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Pre-School and Daycare
bedtime routine for preschooler and infant sharing a room
My DS is 3 1/2 and currently has his own room. We have a 3 bedroom house and I also have a 13 year old SS who has the third bedroom. DD is now 6 months old and has started sleeping through the night. Right now her crib is in our room. DH and I want DS and DD to share a room for a couple of years until we can purchase a bigger house with 4 bedrooms.
Right now our bedroom routine is DD bottle and bed then I give DS a bath, we read stories in his room and then goes to sleep. For those of you that have a preschooler and an infant that share a room, what does the bedtime routine look like? Should I read DS stories in our room and then have him sneak into bed? DD goes down about 8pm and DS around 8:45. Or should I try to change their bedtimes a little bit so they go to bed around the same time and DD can stay up for DS's stories? She gets a little cranky around bedtime and I like that I can put her to bed and then have some alone time with DS to read though.
I'm just curious what everyone else does. Thanks!
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Re: bedtime routine for preschooler and infant sharing a room
I would kinda watch and see how many hours each is getting at night and see if you can DD's nap a little later and even get DS up a little earlier and shoot for everyone in at the same time. What's the time difference of when they wake?
All 3 of my kids went down at 730 sharp until recently sometime over the summer I was letting the play late at the playground after dinner and could trim out any of the bedtime routine so let it go to 8. When it's colder, I'll slip back to 730- even now as it's getting dark earlier, they are ready ready by 745.
The bad news is they grow up. The good news is, they grow up. In 6 months DD will be more able to tool about and enjoy stories with him, and in a year he'll want to "read" to her. The group bedtime routine is so special in our house and any disputes or hardships of the day are gone. So anyway I think it won't matter too much what you do until DD starts to notice DS's getting something different. You could also shift DS's routine and move bath to earlier.
Our bedtime routine is like an hour long, including a last show, a snack, quickly picking up toys, going upstairs to the playroom- 2 play while 1 brushes and pees until they all go, then I read a story or two. Then we do a puzzle (help with DS's fine motor skills), then we do these russian stacking dolls, but I do conversation skills with them- some days asking please and thank you, one day using silly voices, practicing asking permission, whatever. Then they say good night to eachother, I take John to his room, say goodnight. Then I go to the girls' room we talk about today, what tomorrow is, sing the days of the week and months of the year song, and say goodnight.
It has built up over the last 1.5 years, but when the twins were your LO's age, it was definitely survival first.
My two kids share a room. We live in a two-bedroom apartment....hoping to move soon. My DH and I both work, so we have dinner around 6:30 or 7pm. We give DS a bath at 7:15/7:30, and DD a bath at 8 (after she watches Doc McStuffin). Then we let DS crawl around until he tires out. We put DD to bed first, but I like reading to her, so we started doing that in our room. She is in her bed by 8:30/8:45 with lights out. Then DS gets his last feeding and is in bed right after.
Since it was DD's room first, she plays with her toys there, but DS plays in our living room and just sleeps in a crib in the room they share. DS sometimes wakes at either 2 or 5AM, but he doesn't wake DD.
It works for us.