Bedtime routines...

DH and I are unsure of what to do. We just moved our guest bedroom upstairs with the nursery and moved our bedroom downstairs. The guest bedroom was the changing room for the boys. We changed them on the bed, had all the diapers/wipes handy, their pajama's, diaper genie, etc. I have one of those water proof pads from the hospital that we use to change them on.

So-for bedtime-we would change their diapers, put on their pj's, and bring them upstairs for bedtime. Sometimes they might read a book, other times they might watch a few minutes of TV. No real set-in-stone routine for bed. Which is NOT how I imagined it!

Now with the room change, I really don't want to have all the diapers, etc in our bedroom and change them in there. We had a dresser that held all of the diapers, pj's, etc in the guest bedroom.

I was telling DH that I would rather a routine for bedtime. Especially now that the baby is coming(probably should have been doing this MONTHS ago-but it's what worked for us). What I envision is going upstairs with a drink possibly, brushing teeth, changing diapers, putting on pj's, reading a book, then lights out. That's SO not how it is now! LOL! DH said he didn't want to spend an hour before bedtime upstairs. I said we could go up at 6:30/6:45/7pm and start the process(it's gotten later with the nicer weather). I figure thirty minutes and we're done.

So-what's your routine? As for a changing station downstairs-I figure a basket under the living room table with some wipes/diapers in it and change them on the couch-we have hard wood floors-and right now, it's much easier for me to change them up higher than on the floor(being 9 months pregnant and all... ). Where do you change them during the day?

Thanks for any insight! So many changes are about to happen! Eek!

 

i just wrote a whole response and then lost it! (our routine is evolving, anyways) ..... however, this post is from a few months ago about routines and i found it so helpful that i've bookmarked it! i'm sure you'll get new and great responses, but i just thought i'd share this one w/you cuz i've read it so many times.

gl, jl

 

Our bedtime routine starts with about 15 minutes of watching Sprout TV (yeah, I know TV isn't the greatest, but they love Sprout). While watching Sprout, we put on PJ's and fresh diapers, give any meds, and brush their teeth. While they watch TV, DP or I prep their cribs with blankies & sippy cups of water. After TV, we sing a song so the tune of the Barney theme / Yankee Doodle: "Marchie, marchie, marchie, march, marchie to the bedroom... it is time to go night-night, so marchie to the bedroom." DP, the brilliant lyricist came up with that one. :lol: The boys go into robot mode and literally march to their room without protest and we lift them into their cribs. We read them 1 book - always the same book. Then we turn on their sound machine & radio, give kisses and high-fives, and leave the room. They cry for 3 seconds, then (presumably) go to bed. I would like to read them more books at bedtime, but they are so good at this routine that we don't mess with it.

 

I love our bedtime routine...it's my favorite time of day!

Around 6pm, we start to unwind. The boys get a sippy of milk, which they drink sometimes & other times ignore. We do quiet activities, like read books...put together puzzles...snuggle...and (sadly) we watch TV (usually Blue's Clue's or Yo Gabba Gabba). We ENSURE they don't get riled up after 6pm, otherwise Aiden has a hard time falling asleep.

Around 6:30pm, we go potty (mostly Aiden), change diapers & get into pjs. In the living room, we have diapers & wipes stored in one of our end table cabinets & I either leave their pjs in there from getting dressed that morning (I guess our living room is our changing room then) or gather them from their room.

Around 6:45pm, we walk to the bathroom & brush teeth. We'll add their fluoride tablets to this part once we run out of their fluoride drops (which they currently get with their vitamins at dinner).

Then, we go into their bedroom, where the lights are out & just their bedside lamp is on. We read 3 books in the rocker, the last book always the same. Before the very last book, we always say our prayers.

When books are done, DH picks up one & I pick up the other (we try to vary it, but Conner inevitably goes for DH). We hug & kiss the one in our arms, then hug & kiss the other, & then they hug & kiss each other. We then chant "Love you, Mama...Love you, Daddy...Love you, Conner....Love you, Aiden" (they haven't gotten the full concept yet, because they say all 4 names, including their own !!!!!).

We lay them in their cribs & give them their loveys. We then hand them their glow worms & turn them on. Then, turn the sound machine on, turn the lamp off. We say "I love you, goodnight" as we walk out the door to them chiming back "Love you, Mama...Love you, Daddy".

Conner's out within 5-10 mins & Aiden varies from 15-45 mins. They always play in there quietly, though. MAYBE once a week they'll fuss for a few seconds, but that's it.

Every other night is bath night, usually at 6pm...unless it's not nice out, then we do it immediately after dinner (vs going outside).

I work 6pm-6am three nights a week & HATE that I miss bedtime. DH does the exact same routine, however, even without me there (and I do the same when he's not home at night). The only variance is that we stand on the floor & give hugs vs picking them up. We even do the routine when we're not home, just vary it to wherever we are.

The boys know milk signifies the start of the bedtime routine, but they REALLY know bedtime is coming when it's time to brush teeth. They'll occasionally fight it, but for the most part, do really well & I think they thrive on the consistency.

Good luck establishing a new bedtime routine. Make sure it's something you can continue when your new little bundle arrives (which is when again?)....

 

Erin, we have the same routine pretty much. Other than the song!

I have our diapers/wipes downstairs mostly because I'm too lazy to spend the day going up and down the stairs. I keep them under one of our end tables. (It probably doesn't look the best, but eh...if someone doesn't like it they can come change diapers all day.)
We have "wind down time" where I put the TV on the toddler music channel (it's lullabies at that time) or we watch a Spourt On Demand thing with the Pajanimals. While this is going on I'm changing them into pj's and all that. (Except on bath nights. We do that upstairs and sometimes don't have wind down time.)

Then it's upstairs (they crawl upstairs by themselves) and we brush teeth in bed, read Goodnight Moon every night, then it's kisses and hugs, noise machine on, and lights out.

They rarely make a peep.

 

I try to keep our bedtime routine simple, and adjustable. We usually go upstairs to our loft area about a 1/2 hour before bedtime, around 7:30pm. If they need baths we do baths and change into PJs. They have sippys of milk that they drink up until they brush their teeth. We read a few books and just hang out and "chat"with them, then brush teeth, say prayers, turn on nightime music in thier room, and in their cribs they go. If we've gotten home late, we cut the books. hanging out, etc. As soon as the music starts they pretty much walk over to their cribs and are ready to get in.

 

Ours starts at 5pm when they have dinner and right after have bath at about 530. At 600 we read a lot of books.....700 is snack and 715 is bottle, reading fox in socks and hop on pop....then off to bed...

 

Mine are younger than yours, but we have dinner, bath then bed. Im hoping to introduce a story once in bed when they are a little older.

Mine sleep in the same room upstairs. We do their meal and bath downstairs. As soon as they see the stairs they know where they are heading!

edited to add: Oh and we do all the changing and dressing in the downstairs bathroom though I do change DD upstairs in her cot (DS sleeps his naps downstairs, and DD upstairs) when she wakes up after her naps.

 

I love nurseandrea's routine - giong to nick some ideas from that. We do quiet time, bath, books with milk and bed. Need to change the milk to quiet time downstairs before they go up which I will do pretty soon. I have baskets of changing stuff in each of the boys rooms and a changer in their play room downstairs.

 

After dinner my girls play or bathe while I (or my mother on my work nights) clean up, around 645 we start doing jammies then we go downstairs and they sit on my lap and drink their milk while watching Dora, then we walk into the bedroom and its bedtime. They go to bed around 715.

As for diapers, I keep diapers and wipes in the living room, their playroom and our bedroom. I change them on the floor, I have not used the changing table in months.

 

I put K&K in their high chairs at 9pm, where they have drinkable yogurts, fish oil, gummy vites, vitamin C. Then, we sing the ABC's (ending with tickling), count to 10, and then read 2-4 short books. We almost always do Brown Bear, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I end by singing Snuggle Puppy. I then brush their teeth (still in the high chairs, which is much easier for me).

Meanwhile, DH is upstairs in their room, laying out PJ's, running bath water, etc.

K&K walk up the stairs (until very recently, this was a production, but now it goes smoothly) into their rooms, and then I bathe, lotion and dress one (we alternate their bath nights), while DH changes the other one into an overnight diaper and jammies. Then, hugs and kisses goodnight, both go into their cribs with lights out and white noise on.

Works great for us! The only change I foresee coming is brushing their teeth at the sink, as soon as they can stop monkeying around long enough to cooperate.

Oh, BTW -- we have changing tables upstairs and downstairs, and diapers/wipes in both locations -- so we can change them wherever we need to.

 

Our routine is pretty much the same as most I think...we really didn't even get them on a routine until probably 10 months or so. And the routine we have now is just since they turned 1 but it works the best so far.

Their bedtime is 7 PM. We don't bathe them every day, usually every 2 or 3 days. So if it is bath night, around 6:30 we bathe them, dry them and put on their pajamas. I should mention my husband and I do this routine together 95% of the time, he bathes, I dry and dress. Then we give them a small snack and drink in the living room. After that, we brush their teeth at the bathroom sink (just now starting to do this). And then we put them in their cribs, and sit in their bedroom reading a story. This gives them time to calm down while they are in the crib. I found that reading to them outside the crib made them just think it was playtime but once they are in it, they know bedtime is coming. Then we hug & kiss them and leave them to go to sleep. It works pretty well, especialliy since one of our girls used to be a HUGE crier everytime we left. She'd cry and cry no matter what or how old she got. Now she may whine for a minute then goes to sleep. It has helped a lot.

I should also mention we try not to do any playing or tv or things that will get them wound up in the time before bed since in the past they have had trouble wanting to sleep once they got into their cribs because they just wanted to play.