Bedtime routines!

[MaddieHU]

What is your child’s bedtime routine? Is there anything that helps them to get to sleep?

[Mum35]

Every night the same physical routine even if the time or where changes slightly. Dinner as a family and chat about our day. Run the bath/ get the shower ready for a “shower bath”/ or warm water in sink for a flannel wash. Have a wash then pjs and in to bed. Short stories for my 2 year old whilst my 6 year old listens or even reads a story to his brother. Then my 2 year old has a cup of milk and snuggles down and listens to his brother reading his school book to us then either my husband or I will read a longer book chosen by my 6 year old. By this time my 2 year old is generally asleep. If my 6 year old is convinced he still isn’t tired I will put on an audio book for him to listen to. He easily falls asleep to this quite quickly. Getting them to sleep luckily isn’t the problem it’s keeping my 2 year old in his bed. He seems to like getting up around 1am and climbing quietly in to our bed lying across my head whilst gently kicking my husband in the head with his feet. Depending on who the most tired is - we’ll draw straws or put forward various arguments for and against leaving the warm bed, we’ll take him back to his bed. Usually it’s the person who has been pushed nearly out of the bed. My husband is more resigned to do this whereas I’m more inclined to just put up with it but then I think I could sleep anywhere. Sometimes if I’ve got up to pee I come back to both boys in bed next to my sleeping and exhausted husband so I give up and go to the boy’s bedroom and sleep in one of their beds - usually the one that has less books, toys and cuddly animals on it.

[JogOffc25k]

After we have faffed about for approx 1 hour having a shower, PJs and teeth, our have a bedtime story and then listen to a story tape (as I call them because I am old). My eldest loves having his back scratched which I'm sure will lead to a weird fetish I the future.

They are I the same room so bedtime is 8pm for both - that means I leave the room at 8pm regardless of what is going on.

As they get older (7 & 9) am loving still reading the bedtime story. We're currently on Percy Jackson - much better than 'That's not my dinosaur' which became very tedious

[Krustyc2]

We are terrible at our bedtime routine. We started well with bath, book, bottle and bed but as they got older and I went back to shift work its definitely slid into bad habits. Tv, pjs, fighting about teeth, occasional bath, between 1-6 books then sleep eventually sometime between 7-8!

[RustyM]

It's variable but we are getting some improvements. As it is, usually in bed between 7.30 and 8.30. 6 its dinner, wind down play doh or puzzles, stories, brush teeth then bed. My lil man is trying to give up afternoon naps so it's sometimes good sometimes bad. Perseverance is key, I hope!!!

[Milkymoo]

My eldest is autistic and is not always the best sleeper so we don't really have a great routine in a way so unfortunaly can't really comment too much. Except for dinner bath bed.

[Hbazzle]

I always try to get big one to bed at the same time. But it’s a lot harder now she has a baby sister. I always feel envious of people who say they have an excellent routine and their kids sleep so well. My 3 year old is back in bed with me. That’s just easier at the moment. It means more sleep all round - and at the end of the day that’s what matters!

[Hunstanton]

Reading a story has to be the best way to firstly get them in to bed and secondly to settle down. You may repeat the same story for weeks but it never fails to get them to drift off. As they start to read, get them to read to you, it speeds the process of going to sleep up.

[Chex]

I have found from experience that bedtime needs to be consistent, and the same time every night. Staying up later at the weekends or holidays does not mean they will lay in longer in the mornings, it actually seems to work the other way with my youngest daughter waking up even earlier than usual. She always sleeps better & longer if she goes to bed at her usual time.

[Norfolkboy]

With our 11 month daughter we try for consistency. Essentially it's tea around 5.30 followed by "quality " time and quite often In The Night Garden! It's then bath or wash, final bottle and in bed by about 7.30.

[Cringlecat]

When my son was younger we had a lullaby thing which was *magic* it played, he was asleep. Now we use headspace sleep meditation

[Tudorkat]

Tea, then getting ready for bed. Every two days this means bathing the children together, the other nights it's just a good wash. We have foam letters on the bath tiles so we practise my son's reading words, then teeth, into pjs and stories. Hubby does my daughter in her room, I do my son in his room. We alternate so we do one child one night and the other the next. They each have two stories and then it's night light on and time to settle down. My little boy (5 1/2) hops into bed, then I tuck him in. He still has his soft teddy comforter from when he was a baby and needs/wants to snuggle with that. We have recently managed to stop him sucking his fingers to go to sleep. We stay in the darkened room with him for 5 mins. Often asleep by this point! My little girl (3) is trickier. She resists sleep! After her stories, we put on quiet lullaby style music and have to cuddle her to sleep then carefully put her in the cot and creep out. If she wakes, we can often get her to settle back by going shshshhh through the monitor or outside her door. She doesn't have a special cuddly toy - wish she did, it might help!

[Pip70]

We always stuck to the same routine night after night...

Bath, milky drink, clean teeth story book(normally a Miffy book) lights out and story cd usually worked a dream! 😴

[Jesikac1]

We do a calm bath and pjs then he has a bottle and is put to bed. Will introduce a story when he is a bit older. We tend to read books in the hour before bathtime and try and keep it low lights and chilled out