Bedtime routine

jessica_gail2

S is 19 months now and I'm struggling a bit with our nighttime routine. We went on vacation a couple weeks ago and she wouldn't go down so I had to rock her to sleep. Now that we are back I had back surgery and can't lift her, so DH is putting her in my lap for me to rock to sleep. We tried to CIO again (pre-vacation she CIO'd) but she gets so upset she makes herself sick. I know there's some changes I need to make now. So just thought I'd see what our routine should be. We do bath, then read books while she drinks a milk sippy.

What should I be doing, oh wise mommas?!

TJ1979

We do bath, diaper and pjs, 2 books, a prayer, twinkle twinkle, the lay her in her bed, hand her a teddy, cover with a blanket, pay her head, and say night night sweet dreams love you.
If we miss any single step of the routine, it's all over.

mnj05

We've never really done a routine per say. We usually bathe him after we eat, play for another hour or so, then we change him and start settling him. Used to, he would let us rock him but we never rocked to sleep or even to drowsiness, we just spent a couple of quiet minutes together. Now he doesn't want to rock so we just lay him down with his blanket and leave the room. Some nights he cries for no more than 5 minutes, others he doesn't make a sound. We have a really laid back kid though, nothing phases him.

Ruthie04

We do something similar to @Ducky719‌. Bath every other night, pj's overnight diaper, snuggles/quiet time on the couch with a straw cup of milk and PBS kids, brush teeth (wash faces on non-bath nights), read a couple stories of their choosing and the same bedtime book, lights out, prayers, hugs, lay them down with their stuffed monkey/lovey/pillow/blanket and walk out while telling them we love them. One of the boys would fuss on and off when we left the room, but I spent some time telling them about the monitor and how I watch them on the camera. Now, they talk about mommy watching them when I leave the room and never fuss.

We haven't rocked to sleep since the newborn days and have never given milk in their room, so they don't know any different. This has pretty much been our routine since 4 mos (without tv watching and less stories). We did get in a habit of me staying in the room on the floor until they went to sleep during a recent vacation. But, the whole monitor explanation thing kinda nipped that in the bud.

kaf7

Bath, pjs. 3-5 books, lullaby, hug good night, into crib. Usually fusses for 10min or less. Last 2 nights has screamed for 2-3h. We think it is separation anxiety after I wasnt home for breakfast on thurs morning. Fell asleep right away tonight though. Prior 2 nights he either cio or DH sang him to sleep after I broke him by picking him up earlier on. Key is for us to NOT pick him up. It just prolongs the agony. Only time I should pick him up after he goes down at 8 is if he puked or pooped everywhere and I needed to change him or the bedding...note, this has never happened. If he needs advil for his teeth at 3am he sits in the crib and I lean over for him to drink it. Sounds to me like now is a good time to try to break the rocking habit if you want to. But crying to puking isn't fun. Gl

Robeano

We had something similar happen to us after a vacation. Hannah reverted to some old bad sleep habits. We also tried CIO and it did not work. So we went for a more gentle CIO method. It involves sitting in a chair beside the crib until they fall asleep, then ever other day move the chair till eventually you are outside of the room. It took us about a week and a half but she is back to her old wonderful sleep routine. Our routine is:

Diaper change, pj's on. We sing her good night song, read her good night book. Say prayers and then go to bed. But recently we have been asking her, are you ready for bed, and if she says ya (which she will when she is ready) we put her in her crib, put a blanket on, rub her back and she is golden. Now if she says no to that response, we sing the song again, snuggle for a bit and that seems to do the trick. But we find that if she is telling us she is ready for bed she goes down much better.

srveatch

I'm no help, we still rock our almost two year old baby girl to sleep. I am having her little brother tomorrow and we don't have a solution yet! I just can't stop... She likes it and it only takes her about ten minutes to fall asleep.

mcgeeva

We do pretty much the same thing but our routine has been the same since our lo was 8 months. We bathe, pjs and night diaper, no longer sippy with book, give paci, turn on sleep sheep and walk out the room. I do this for our other lo as well. I would keep trying CIO if she doesn't get worked up to being sick. And hopefully night after night it will get a little better.