Bed time routine

[smlame]

Hi all! This is baby #2 for me and sleep/bedtime, etc was pretty rough for me with my first. I'm not sure if it was her or our own "strategies" or a bit of both but she had a crazy sleep schedule for the first two years of life. We did a pretty big shift when I was pregnant to help her get into a better routine and it is much better. Because of that, I feel a little nervous about our approach with this baby.

I'm just wondering what everyone is doing these days at bedtime with your little ones-especially if you are co-sleeping. Our sleeping is going GREAT once we are down....she sleeps right next to me all night long and just wakes to nurse-which seems so much easier to do this time lying down. I'm wondering about what time your little one's go down for the night and if you co-sleep, do you go to sleep with them? Do you try to get your baby down first and then get in some adult time first? I kinda feel like we are at this transition time where she is more ready to go to bed around 8:30 or 9 (versus 10:30 a month ago) but I tend to keep her with us til we are ready for bed.

Any thoughts on setting up good sleep patterns plus finding a good compromise of us getting our "stuff" done too?

Thanks!

[feminist~mama]

Subbing- we're in about the same boat!

[tippy]

ok, so here's the routine we've been doing for the past couple of weeks, and it seems to be working well...

i give ds a bath and change him into his pjs sometime around 5-6pm. then he hangs with us for a bit. and then by 730-8 i will take him to bed (we co-sleep), nurse him laying down and he falls asleep. i stay with him until i know he's *really* asleep. and if i still need to do some chores in order to get ready for the next day (which is the case most of the time), or if i just want to hang out a little while longer, i get up and do that. if i have everything done and i'm just tired, i will just got to sleep with him. we wake up pretty early (5am), so that i can take him to daycare by 6am and be at work by 630. and i'm not a morning person, so i have to have the car packed and everything ready for me to be able to leave on time.

[katelove]

We've let J fall into her own routine and we're mostly happy with it but we do have one little issue that I think we're going to have to work on.

At the moment she goes to sleep at about 8pm-ish. We have been either going to bed with her then (occasionally) or, more often, keeping her with us (either on the lounge or on a chest) until we go to bed sometime between 10pm and midnight. But, the problem is, she naturally wakes around then anyway and wants to play. Apart from the lack of sleep for us, I don't think it's good for her to be awake so late.

Our two options are 1) go to bed with her and sleep, read or watch TV on the computer (with headphones) or 2) put her to bed and join her later.

I tried option 2 tonight and she woke up after 45 mins and wouldn't go back to sleep. She can't self-soothe but, if she stirs we can pat/feed her back to sleep if we're there. If not, we don't hear her until she is too awake to get back to sleep. I also don't love her being in the other room without us, it doesn't really fit with my CC ideals.

I guess we'll go with option 1 and see how it works

[Jelinifer]

Finn usually falls asleep between 9-10 ish and he starts out the night in his cosleeper. I usually go to sleep between 11 and 12 and use the time between when he and I go to bed to prep for the next day or clean the house a bit if it's a weekend night. He usually wakes up around when I go to bed (he doesn't sleep soundly in the cosleeper at all) and that usually dictates when I go to bed because at that point I pull him into bed with me for the rest of the night.

[KSDoulaMama]

I just signed in so I could post this very topic! I guess now that our babes are leaving the newborn stage they are starting to fall into routines a little bit more.

Grace usually goes to bed around 9pm. We tend to just follow her cues on it. Around 8pm we put her in her jammies and her night time diaper and make sure that the house is dimly lit. Then we nurse while DW and I watch a show usually. When she's done nursing, she just hangs out for a few minutes and if she fusses or yawns, we take her in for bed. We swaddle her, turn on the fan in her room, give her the pacifier, and rock her until she is asleep or almost there... usually takes like 30 seconds, haha. Then we carry her into our bedroom and lay her down. She sleeps in a pack and play right next to our bed. She usually sleeps until around 2:30 or so and then wakes up to eat and I nurse her in our bed. She wakes up every 2-3 hours after that and is ready to be up for the day around 9am.

[feminist~mama]

Our bedtime routine is non-existent at this point. DP doesn't get home from work until about 8pm- which makes it tough for either of us to want to put the babe to bed. She generally takes a couple of naps throughout the evening (in arms or occasionally the swing or the kanoe) and we all go to bed together around midnight~ish. We're up for the day at 8:30 or 9.

I feel like she'd likely go to bed earlier if we tried...

[trumpcard]

I've been wondering about this too. Right now Norah goes to bed between 8 and 9. After DH and I have dinner we go for a walk around the neighborhood. When we get back we give Norah naked time and then a bath. Then I dress her for bed, read her some stories, nurse and cuddle until she falls asleep. I leave her in our bed and clean the kitchen, have some computer time, read a book and then shower and then join her in bed. I'm just not sure how that routine will need to change when she is more mobile. Right now I feel like I can leave her in our bed alone for an hour or two since she is swaddled and not really mobile. That will be changing . . .