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Toddlers: 24 Months+
vermont7
member
How do you put your two year old to bed?
vermont7
member
We usually do a bath or shower, pj's, water cup, book, and then either DH or myself cuddle in bed with her until she falls asleep. This takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. I would say it averages an hour. I'm just curious how other people put their two year olds to sleep. We have never sleep trained or done CIO.
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Re: How do you put your two year old to bed?
Bath, pjs, book, kisses, good night, DS1 then cries, so we cuddle for about 10 minutes in mommy/daddy's bed and then he goes to sleep. I need that extra 10 minutes of cuddling as much as he does.
Takes about 30 minutes or so.
Go Phils!!
Tickers are screwy - he's 2y7m. We've never sleep trained either.
We do bed and bath (order depends on how dirty he got that day!), brush teeth, then one of us lays with him in his bed for about 30 minutes of reading. Then lights out, we cuddle w/ him until he's asleep but it usually takes less than 5 minutes.
7pm - Snack and can watch a show
730pm - Read books
8pm - Kiss Daddy good night, upstairs, potty, PJs, water (if needed), turn radio on, climb in bed, cover her up and kiss her good night
I do bed with 2 2yos and a 3yo. We usually do bath after nap, before dinner.
Dinner- 5/530
Play- get outside when we can.
6:45 pajamas, pick up toys
7:00 snack and "last show"
730- up to the playroom to play. I take one at a time into the bathroom to brush teeth while the other 2 play.
7:40 I read 4-5 books, we do some language and counting games, some sort of turn taking games (lately it's been stacking russian dolls).
755- all into the bathroom for last pee, last dipe for DS, pullup for DD#2
8:00- the girls go to their room and wait while I take DS to his room to collect the cars he wants in bed, big fat smooch, put him in the crib. Then I go to the girls' room, tuck them in, flip on their sound machine, kisses, goodnight.
8:05 I am free!!
I have not done any sleep training, either.
Bath every other night, PJ's, brush teeth, read one book, lights out. We never hear a peep from him unless he's extremely ill. All in all, i can get him in bed/lights out in 5 minutes.
DS cried for about 5 minutes when he was 10 months old if you would like to count that as sleep training. : ) I can put DD down in the same amount of time, no tears, no sleep training whatsoever.
Vermont I'm actually glad you posted your routine. I always feel like when I come on here I'm the only one who doesn't just put my kid in bed awake and they fall asleep on their own.
This is the first time I've ever "admitted" this here (mostly because I feel like a failure about it) but we cuddle DD to sleep every night. We do shower, last snack, read 2 books, brush teeth then lay down on a pillow on the couch next to where daddy is sitting watching his online classes or I am catching up on email stuff. Then once she's asleep or his lecture is over we move her into her crib.
Every time we have tried the laying down awake and walking away it has ended in MASSIVE meltdown. We attempted CIO a few times (when we were at our wits end) but it didn't help anything and I just couldn't stick with it. We are moving to a toddler bed this weekend though and I'm hoping we can change up our routine to laying down awake and falling asleep in bed.
don't EVER feel like a failure for doing what works best for your family!
i also lay with DD until she falls asleep (and the cat cuddles on the bed with us too). we just hang out in her room reading books, then do potty and tooth brushing, read more books till it's bedtime. then snuggle and she falls asleep within a few mins.
although i must admit i cannot believe how many people can just leave their child(ren) to put themselves to sleep at such a young age with no CIO. that is NOT my kid, LOL.
DD was still in a crib at 2, and bedtime was SO easy. We read a few books and plopped her in her crib, and she would be sleeping in a matter of minutes.
Now, at almost 3, it's much more involved. She likes to sing a few songs, read a few books, have a sip of water, kiss me goodnight, kiss Daddy goodnight, do it all again:) We put a stop to it at about half an hour, and sometimes one of us will lay with her to comfort her, since she has more fears now of nighttime than she did when she was 2 (nightmares are more common at 3), but usually the whole thing takes about 45 minutes. I am not as patient right now as DH is with bedtime, as I am 36 weeks pregnanat and need that time to relax myself. So he has graciously taken over most of the bedtime duties. She sleeps all night in her bed without getting up, though, which is huge.
Agreed! I'm in the same boat.....we do bath, pjs and books and then I cuddle with her in her big girl bed till she's asleep. I work FT so I feel like I can squeeze in the last few minutes of the day with her that way
eek. another embarrassing routine here...
Bath around 630, stays in for like a half hour. Chase him around his room and pin him down to put on diaper, lotion, and pajamas (he seems to have a burst of energy once he gets out of bath...idk why)...sometimes bribe with youtube videos on my phone. Brush teeth. Read 3 books. Turn on CD player. Sing about 5 songs. Lights out. Rock and talk for a good 20 mins. Sometimes he falls asleep rocking and I can put him right to bed, no problems. Most of the time he is still wide awake and whining when I put him in bed. Sometimes I can get him to stop fussing by patting his back or promising that daddy will come hug and kiss him soon (he gets off work at 10pm FYI)...sometimes I leave him to fuss which either results in...a). him falling asleep on his own about a half hour later, or b). me going back in there 15 mins later to rock a few more minutes.
I would say most nights I am "free" by 745/8pm, but he is not asleep until 830. Things were a lot easier when we used a crib. I can't just leave him in there awake and upset, he will climb up on the changing table and bother the blinds, or open the closet and pull stuff out.
Teeth, jammies, a multitude of books (he's learned the art of stalling), then we have a little routine for saying goodnight and we lay him down. Ever since DD was born, he wants me to hold his hand for a min or two before I leave, so we talk about his day and whatever we're planning the next day and I cover him up, give him his favorite stuffed animals and say good night.
ETA: We did CIO at 14 months and then a brief refresher at 16 months because it was taking hours to get him to sleep. Best thing we've ever done and our routine has been more or less the same ever since.
Takes about an hour in our house. Dinner, play with Daddy, pajamas, brush teeth, get in bed around 7:30 or 8. Right now he is sleeping on a mattress next to our bed, because it works much better than him being in his own room down the hall. Then we read 2 books, lights out, and one of us lays on the mattress with him until he's out. It takes a long time and can be very frustrating because he totally freaks out if I get up and try to leave before he's completely asleep.
He's NEVER been a good sleeper, and very very rarely sleeps through the night. On a very good night, he's on his own bed / mattress until 4:30 or 5am and then he climbs up in bed with us and sleeps there until about 6:30 or 7:00.