Sleep routine advice

[Raine76]

Hi everyone,
i am hoping I could hear what your sleep routines are with your children. I have a 16 month old little boy who is a wonderful sleeper but I have never been comfortable about the bedtime routines that I have tried.
My latest routine is to feed him, bathe him, watch The Night Garden and Story Time and then sing a song and take him to bed, when he is in bed I will read him a story, some nights are ok, but some nights he will cry when he gets put into bed & while I read to him. It makes me feel that he thinks bed is a place that he get dumped and left alone. He will go off to sleep quick enough and sleep all night long, but it just doesn't sit well with me that my little boy cry's most nights before he falls asleep. Yesterday I watched a YouTube clip of a mum's routine and she sits with her child in a rocking chair reading a story and singing until her son is drowsy and then puts him to bed. I tried this tonight and it worked wonders and my little boy was put to bed with a big smile on his face which was lovely. But tonight (for the first time) he did go to bed an hour later than normal, so it might not normally go so smoothly and even in his already tired state he did try to grab the book constantly to play with the pages, so if he is a little more awake it might be more of a problem.
So, I thought I would ask you lovely bunch if you would share with me your bedtime routine to see if your routine will help my little munchkin go to sleep with a smile on his face.
Thank you very much

[Raine76]

I give up with this site!

[Needsweetstosurvive]

Sorry you haven't had a reply until now. I also have a 16mo son. His routine is bath and PJs with Daddy then into his bedroom for a couple of stories which is also with Daddy then we say goodnight to Daddy and turn the light off. I then give him a breast feed in his dark room then give him a quick cuddle and say 'night night, love you'..... At which point he says 'blueberries' to me a few times as it's his favourite word then I pop him in his cot and say 'go to sleep now', he pretends to snore and I walk out. Sometimes he has a little moan but usually fine. I find (as I also have a 6yr old) that routines change over times, usually as a result of the child including something or dropping something. I vividly remember one of my younger brothers blowing out a decorative candle we had on our mantle piece as part of his routine.... Completely instigated by him! I will be dropping the breast feed soon and replacing with a cup of milk at story time. Instead of the feed I'm planning on cuddling him in his dark room and sing a couple of nursey rhymes. Hope that helps!

[mewkins]

Hi, I have a ds a few months younger than yours and he generally moans and rolls around for 5 to 30 mins after going to bed depending on how tired he is. I bathe him with his sister, get him dressed feed him in his room and then cot and run. I have never stayed with him to get to sleep as can't leave dd for that long to play on her own and ime that way madness lies. Dd was always left to get to sleep although she would cry and shout more than moan (her only way of switching off as she always would fight sleep) but is 5yo now and never kicked up a fuss over bedtime. I always think stick to your plan and remain consistent. Honestly, five mins of crying may just be him winding down and he will probably drop this in the next few months as gis speech progresses.

[mewkins]

Crikey *his speech progresses obviously

[Writerwannabe83]

My DS is also 16 months. It's a gorgeous age isn't it

My bedtime routine starts 45 minutes before I want him in his cot and me leaving the room.

Me and DH take him up for his bath which typically lasts 10-15 minutes, then we put him in his pyjamas and go and brush his teeth.

I then take him into the nursery where he breast feeds for about ten minutes.

I then turn the main light off and just have a lamp on so the room is pretty dim and then we sit down and I read him two stories.

After his second story I stand up and he immediately cuddles up into my shoulder and I spend a few minutes rocking him and singing 'twinkle, twinkle little star to him'. We then have a goodnight kiss and then I put him down in his cot and leave the room.

Sometimes he goes to sleep straight away and other times he will chat to himself for 20-25 minutes before finally drifting off

[whatusername]

My DS is 14 months so a little younger.

We aim to have him in his cot sleeping by 7:30. So our routine is:

6pm - dinner
6.40ish - bath followed by toothbrushing (I haven't worked out how to do this after his milk without waking him up yet ), nappy, Pjs
Then at around 7.15 we take him into his room (lights out but some light comes in from the hall), put music on (Ewan dream sheep), play with his puppet for a bit which makes him giggle, then we give him his milk while he's being held by me or DP. He goes down awake but just rolls over and goes to sleep.

I think the consistency has really helped DS, he knows what's coming next and it seems to prepare him for sleep.

However his daytime naps, which used to be pretty regular, are now all over the place so I really need to do some work on that!