How long does it take to put your child to bed?

[EveryoneLoves09876]

Age and how long?

My 7 month old. Well, been trying for an hour now. Do feel like I spend my life trying to get him to nap and sleep.

14 month old- seconds. Carry her into room, place in cot, put white noise, close door and leave.

We do bath, milk and story first but in another room.

3 year old- around 5 minutes. Take to bedroom, read story in bed, quick chat about plans for the next day. Lights out and leave. He then puts the light back on and plays for up to 2 hours but doesn’t cause us an trouble so we leave him to it.

6 and 4 year olds about 15 mins. Teeth brushed, story and door shut.
16 month old... hit and miss. Sometimes put him down and he goes to sleep. Sometimes 10 mins of going in and out telling him to lie down and go to sleep!

6 year old until she was about 3... fucking hours.

Minutes, not long. 4 years and 21 months.

4 year old, pjs downstairs, upstairs for teeth brush/wee/face wash then a story in bed. Kiss, goodnight, close door. She's asleep in about 5 minutes.

20 month old, bottle, pjs, teeth brushed and story downstairs. Nappy change, into sleeping bag. Kiss and cuddle upstairs, say goodnight, close door. Again asleep in minutes.

We got lucky with sleep (after the initial baby stage where they were both horrors!). They are challenging in other ways though. I don't sleep train, they just like their beds, seemingly.

13 month old anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. More often than not the latter.

To add - just saw your baby is 7m. When both of my lovely sleepers were 7m old they were horrible sleepers! I was permanently exhausted. Permanently had a baby in arms trying to get them to go to sleep.

There's hope, I promise!!

My almost 6 year old takes about 2 hours. All my other dc take about 15 minutes.

13 month old: sometimes seconds, just waft a boob near her after bath and she's out like a light then wakes up all fucking night, other times about the length of the Lord of the Rings trilogy director's cut extended version

Can't remember 7 months, it was probably awful, it's all been awful apart from one glorious fortnight of her going to bed within ten minutes and only waking up once. Didn't last. Have some

My eldest was a total nightmare at seven months old. I could spend hours walking around the house soothing him, driving him about in a car, sitting with him on my knee etc. He had to be completely sound asleep before I could put him down without him waking. My youngest was the total opposite. I’d put him down in his bed and he’d be out like a light in five minutes. Don’t be too hard on yourself OP. You’re not doing anything wrong and they’re all different.

12 month old - 40 mins + I’d say.

4 year old - goes to sleep being read to, maybe 20 minutes. He can put off bed for hours though by begging to play more etc. We’d be stricter that the stories have to start earlier if it was normal routine but as it’s not (plus with doing less in the day he is genuinely not as tired) it’s quite relaxed.

5mo- two minutes. Bedtime routine takes longer; DH does bath for both children, I dress and feed baby (EBF) with his musical bear playing. Pop him in his sleeping bag, blinds down/windows shut, kiss goodnight, leave the room with the bear playing. He doesn’t even peep. This is the result of 10 days of sleep training- I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’ve regained 90mins a day as previously was feeding to sleep, or bouncing to sleep, putting him down, he’d wake up and cry etc. None of that now. Same for naps- it’s basically the length of the feed plus 3 mins.

Toddler takes longer- pjs, read a book, into bed, compulsory short role play with his soft toys (DH can do this for ages, I have no patience and it’s probably 60s max...), then there’s a specific order of big/little/tiny/giant/medium cuddles and kisses that have to be given... then I can leave the room. 😂

My 18 month old takes 5 minutes. We do teeth, pjs and nappy, into the cot, kiss goodnight and out we go. Sometimes she is still awake 45 mins later but she just sings to herself and pokes the pictures on her wall. She has always been a good sleeper (slept through at 11 weeks), although I did use the cry it out method from very early on which many Mums dont agree with, and I formula fed which meant she was fuller for longer during the night.

@burritofan I think thats the funniest reference to time I have ever heard.

2 this month- about 30 mins- bath, cuddle in bed and story, projector and music on, leave. He will sing chat bounce and eventually settle to sleep about 45 mins later.

7m will have been prolonged breastfeeding then attempting to remove nipple without waking them. Probably an hour or so?!

Now my 11 year old puts herself to bed, my 8 year old has a painful excruciating regime that takes about 1.5 hrs, and my 4 year old takes about 20-30 mins depending on the length of the stories he chooses.

Oh boy the older they get (6,9,10) the harder it gets! Babies were no bother really by 3 or 4 months (not my doing I had a good book and followed it about 80percent worked for us). Now they talk back and have an excuse for everything. Drives me nuts. It's got worse with lock down as well. Possibly need a new book to manage tweens 🤔

6 yo- 1 hour. One of us has to sit with her till she falls asleep. We’ve let it slide for ages. Trying to break the habit now and it’s nightmare. It’s been 2 hours tonight- tried letting her stay up a bit having quiet time downstairs with me on condition she’d go asleep with me just outside the door rather than at her bedside. She, of course, decided that wasn’t going to work after the hour downstairs. Cue tantrum, tears. She’s only dropping off now.

3yo takes 20 mins or so. She falls asleep very quickly once the chatter in the room dies down.

I honestly thought I’d have left this bedtime shite behind long ago but we have only ourselves, and our willingness to have a bit of a snooze beside them while DC fall asleep, to blame. I’m worn down man.

@goostacean I've got a near 5 month old who is EBF and I feed her to sleep at night time! How did you go about your sleep training? Really would like to start it soon but no idea where to start!

3 yo. Before lockdown, 10 mins. Vitamin, story, sleep. Now, hours, I've pretty much given up, she comes to bed with me and I tell her to go to sleep 1000 times. She eventually gets exhausted and falls asleep, DH moves her when he come up.

She back at nursery tomorrow so hopefully will get back into a routine.

And at 7months she was bf to sleep and I'd try to remove my nipple and slide her into the cot without her waking, which mostly worked, though she still woke regularly in the night until 2.

At least half an hour for us, sometimes up to 1.5h, DC 5 and 2. They are allowed an episode of PJ masks or something then pjs, brush teeth, bit of a chat, pick 3-4 stories and read them in bed with them. Sometimes also play a board game with the older one before a chapter book. I usually put on my pjs at the same time and have a nap for an hour or two as they drift off. I love bed time though!!

@Donut93 I don’t want to hijack with too many details here but come and join us on the thread I’m linking to below, or at least have a read- there’s a small group of us trying to stay sane 😂 We’ve had some good success so far!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/3915773-Support-thread-for-sleep-training-in-lockdown

@Goostacean I would also be really keen to know what you used! Sounds great

Sorry cross post

About half an hour, I have 3 in the same room (by choice) and they like to chat before bed. But are all decent sleepers

4&3 year olds here. Ive spent about 10% of my life over the last 4 years trying to get a child to sleep. It gets easier at each stage.

I loved the nighttime cuddles so not overly bothered about cuddling to sleep and all the hours spent in their room.

We're now entering the stage where we say good night and leave them to sort themselves out!

Just to add- with DC1 I used to spend hours putting him down. Like, up to 2hs. Until he went to nursery at 15mo and started sleeping through consistently and being tired enough to settle at bedtime with a cuddle and a kiss, and maybe a short feed. So I’ve definitely been there OP! Solidarity 👊🏻