How do you manage bedtime for 2 kids - a baby & a toddler?
We have a 2.5 year old boy whose bedtime has been 9pm since age 2 months. We do PJs (bath), then milk with books in the living room. Brush teeth, then into his room for a couple songs after lights out. Then we say good night and leave his room. The whole routine takes ~45 minutes. He sleeps for ~11 hours. Of course his grandma thinks we have a ridiculously long routine but we enjoy the reading and singing.
Now he has a baby sister. She is 3 weeks and has no schedule. We will try to put her on a schedule in about 3-5 weeks. I have been thinking (fantasizing) about how an ideal bedtime routine would go for the 2 of them but wonder how millions of other parents do it.
What does your routine look like? Do you stagger the 2 bedtimes? (45mins X 2 does seem long...) Do you try to combine it somehow? Do you parallel one per parent? Also, they will be sharing a room. He is in a big boy bed, and she will have a crib.
1 Answers
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Unlike you, our 2.5 year old's bed time has gotten steadily later since he was 2 months old... We got the advice that he would sleep longer and more soundly if we tried putting him to bed at 6:30 at some point in the early weeks, and so we tried it, and he did. From 6:30pm at around 2 months, he's inched forward over time to around 8:15 or 8:30 now at 2 and a half years.
Our baby now 10 months old, in contrast, seems to go kaput at around 7 or 7:30 at the latest. So, we've taken to putting them to bed usually in parallel, one per parent, or in sequence if one parent's not available. A couple of times a week, we'll try to read stories and sing with them both together, and then continue reading stories to the oldest while the youngest nurses and then goes to sleep in another room.
We have a goal of getting them to sleep in the same room for at least a few years, but haven't figured out how to do this very well. The issue is more one of night wakings for the baby, the bedtime routine challenge is solvable by just continuing stories for the older one in the living room while the baby goes to sleep ;)
Congratulations and good luck!
Ahhh, thanks for the tip about the elasticity of the bedtime routine as you just continue stories. I'm sure my son would not mind that one bit.
When you figure out how to do the same room, please share! :)
- sweethi, Dec 9, 2009