Georgia Babies
slwprincess
member
Moms of 2+- bedtime routine?
slwprincess
member
Tell me about your bedtime routine? I want details. At what age did you start including #2? I was really good about setting up a bedtime routine for Gavin from Day 1 and it has paid off over the years. But I am struggling with figuring out how to incorporate Sophie into his routine b/c her schedule is still all over the place. Some nights she is already asleep by the time we start his bedtime, other nights she is wide awake. I know now is the time to get this going so any tips you've got for accomplishing this with 2 would be appreciated!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Moms of 2+- bedtime routine?
pic by http://www.southernportraitanddesign.com/
I never really incorporated Ally into Johns bedtime routine. When Ally was a newborn, I'd put them individually in bed when they were ready. If Ally was ready first I told john to play quietly in his room. If he was ready first I would put her in the bounce seat or playmat while I read him some books and tucked him in. She BF for 11months so that was basically her routine until then. Now they go to bed at about the same time. They brush their teeth, get a bath and in jammies together. If john wants to read with ally, we all cuddle together and read. Most nights he just wants to go to his room and be tucked in.
I hope that helps. I found that the second time around that schedules were always changing & baby #2 was very flexible. it helped to just go with the flow & attend to whoever needed my attention the most (carlson family triage,ha)
we kept finn on his schedule, always, never changed that one bit. we did the baby according to the babys "schedule". since baby took baths in that mini-tub thing and Finn was in the big boy bathtub, we might have done them at the same time but not always depending on babys schedule. but the "schedule" has always been dinner, bath and stories/bedtime. baby didn't probably get on a schedule until he was 3-4 months old but if he was awake at dinner we'd have him sit with us and we'd bathe him when Finn was in the tub etc. its hard for me to remember when we started putting them in the bath together, maybe 5 months, I know I've got pictures of Riley laying on the incline thing in the tub with Finn so it was before he was sitting up. They used to both go to bed at 7 but now Finn stays up a little later. and since I used to nurse Riley before bed, they've never really done stories together, except when Todd is traveling and I'm on my own. but we dinner and bathe together, then Riley gets just a couple of stories and right to bed whereas Finn helps clean up the toys and gets an assload of stories. I'm rambling.
I think we started trying to get Seth on the same routine when he was about a month and he was committed to the 7:30 bedtime at about 6 wks. Our routine was to bathe Seth then pull him out and Mason would get in the tub while I dressed Seth. Then I would wash Mason and get him out and dressed. After baths, one of us would play with Mason and the other would feed Seth, read him a story and put him to bed. If there was only one of us, we would let Mason watch 10 minutes of tv while we fed Seth. Then read Seth's story to both of them and put him to bed, read Mason his two and put him to bed. Once Seth got that bedtime was at 7:30, he would go right down and would not make a peep, but if he was struggling, we would just take turns being the one responsible for comfoting him and helping him fall asleep. Again, if it was just one of us, then it became a matter of doing what you have to do:)
I do remember that the bedtime routine went from 20 minutes to an hour or longer, which sucked. Now we are back to about 20 - 30 minutes, but it wasn't until after he dropped that bedtime feed.
Good luck.