Help me review our going-to-sleep routine please
We are doing one thing and needing to switch, I think, to another thing in terms of going to bed. We have 13 month old twin girls.
Current routine:
4:15 p.m. Dinner
4:35ish p.m. They play I eat my dinner
5:30ish I give them their baths
6:00ish DH plays with them, I shower/clean up/prepare the room for the night
6:30ish DH and I play with them and do anything that needs to be done (diaper changes, etc)
7:00ish on the EZ2Nurse pillow, nurse to sleep, then after 45 min.-1 hour I toddle over to the mattress and decant them into it so to speak (in case you were wondering, during that 45 min-1 hr I watch TV with the closed captioning and eat grapes, my nightly snack :thumb)
This has all been very cosy until the last few weeks when the girls have gotten increasingly mobile and we have expanded the safe area for them to roam within the house. We can't easily and quickly make the transition from play to nursing pillow anymore, and they spend up to an hour tossing and turning before sleeping. This wears on me and is not fun for them either. So I am considering changing to something more like this:
Proposed routine:
5:00 Dinner
5:30 They play, I eat my dinner
6:00 DH plays with them while I shower and prep the room for the night
6:30 I give them their baths
7:00 Read a book about bed time (any recommendations?) then onto the nursing pillow
What do you do and what do you think about my proposed new routine? Changing from baby routine to toddler routine is stumping me. I don't know exactly how to make that transition from play to sleep. Feel a little dumb but there it is. And I want some feedback from folks who've BTDT because any change in routine with the girls is a BIG DEAL.
TIA!
^_^:
at 13 mos i began to institute a set bedtime. before that we just hung out and nursed on demand until she fell asleep, but i found she would stay up late even tho tired. so around 9 pm when i could rell she was tired we'd go to bed. lights out, me lying passively, nursing. if she popped off and played around on the bed, ok. i'd just wait then nurse again. eventually she'd get bored and fall asleep. 1st time took almost an hour but that decreased until it became expected by her. don't know if it would be easy with 2!
^_^:
Your routine looks lots like mine, just make sure that the play time after dinner and before bed is quiet, calm sort of play. If I let my DD play loudly or physically after dinner, she will take longer to go to sleep. So we do books, artwork, stuff like that.
^_^:
I think reading books is a really good way to settle down. Our favorites are Maybe, My Baby, Counting Kisses and the Going to Bed Book. Then we turn off the lights and I hang out til dd falls asleep. It used to take up to 2 hours. Now we're down to about 1/2 hour and occasionally she will drift off on her own, but mostly I hang out with her (or fall asleep before she does!). It takes some practice (and patience occassionally), but they will learn. Plus I love to hang out with dd at the end of the day. Just a nice cozy way to end the day. :love
More Topical:
Current routine:
4:15 p.m. Dinner
4:35ish p.m. They play I eat my dinner
5:30ish I give them their baths
6:00ish DH plays with them, I shower/clean up/prepare the room for the night
6:30ish DH and I play with them and do anything that needs to be done (diaper changes, etc)
7:00ish on the EZ2Nurse pillow, nurse to sleep, then after 45 min.-1 hour I toddle over to the mattress and decant them into it so to speak (in case you were wondering, during that 45 min-1 hr I watch TV with the closed captioning and eat grapes, my nightly snack :thumb)
This has all been very cosy until the last few weeks when the girls have gotten increasingly mobile and we have expanded the safe area for them to roam within the house. We can't easily and quickly make the transition from play to nursing pillow anymore, and they spend up to an hour tossing and turning before sleeping. This wears on me and is not fun for them either. So I am considering changing to something more like this:
Proposed routine:
5:00 Dinner
5:30 They play, I eat my dinner
6:00 DH plays with them while I shower and prep the room for the night
6:30 I give them their baths
7:00 Read a book about bed time (any recommendations?) then onto the nursing pillow
What do you do and what do you think about my proposed new routine? Changing from baby routine to toddler routine is stumping me. I don't know exactly how to make that transition from play to sleep. Feel a little dumb but there it is. And I want some feedback from folks who've BTDT because any change in routine with the girls is a BIG DEAL.
TIA!
^_^:
at 13 mos i began to institute a set bedtime. before that we just hung out and nursed on demand until she fell asleep, but i found she would stay up late even tho tired. so around 9 pm when i could rell she was tired we'd go to bed. lights out, me lying passively, nursing. if she popped off and played around on the bed, ok. i'd just wait then nurse again. eventually she'd get bored and fall asleep. 1st time took almost an hour but that decreased until it became expected by her. don't know if it would be easy with 2!
^_^:
Your routine looks lots like mine, just make sure that the play time after dinner and before bed is quiet, calm sort of play. If I let my DD play loudly or physically after dinner, she will take longer to go to sleep. So we do books, artwork, stuff like that.
^_^:
I think reading books is a really good way to settle down. Our favorites are Maybe, My Baby, Counting Kisses and the Going to Bed Book. Then we turn off the lights and I hang out til dd falls asleep. It used to take up to 2 hours. Now we're down to about 1/2 hour and occasionally she will drift off on her own, but mostly I hang out with her (or fall asleep before she does!). It takes some practice (and patience occassionally), but they will learn. Plus I love to hang out with dd at the end of the day. Just a nice cozy way to end the day. :love
More Topical: