How long does it take to put your LO to bed?

sarahns80 · September 2010

We take DD to her room and giver her a paci and rock her for just a few minutes but then put her down awake but drowsy. Sometimes if we are lucky that is it, but most nights she will start crying after I leave and we let her cry for 5 min and then go back and try to rock her again and put her back down. Sometimes if she keeps crying we will take her out and read her a book to calm her down. This usually goes on for 30 min. but tonight it lasted an hour! 8:30p-9:30p! Anyone else's LO like this? Any tips?

Geek_Girl · September 2010

My understanding is that if you want to go the 'let her cry' route, you go in, soothe her (but leave her in her crib), leave for a longer period, go back in and soothe if you need to and repeat as necessary.

We've never had this problem, though. We started putting DS in his bassinet groggy from the get-go so we haven't had any problems with this. Now he expects a mini tickle fight and then 'night-night, we love you'. (Probably the only kid in the world that sleeps best after getting all wound up. LOL!)

sunnyday016 · September 2010

She snuggles down into my shoulder the second she hears her white noise machine. It's like magic for her. The other day I tried rocking with her because I wanted some snuggle time and she kept pointing to her crib and saying "nooze!" (snooze).

We try to tire her out pretty good before bedtime so that when the clock hits 8:00 she's ready to go down.

novemberweddin · September 2010

my ds gets a story and it's lights out but he is 3. my dd on the otherhand is 20 months and it takes about 15 min for our routine. i sit her down on the glider chair with her cup of milk, read her the regular 3 Dora books she wants while she cuddles with her stuffed animal. then we go into bed (just transitioned her into a bed and she sleeps so much better in it (not that she wasn't a good sleeper before but she sleeps an extra hour in the morning!), i talk about our day and what we will do tomorrow and then i turn out the lights and lay there with her until she falls asleep. YES, i know this will turn into having to wean her from me in her bed to fall asleep but i went through it with DS and it was totally fine. i don't mind the whole sleeping with my kids and weaning them because in the whole realm of it, what is 2 years of me cuddling them in bed to fall asleep. i love it, they like it and everyone is happy.

why don't you read some books with your DD (or do you already?) maybe she needs a longer wind down time? does she have stuffed animals to cuddle with? my DD falls asleep so much faster when she is holding something like her lovey.

macchiatto · September 2010

Well, we have two of them so it takes longer, but it's usually about 20-30 minutes from the time we start the whole diaper/lotion/PJs thing, brush teeth, read Good Night Moon, rock while singing a lullaby, bedtime prayer, extra snuggle/rock time if they want it (they usually do) and then hugs and kisses and put them in bed. Sometimes they start to cry and we give them a few more minutes of cuddles and then that's it. Since there's two of them, we've never gotten into the habit of rocking them all the way to sleep since that is hard to do when just one of us is doing the bedtime routine.

peachypear · September 2010

Is that your entire bedtime routine? How drowsy is drowsy?

DD gets out of the bath around 7:30. We go into her room (with soft lighting) get her in her pjs and read a few books. Then I nurse her and sing her a lullaby. DH or I then rock her for a bit until she is really drowsy. We put her down at 8:00 pm. She usually falls right asleep, sometimes she lays quietly for a few minutes. Sometimes she cries when we first leave but quiets down after a minute or two, literally. It's pretty rare that she really cries for up to five minutes and one of us needs to go back in. When we do, we rock her until she quiets down, and then put her back down and she falls asleep.

Read Ferber's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. It's full of great tips!

JCM · September 2010

We have a bedtime routine that last about 30 minutes. We give her a bottle and put her down drowsy but awake (no paci or rocking) and she usually passes right out. If she does cry it's only about 2 minutes or so. We have been doing the same bedtime routine with her for about a year so she knows what coming.

lewis514 · September 2010

We go upstairs and do bath/pj's at ~7p. We usually read some books and then come back downstairs. Then she plays a bit more. We then do snack & milk and then we cuddle a bit. She goes to bed at 8pm. When it's time for bed, I tell her "time for bed" & she says goodnight to DH. I carry her upstairs and sing "Twinkle Twinkle" on the way up. We just put her in bed and I kiss her head and walk out.

So our routine is a bit different. The actual bedtime part is less than 5 minutes.

kdg31684 · September 2010

We started the crying it out a little late, have only been doing it for a couple weeks, but its been going pretty good. After his bath, we let him play a little till he looks tired, then I take him to our bed and lay with him till his eyes get heavy. then we say goodnight and put him in his crib. At first he cried about 25 min. which was torture, but he slept the entire night. Before that he'd either wake up in the middle of the night and we'd bring him into bed with us or he'd start the night in our bed. Now he still cries or whines off and on for zero to ten min. It still makes me sad to hear him, but his nights are going so well, thats what prevents me from going in and getting him. Got these tips from my pedi

Quiksilver620 · September 2010

don't hate me, but it takes us about 2 minutes to put her down. Tell DD "2 minutes until shushies" then tell her 1 minutes and she lets me pick her right up, gives me and DH a kiss, and we put her right down

jamie.renee · September 2010

Not long at all. About 30 minutes from bed she gets in her pjs (bath every other night) we reduce what she plays with. She usually just sticks to her baby doll or her books. A few minutes before I put her down I tell her almost time to go ni-night, usually she attempts to say yeah. We go brush her teeth then she gives kisses and hugs to daddy and her sisters then we walk to her crib. Put her down and usually we don't hear a peep out of her. Sometimes she will cry for 1 or 2 minutes but now she usually goes right to sleep. Then the older girls go to their room to read for 30 minutes then they brush their teeth and go to bed.

katypresson · September 2010

It takes us about 10-15 minutes. I fill a sippy with milk and he starts drinking it in the living room. Then I say, "time to go night night, let's go rock in your room". I go to his room and he follows. Then I rock him with his blankey (lovey), once he finishes the milk I continue to rock for another 5 minutes (our cuddle time), then I lay him down drowsy but awake. He's out within 5 minutes.

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