night routines

If you are by yourself when do you start getting your little ones ready for bed and what is your time schedule?

 

I do bedtime alone regularly due to dh's travel schedule. I usually start bath around 6or 6:15 which is followed by some play time, pjs, and then nursing, then a book and off to dreamland by no later than 6:45.

ETA: I only do a bath for one of the girls each night so I am not overwhelmed.

 

At 5 months I wasn't doing solid food yet so our bedtime routine started around 6:30pm. If it was bath night, we'd do baths and get into pj's. Then we'd have some quiet time playing and listening to soft music, then we had a bottle between 7 and 7:30 and they went to bed right after that so definitely by 8 if not before. If it wasn't bath night we just started with pj's a little later than 6:30. Hope this is helpful.

 

At that age bedtime was 6pm, so I would change them, put them in pj's around 5:30pm, turn the lights down real low, turn off the phone/tv and nurse them at 6pm and off to bed they went.

HTH

 

There is also a great thread with other TS Members' 5 month schedules here. I hope they help some. You should just be getting into a good routine right now.

 

Since I work 2nd shift 2 days a week, DH does the bedtime routine alone, he actually came up with a great system that works. After their 5 o'clock solids meal, they do floor time, when they start to get fussy he takes off all their clothes and they do what DH has coined 'naked tummy time'. At about 6:15 or so (or when they start to get cranky), he turns on Rachel Ray (Drew loves loves loves Rachel Ray) and starts getting them in their pajamas. At 6:30ish he feeds them, burps them, carries them to bed, lays them down, says nighty night and out the door he is, they typically are asleep within 10 minutes.

It's a great routine that I give him all the credit in the world for!!

 

Thanks for the 5 month routine page. My biggest challenge is just getting them to nap for more than 30 min. at a time. It they can stay asleep for an hour things flow so much better. I was also struggling to get both baths done by myself so it is good to see that people alternate as well. I see so many people starting solids at 5 months. In Canada they really push to start them at 6 months for allergies etc. My ds is a big boy at 19 lbs and I don't think formula is filling the poor guy up maybe I will give cereal a go?