What is your toddlers bed time routine... in a big bed? PLEASE!!!!

[PinkPalace]

Well the struggle has been going on for almost 10 months .

DD has been dreadfully difficult to get to sleep at night.

We didnt change anyroutine going from cot to big bed but she can take up to 1-2 hrs to go to sleep.

We have tried the soft approach, and the hard approach..

i just really need some ideas... please tell me your story

[Arimeh]

Hey lovey!

Aricyn was taking up to 9pm or 9.30pm to go to sleep at night, so we dropped his day sleep. Now he is in bed (fast asleep) within 2 minutes at around 7pm. Much much better!!

We don't have a routine really, they have dinner around 5.15, then a bath at 5.45, bottle of milk around 6.15/6.30 - then in bed by 7pm at the latest. It works "most" of the time

[PinkPalace]

DD hasnt day slept since december.
If i force her to have a day nap she is wide wake at midnight! it is a nightmare.

DH and i end up fighting everynight over it and i am sick of it

[MamaPan]

Hi PP
Noah has been in a big bed for a few months now... this is our basic bedtime ritual
Dinner around 5.45
Watch some tv/play
Bath around 6.30 or 6.45
Kiss whichever parent isnt doing bed and Jacob good night
Into PJs and read 2 books in bed (lying down with him)
Tuck him in and kiss good night
Light off and tell a story or sit on end of bed til he goes to sleep
If he is playing around we leave the room - go back in after about 1 min and cuddle him and he usually goes to sleep - he knows it is bed time
we dont have any milk at night anymore (we used to have an added step of bottle of milk (then cup of milk) and book on our bed after he was in PJs)

This has evolved - we used to rock him to sleep when he was in cot...
so we started by lying down with him and cuddling til he went to sleep - but found he ws more wakeful and looking for us to sleep with him in the night... so then we moved to lie and rwad books (which we do) and then sitting on end of bed until he was asleep - never leaving room til he was in deep sleep
Now we can leave most of the time when he is falling asleep or has 'decided' he will go to sleep...
I am hoping soon we can read to him, tuck him in and go - though i must admmit it is now a really nice part of the day...

[PinkPalace]

Do you have a night light?
do you leave the door open or close?

I think i will go back to dinner, bath , bed after DS was born - i would do bath first as it was easier to get it sorted but i wonder if they are too wakeafter?

[MamaPan]

i dont have a night light and we turn the light off...
i also make sure the light outside his room is off so that when i go out (ie open the door to leave) the light doesnt wake him up or get hiom away from his drowiness... (ie if the light streams in he tends to check i am still there even if he is just about to go to sleep)
we close his door (he can open it if he is trying to get out, but doesnt)
I have a monitor in there so i can hear everything with the door shut

for us having the bath as part of the winding down routine works well - he doesget hyper in there but we have always done it thatw ay so he knows what is coming next...

[Phteven]

dinner
bath
jim-jams
read books together
snuggle

[PinkPalace]

thanks girls
i think i will switch the dinner then bath.

I am going to go look for a special bed time book today with DD - she can help choose it and we can read it at night.

[MamaPan]

yep i let him choose the books and we have 'special' books thata re in his room just for bedtime. he has some favourites nd we also go to the library and pick one or 2 out every few weeks so he usually has one of the library ones and one of his special ones each night...

[Phteven]

Time for bed (Mem Fox) is a lovely bedtime book.

[PinkPalace]

Time for bed (Mem Fox) is a lovely bedtime book.

Thanks Bron! i will be looking hard.
we have one already which she loves - not speicifically a bedtime book - but it is about finding where dorothy has fallen asleep (she is in everyones bed etc)...

but i want a specific bed time ie this is what we do book lol

[MamaPan]

yep we have another mem fox bedtime book - i think it is sleepy bears or something like that.
we also have one called bigger than daddy which DH reads to him - it ends with being tucked up in bed...
he asks for diff ones from each of us...

[~*Niadalla*~]

Dinner
Bath (every second night)
Book
Bed

He can sometimes take an hour to get to sleep because he keeps getting up, but it's really dependant on when his day sleep finished, and that's dependant on when he woke in the morning, and that's dependant on when he went to sleep the night before... and so on and so on.
Some nights, he will get outof bed and we have the hour long struggle again. Not fun.

[Catastrophic]

DD1 is 5pm start to do bath, dinner, story,
7pm - sit down and watch H&A (she usually sits on me and reads a book, or just snuggles)
730pm - have a small drink, go into bedroom, get cuddles and kisses from mummy and daddy (gotta do butterfly kisses and eskimo's kisses hehe) lay her down, turn the light of and shut the door
(that's her until morning )

This routine has been like that for agessssssssssss, she's been in a bed for over 6months.

[PinkPalace]

well i got 2 books for tonight....
one called
"being brave" - about being scared of the dark and being brave
and
"The things i love about bedtime",,,,

so fingers crossed with another day 1 of the new routine!

[Spring Angel]

We don't read books in bed. We read books in the lounge room and then DS walks off to bed, I tuck him in, he gets a kiss and I leave.

For some reason when I read to him laying down he doesn't want me to leave and will carry on. When we read on the lounge there are no such protests.

HTH
Spring x

[fionas]

Dinner around 6.30/7pm
Bed around 7.30pm
Book.

She's only been in a big bed for a few weeks and some nights is better than others. I just keep saying to her, "mummy read this book, then mummy goes" if she won't get into bed or is getting in and out. It was just too frustrating to try and keep her in bed before reading a story so now I sit down and read it by her bed regardless of whether she's in bed or somewhere else in her room. Normally she will get into bed as she can see the pictures better from there.

Sometimes it takes her 1-2 hours before she goes to sleep and we can hear her rattling around in there or singing. I leave her to it unless she's rattling the door handle or is calling for us.

[PinkPalace]

so fionas - you have the light on then?