If you lie with your child til they are asleep... - Page 2

[major_mama11]

I lie down with my 4yo DD, read her 3 stories, and she knows that after that, no more stories or talking but I will still stay there with her until she is asleep. She is old enough now that she knows that she is supposed to lie down and not flip around and be silly, or else I will get up. Sometimes, I can pull the, "I'm just going to go get something," trick. If I stay away for 5 minutes before peeking in at her, she will sometimes (maybe 30% of the time) have fallen asleep in the interim.

I bring my own book to bed with me, and lie facing away from her reading the book if it takes her a long time to get to sleep. And often I fall asleep in her bed, and don't come to my own bed until 3 am when DH brings the baby to me to nurse.

Now if I could just get bedtime moved about 3 hours earlier, we'd be golden...

[Katie T]

[QUOTE=MittensKittens;15194609

I am wondering if other people do any reading, singing etc in the bedroom, or do you do that kind of stuff before getting into bed? Sometimes I wonder if it would be quicker if we read a book in the living room, but mostly I think reading gets them in the mood for sleeping.[/QUOTE]

We do reading in the living room because our bedroom light sucks. But singing makes my kids dance even when tired so we don't do that as part of our routine. We read so many books during the day that it isn't part of our night time routine, but our routine is short. When DD2 is ready for bed she is. ready. for. bed. lol

Ds would do great being read to before bed but he won't let DH do the night time stuff.

[hakeber]

Actually, now that I have the baby things are MUCH MUCH easier. If after stories and songs he asks me to stay and lie with him and we turn off the light and he is still being goofy, I just say, I have to check on your sister, or I have to feed Emily, or if she is with us I say, You are keeping me and Emily awake so we're gonna go lie down in the living room.

Then I always say, I'll check back in on you when she's asleep.

He has never not been asleep when I went back.

[JorgieGirl]

Thank you everyone! I'm mostly just glad I'm not alone. lol...

we do have a very regular routine. 7pm we do bum change and jammies. Upstairs in bed we read one book, lights out, then nurse.

I realize she has probably been having a hard time due to the recent DLS time change. Duh, why didn't I think of that sooner???

Hakeber, I'm glad to hear your story in particular. I didn't think of it that way, but I'm sure hoping that is how it works for my DD. I do think I will start testing that out now with other things, to maybe 'put the cat on the roof' with me sometimes leaving the room while she's still awake.

[AmyKT]

Originally Posted by MittensKittens

It takes me an hour to get both kids to sleep. First we read a book, then the lights go off and we sign some songs, and then I lie there till they both sleep. DS (1yo) nurses.

I am wondering if other people do any reading, singing etc in the bedroom, or do you do that kind of stuff before getting into bed? Sometimes I wonder if it would be quicker if we read a book in the living room, but mostly I think reading gets them in the mood for sleeping.

We don't do anything in bed but sleep. We do all the reading and stuff beforehand in another room, but that doesn't mean that bedtime goes smoothly. DD will hop up if she's not really ready, and that's fine with me. We just go back out of the room and play or cuddle some more.

[angelandmisha]

DS usually falls asleep easily with nursing. If he's not falling asleep, it turns out it's usually because he's hungry, so we get up and get a snack. I agree with pp's- if it's taking a really long time, they're probably not ready for sleep yet. We have also quit napping regularly during the day(unless, like a pp said, we have an evening outing) and that has helped tremendously with bedtime going faster.