

Week 2
7.30 bath and jammie
8.00 quiet time
8.30 brush teeth
8.45 cuddles/story/singing
9.00 bed

And keep following that until they are in bed at a time that suit you...
Also with the older one perhaps you could get a big piece of cardboard and make a picture chart of what she has to do, so find a pic of a child having a bath, playing quietly, brushing teeth, reading and sleeping and stick it on the cardboard and hang it on the front of her door, so she knows what follows :)

[Myztik]

My routine is the same for both boys (7yr old and 3yr old)

5:30 dinner
6:00 bath
6:30 quiet play (puzzles, drawing etc)
7:00 lie down together for bedtime story
7:30 lights out

sometimes my 7yr old will play up and get up and down but usually they're both asleep by 8pm at the latest.

[Hollywood]

Our DS is nearly 2.5 and recently by accident the evenings have completely changed. He used to go to bed (oh, sorry, I mean crash) at 10:30-11pm, have a somewhat restless night asking for milk (BF, we cosleep too BTW), wake up at around 8:30-9am, have a day nap of about 1.5 hours then do the above all over again the next day.

Then one night he slept solidly from 10pm to 10am, didn't have a nap that day and fell asleep at 8:30pm that night. He slept well until 7am the next day. Then he didn't have a nap that day (was so rested from his good sleep), and went down easily at 8pm that night.

Seeing that he slept so well without his day nap, I kept that up, and started an evening routine (have previously been hopeless at routines).

Now, I try to keep him awake all day, then give him dinner at 6:30pm, a shower after that, then we have a story and a BF at around 8pm (though the time might vary slightly, sometimes it's around 8:15).

If he's been particularly cranky during the day (like yesterday), I do stories and BF earlier, last night he was fast asleep at 7:45pm. And he slept like a log until 7:15 this morning :yelclap:.

I'm not saying that it's a good idea for all kids to give up day naps, but in my own situation with DS it has proved to be the best thing and he's sleeping MUCH better now.

[Ellie86]

:) Hi everyone,
thank you for all your replies.

It has certainly given me a routine to think about for my lot.

I'm thinking the whole dinner, bath & book routine will start at 5pm. Given of what's happening dinner first or bath but shall end in story quiet time... All done and snuggled in bed at 7pm. :rolleyes:

And it'll all start tomorrow, so hopefully it will stick.. Though I'm 100% x a million there'll be tears and tanties. :crying:

Firm but peaceful I will be... :wizard:

Thanks once again.. Nighty night! :sleeping: :sleeping: