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.

Generally just a few seconds. Obviously there have been phases where it’s taken longer, especially with teething or illness. But overall we’ve been quite lucky, even when DS isn’t in the mood to sleep yet he happily lies in bed and babbles - I leave him to it. This is all with a dummy - without one I think it would have been very different!

6 year old takes about half an hour, reading cuddles etc. She used to take hours when she was younger it was utterly hard work.
2 year old,anything between 15 minutes and two hours. Today she wouldn't nap and so this evening she was exhausted and nodded off in 15 minutes.

10 month old.
About half an hour, we snuggle on the cuddle chair in his room, have a story bottle, I put him in his cot then come downstairs. He's usually half asleep when we put him in the cot.

Hours sometimes when they were all newborn. Then gradually only an hour. An Hours then for a few years. Now it's instant at about 4 years up to 7.

14 month old takes about 5mins. Pjs, teeth, cuddle with a lullaby playlist in the background then up to his cot, make sure he has a dummy in each hand and white noise on, kiss and leave. Very rarely have to go back in to him now, but between 6 and 12 months his sleep was awful and he was up multiple times screaming in the night!

So it will get better OP, but maybe not for a while!

12 yr old ~15 mins
9yr old ~ 30 mins
5yr old ~ 1 hour

All have an hour of being read to before hand. Mine are all currently still awake but DH is doing bedtime

My 8 year old is still awake. I started at 7.30 with stories . Wish she would go to sleep. Not a one off either. Me and DH get no time together at all.

Ds 6 around 10 mins.Teeth toilet and kiss and tucked in bed.

5 year old - about 20 mins - take her up, teeth brush, loo, get changed, story, reminder of plans for tomorrow, kiss, light out.

9 year old- about 10 mins as she doesn't have a story, she just reads before she goes up.

God, hours.

I was explaining to 9yo ds the other night that when I decide to go to bed I get up from the sofa, go upstairs, brush my teeth and have a wee, get into bed and fall asleep. It takes about 5 minutes. He looked at me like this

13 month old - 15 minutes but only if he's ready. I can tell quickly if it's just not going to happen in which case I don't persist and keep him up a bit longer then try again. I'm too tired to fight it.

3.5 year old - takes me 10-15 minutes, can take DH well over an hour.

Four year old

20-30 minutes, teeth, pjs, talk about our day, story in bed, remove aids and dry ears, then we have a good cuddle in bed and he gets a little back rub. Sometimes I’m naughty and let him do what we call sofa bed, this is where instead of him going to bed he sleeps on me on the sofa until I take him into my bed.

Fucking hours.

Oh God. These 5 minutes people!

Our naps are still pretty irregular and often involve him waking and moving up the bed on his back whilst babbling. so that may thwart the bedtime hours. Argh.

15 month old - a few seconds. Just pop him in the cot with his teddy. He's been like that since maybe 10 or 11 months.

From 7-10 months though, he was hard work. We would have to rock him for 40 minutes sometimes!

That age is rubbish for sleep IME. At the moment - either 10 minutes or over an hour. Usually 10 mins (fingers crossed). It's staying asleep which is the problem!

I did read that if you're trying to put the baby to bed for 15 mins and it's clearly not happening, stop, bring them out and let them engage in physics play - anything like balls, stacking cups, jigsaws. Avoid anything with lights and sounds. Then try again when they've had a chance to wear out their brain a bit.

I also find fresh air every day really helps with bedtime, and timing it right. You could try 30 minutes earlier or later and see if that works any better.

6yo has a 10-30 minute bath/shower and 30 minutes of being read to. We then leave him to read by himself until he's tired enough. One of us cuddles him or holds his hand for 10 minutes, then leave him to get to sleep.

For fucking ever. My non-sleeping wonderchild is now 5 and still rarely falls asleep before 9pm and still won't go to sleep unless we sit next to her, preferably holding her hand. She is usually getting into bed at about 8 after bath/ teeth/ stories, then pisses about not going to sleep for a hour or 2. Her older sister gets into bed and reads until late. I can't wait for DC2 to be able to read well enough to do this. I must have spent months of my life sitting waiting for her to go to sleep. My sanity was saved by glow in the dark kindle and now I am resigned to reading in her room rather than having an evening ever.

2 hours on a bad day, 1 on a very good day. She wakes in the region of 3 times a night and takes 20 mins to resettle.

Age....5 years!!

@happypotamus

For fucking ever. My non-sleeping wonderchild is now 5 and still rarely falls asleep before 9pm and still won't go to sleep unless we sit next to her, preferably holding her hand. She is usually getting into bed at about 8 after bath/ teeth/ stories, then pisses about not going to sleep for a hour or 2. Her older sister gets into bed and reads until late. I can't wait for DC2 to be able to read well enough to do this. I must have spent months of my life sitting waiting for her to go to sleep. My sanity was saved by glow in the dark kindle and now I am resigned to reading in her room rather than having an evening ever.

Your child sounds like mine...she plays with my hair until she falls asleep, nobody else will do at bedtime.

Christ OP that sounds miserable. Why is it taking you so long for baby to go to bed? Surely by 7 months you just plonk them in the cot and walk out of their room and they fall asleep on their own?

A century usually

I'm not sure what people are counting in the time? It takes about 40 minutes from taking DS (22 months) upstairs to putting him in his cot - bath, pyjamas, cup of milk, teeth then two books - but then I just put him in, say goodnight and leave and probably around six nights out of seven he goes to sleep by himself without me going back in (on the seventh he shouts me or DH, demands some ridiculous thing that we're clearly not going to give him like going to the park or something and we say goodnight and leave again - this can go on for a while!), but he chatters away to himself for somewhere between 10 mins and half an hour first. So I don't know if people are counting that as over an hour, 30 seconds or something in between?!

In any case, he certainly wasn't doing that at 7 months. We ended up doing gentle sleep training at 8 months because it was increasingly taking hours of exhaustingly vigorous bouncing to get him to sleep and between that and the wake-ups we just couldn't do it any more.

AdalindMeiser 😢Good to know I am not the only one. To be fair, it doesn't have to be me, in fact she would rather it was DH all the time. 2-3 nights a week I am at work at bedtime so he has to sit there.

Surely by 7 months you just plonk them in the cot and walk out of their room and they fall asleep on their own?
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